5 Palestinians Killed Ahead of Likud Primaries
Wednesday, November 27 2002 @ 07:51 PM GMT
"Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat expressed his outrage at Israel’s military operations and canceled Christmas celebrations in the southern West Bank city .."
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - Five Palestinians died as violence swept across the occupied territories yesterday, setting a tense stage for the Likud party primaries expected to help Ariel Sharon remain Israel’s prime minister.
(Image: Musa al-Shaer (PC))
A 33-year-old Palestinian was killed in the evening when Israeli soldiers patrolling the reoccupied town of Bethlehem opened fire on his car, Palestinian medical sources said. The incident occurred shortly after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat expressed his outrage at Israel’s military operations and canceled Christmas celebrations in the southern West Bank city. "There won’t be any Christmas," he told reporters in Ramallah, describing Israel’s recent closure of Bethlehem as an "international crime".
Following last week’s Jerusalem bus bomb which left 11 people dead, the occupation army moved back into Bethlehem and declared the town a closed military zone under an order valid until Dec. 30.
In the northern West Bank city of Jenin, a local leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group linked to Arafat’s Fatah, and senior member of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, were killed in an overnight blast.
The deaths sparked Palestinian accusations that Israel had resumed its policy of assassinations, following reports by Palestinian security sources the men were killed when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile on a building they were in. But an army spokesman denied "any involvement".
In Nablus, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian who was going door to door in Nablus’ Askar refugee camp, waking up fellow Muslims for "suhoor", the last meal before the start of the dawn-to-dusk fast during Ramadan. A member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was also arrested by the army in the camp, the security sources said.
A Palestinian blew himself up near the northern crossing point of Erez, after both Israeli and Palestinian security tried to stop his car. The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades said his attack was aimed at the Israeli side of a nearby liaison office, but the blast only set fire to an empty Palestinian security building.
The Israeli army also staged another one of its almost daily raids in the southern Gaza Strip overnight when helicopters badly damaged a school in Khan Yunis, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Parliament Speaker Ahmed Qorei met with his Israeli counterpart, Avraham Burg, in East Jerusalem to discuss ways of resuming peace negotiations between the two sides.
"There is no better time to clear our misunderstandings around the negotiations table rather than between funerals," he said. "If we don’t now, who knows what will happen when the genie of extremism comes out of his bottle?", he asked.
Qorei, a veteran negotiator for the Palestinian side, said "parliamentarians have a duty to work together for an end to all forms of violence." He nevertheless blamed Israel for the latest surge in violence, charging that Palestinian " bombings are a reaction to things like what happened last night".
-Arab News (arabnews.com). Redistributed via Press International News Agency (PINA).
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2002 2:17 am Post subject: This Morning in Aida Refugee Camp
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http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20021127191125268
This Morning in Aida Refugee Camp
Wednesday, November 27 2002 @ 07:11 PM GMT
"For the sixth day, now approaching the end of Ramadan, Palestinian Muslims cannot reach the mosque to pray .."
By Kristen Ess
BETHLEHEM (PC) - The Israeli military still holds Bethlehem under curfew. Soldiers went round to houses inside Aida Camp demanding names of all children in the families to add to their lists. Here in the camp all children are suspected of the crime of throwing stones at heavily armored Israeli tanks that plow through their streets. Sometimes the tanks shoot at the little kids and their families, other times they come just to bully and threaten, to demonstrate that the Israeli military is in control.
For the sixth day, now approaching the end of Ramadan, Palestinian Muslims cannot reach the mosque to pray.
Israeli soldiers terrorized Deheisha Refugee Camp for the second night in a row. Well over fifty people were drug from their homes the night before last and added to the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners sitting without charge in Israeli prisons. The count for last night is not in yet. Again today schools are closed. A friend considered studying for an exam last night, but instead closed his books and laughed. Another, one who limps because he was hit by Apache missile fire in April, is rehearsing for a play that now will only be performed inside the camp because getting out is not possible.
The general news so far today is: Israeli soldiers killed four people in Nablus. One was from Balata Refugee Camp, two were assassinated. Israeli soldiers killed two people in Jenin. One Palestinian died at Eretz Checkpoint near Gaza City. Apache missiles bombarded Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip. They destroyed a house and shot missiles into an empty school.
Kids are playing in the alley defying the Israeli imposed curfew that is meant to keep them trapped indoors for days on end. A man is yelling at his family. Israeli soldiers are gunning tank engines by the cemetery. The mosque is calling for prayer. An F-16 is flying overhead. Now an Israeli military jeep is plowing down the dirt alley way shouting for curfew and kids are scrambling. A tank is following and has launched a sound bomb. Tear gas is coming through the window.
-Palestine Chronicle (palestinechronicle.com). Redistributed via Press International News Agency (PINA).
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2002 2:19 am Post subject: Halt Suicide Attacks: Abu Mazen
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http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20021127185135460
Halt Suicide Attacks: Abu Mazen
Wednesday, November 27 2002 @ 06:51 PM GMT
"I have always said I'm against the use of arms. I think it was a mistake to use arms during the Intifada and to carry out attacks inside Israel .."
RAMALLAH - The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary General Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) on Tuesday urged Palestinian anti-occupation activists to halt suicide attacks to avoid giving Israel the pretext to reoccupy more Palestinian land.
Abbas has consistently advocated the official policy of the PLO and the Palestine National Authority (PNA) and criticized the use of arms during a two-year uprising for statehood and called on Palestinians to 'stop the violence'.
“I have always said I'm against the use of arms. I think it was a mistake to use arms during the Intifada and to carry out attacks inside Israel,"' Abbas told Reuters.
“Such (suicide) attacks will give Israel the pretext it needs to reoccupy Gaza Strip. Israel has already reoccupied most if not all the West Bank. It is now raiding Gaza and has destroyed the security headquarters there. Next, it will reoccupy Gaza," he said.
Abu Mazen was the PLO’s representative who signed the Declaration of Principles in Washington in 1993, which was the launching pad for the Palestinian-Israeli peace accords, known as the Oslo accords signed thereafter between PNA and Israel.
Almost two-thirds of Palestinians disapprove of how their two-year-old Intifada uprising has evolved and support immediate reforms of Palestinian institutions, a survey published Tuesday by Bir Zeit University showed.
"Two years after its inception, 63 percent express dissatisfaction with the way the Intifada is proceeding. This is a 17-percent increase from last year," said the poll, conducted by the leading West Bank Palestinian university.
The survey also revealed that 54 percent of West Bank residents felt attacks involving Israeli civilians had no impact or a negative impact on the Palestinian cause, compared with 39 percent in the Gaza Strip.
The poll said, "28 percent of the respondents report their families have lost all sources of income as a result of Israeli measures,” while 26 percent said they would emigrate if they could.
The PNA last week authorized the Minister of Culture and Information Yasser Abed Rabbo, who is also a member of PLO’s Executive Committee, to lead a committee entrusted with continuing negotiations with the Israeli peace camp.
Abed Rabbo on Tuesday told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds, "For several months, we have been working with parties within the peace camp in Israel, in the Labor party, Meretz and others, to compile a detailed plan completing and improving what we agreed on at the Taba talks."
Discussions in that Egyptian town in December 2000-January 2001 were aimed at finding a permanent settlement for the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Separately, aides to Palestinian parliament Speaker Ahmed Qorei told AFP he had exchanged letters with his Israeli counterpart Abraham Burg "as part of Israeli and Palestinian efforts aimed at revitalizing peace camps on both sides.”
The two leaders were to meet Wednesday at an occupied east Jerusalem hotel to study ways of ending the seemingly unending crisis, Qorei's office said.
-Palestine Media Center (http://www.palestine-pmc.com/). Redistributed via Press International News Agency (PINA).
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Shoo Bakeey
Guest
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2002 11:56 am Post subject: My beautiful flower
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Glad to see one who truly cares about what happens in Palestine.You look very beautiful in your image and I know you are just the same in person.
How about marrying me? :D
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2002 11:04 pm Post subject: Israeli intelligence:Arafat's exile would not end war
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Israeli intelligence concludes Arafat's exile would not end war
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Thursday, November 14, 2002
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/front_1.html
JERUSALEM - Israel's domestic intelligence agency has concluded that Yasser
Arafat can maintain his authority on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip even
if he is expelled.
"The security establishment has concluded that we not do this [expel
Arafat]," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said.
The assessment was said to represent the consensus of Israel's intelligence
community, Middle East Newsline reported.
Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has promised to exile Arafat if he is
the next prime minister.
National Security Agency director Avi Dichter told a Cabinet panel on
Wednesday that Arafat can continue the Palestinian insurgency war from exile
abroad. He and other intelligence chiefs were said to have opposed any
Israeli expulsion of Arafat.
They said Arafat's international stature would soar and Israel would be
under great pressure to return him to the PA areas. Dichter's assessment was
disputed by Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu said Arafat's
exile would lead to the erosion of the infrastructure of Palestinian
insurgency groups.
Although they oppose Arafat's ouster, Israeli intelligence chiefs said that
the continued rule of the PA chief will prevent any Israeli-Palestinian
agreement. They said Arafat prefers the current war to a compromise solution
with Israel.
For their part, Palestinians said they expect Sharon to expel Arafat during
any U.S.-led war against Iraq. Fatah leader Hussein Al Sheik, responsible
for the West Bank, said Israel's government will destroy the PA and exile
Arafat.
Sharon has not ruled out the eventual expulsion of Arafat. He said in an
interview on Israeli television that he relayed a pledge to the United
States not "to harm Arafat physically."
World Tribune.com is a publication of East West Services, Inc.
Copyright 2002 East West Services, Inc.
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2002 11:06 pm Post subject: “ONE VOICE,SILENT NO LONGER”
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The American Committee on Jerusalem
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
November 16, 2002
ACJ AND MEI HOST ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN FOUNDERS OF “ONE VOICE,
SILENT NO LONGER”
Darawshe: “Violence is a result of lack of leadership and political
vision”
WASHINGTON, DC -- Speaking at the headquarters of the Middle East
Institute (MEI) yesterday, Mohammad Darawshe and Daniel Lubetzky,
founders of “One Voice, Silent No Longer”, introduced a new grassroots
initiative aimed at ending the cycle of violence between Israelis and
Palestinians. The briefing was co-sponsored by the American Committee
on Jerusalem (ACJ) and MEI.
Mohammad Darawshe began by updating attendees on the “feelings of the
people on the ground,” both Palestinians and Israelis. Describing the
Israeli occupation as the “ugly, severe and savage oppression of a
nation”, Darawshe credited it both with creating a pervasive sense of
fatalism permeating Palestinian society, and the inevitable violence
emanating from elements within that society. Palestinians he
said “feel abandoned and having nothing to lose.” On the Israeli side,
Darawshe described the mood as one where Israelis felt that they had
offered everything to the Palestinians but had been rejected. As a
result, Israelis feel that they have to “look and act tough so as not
to be perceived as weak.” Darawshe placed responsibility for this to a
total failure and a lack of leadership and political vision on both
sides. Emphasizing finally that he believed that both sides still
wanted peace, Darawshe cited a poll of 756 Israeli Arabs conducted in
early November in which 78% believed in a two-state solution, 65% were
exhausted with the Intifada and 83% favored shifting the Intifada to
strictly non-violent means.
Daniel Lubetzky followed Darawshe by introducing the “One Voice”
initiative. He described it as an effort “to empower the overwhelming
silent majority on both sides to take responsibility and seize the
initiative from the extremists on who had stepped into the void
created by a lack of leadership.” Lubetzky described the initiative as
consisting of three stages. The first stage involved developing
a “proclamation of principles” for coexistence within two years that
recognized the rights and needs of each side by the other. The goal is
for 10,000 Palestinians and Israelis, who would be reached through the
Internet, newspaper ads and other public means, to sign onto it.
Building on this momentum, stage two involved a council of Palestinian
and Israeli experts distilling from negotiations ten core issues to be
submitted to the populations as the basis for negotiations. These ten
points would be widely disseminated with the goal of getting one
million-plus signatures. Finally, stage three involved submitting the
ten points and the accompanying signatures to the political leaders on
both sides, as the political will of the people.
The ACJ is a coalition of all major Arab-American organizations
dedicated to promoting a solution to Jerusalem which accommodates the
attachments of the three faiths and the political aspirations of both
peoples, Palestinians and Israelis.
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2002 11:07 pm Post subject: -Report from Leonie in Tulkarem
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4-Report from Leonie in Tulkarem
Hello all,
I am now in a village called Tulkarem, close to the green line (the
1967 border). I spent the last couple of days in Jayyous, where Israel is
clearing land for the construction of separation wall that basically is
an instrument of aparthied. The Wall is supposed to be along the 1967
border. However, this is not the case. A large amount of extra land
(approx 2300 acres) has been appropriated. This land is some of the
most
fertile in the West Bank. It has thousands of olive trees and seven
water sources. It produces the majority of food for the West Bank and it
is being blatantly stolen by the strong arm of the Israeli military,
police and security forces. The construction of the Wall itself will
destroy a huge amount of wildlife - in addition to the wall there will
be a trench and road running the entire distance. The Wall will be
fortified, with lookout posts and military patrols.
The villagers of Jayyous are among the worst hit by the construction of
the wall. The planned site is extremely close to a number of houses -
50
metres or so. They are very worried by the inevitable constant
observation that this would result in. Many of the villages have land
and olive groves on the other side of the proposed wall. This land has
provided their families for generations, and they have no idea how they
will survive without this vital source of income. In addition, the
construction of the wall has resulted in a heavier military presence in
the village itself. Much of the time it is under curfew, which means
children cannot go to school and the population cannot work or buy
supplies.
At the request of the villagers, the ISM helped to organise a couple of
days of demonstration against the wall. On Thursday, about 50
internationals, 10 Israeli peace activists and couple of hundred
villages gathered on the land that was due to be bulldozed that day. The
bulldozers turned away before they reached us and we successfully
managed to stop the days work. An olive tree was planted in an already
bulldozed area, and we broke curfew to march through the village, singing
freedom songs and waving the Palestinian flag.
Yesterday was a different story. It was Palestinian independence day
and Friday, the holy day for Muslims. In celebration the villagers
decided
to hold their mid-morning prayers on the land. Apart from that the
plan was the same as for the previous day - forming a human chain in front
of
the bulldozers and preventing them from doing their destructive work.
We gathered at the same place as the previous day, but discovered that
the bulldozers were working on the other side of the village. Again we
all walked through the village, stopping at the mosque on the way to
make a call for more people to join us. At the place of destruction the
internationals formed a human chain by linking arms - the villagers
were
behind us. We managed to force the soldiers, jeeps and military down
the side of the hill and into the valley. The bulldozers went away but
the
army remained. Many hours were spent waiting the the sun while
negotiations took place between the mayor, the army commader and an ISM
co-ordinator. At 11.20, as planned, the villagers began their prayers.
It was quite an incredible sight: a few hundred men lined up in the
valley praying for about 10 or 15 minutes. The women were under some
trees, the children, internationals and soldiers watched in silence.
Afer the prayers the chanting and clapping of the villagers took on a
new level of passion. The negotiations finished, and we were told that
we had 10 minutes to disperse or would be removed using force. They
told us that we were in a closed military zone, but did not provide the
correct documentation. We refused to leave and once again linked arms
- two rows of internationals (about 25 of us) between about four jeeps
and about 15 soldiers and police and a few hundred of the villagers of
Jayyous.
Some soldiers went up the side of the valley. From there the first
rounds of tear gas were fired. The world went completely white. Sound
bombs were also fired and we later found live shells that had been
fired where the crowd was standing. Most of the Palestinians disappeared
but the Internationals stayed to confront the army. One Canadian man
was repeatedly hit in the stomach with a rifle butt. Ten were arrested.
Leonie
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2002 11:09 pm Post subject: 2-Update on Jayyous arrests:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2-Update on Jayyous arrests:
Friends, we apologize for not being able to immediately post pictures
of the demonstration and arrests yesterday. Repeated attempts failed due
to the connection available in the town of Jayyous. Pictures can now be
found at:
http://jerusalem.indymedia.org/news/2002/11/89522.php
What we know now:
Yesterday, the arrestees were taken from the Tsufim military base, to a
police station in the Israeli settlement of Ariel. After questioning:
Irish citizen, Michael McGrath was put on a plane at 5am this morning.
Israeli citizen, Jonathan Pollack was released at approximately 2am
this morning.
Four males: Cary Gibbons (UK), Thomas Linner (Canada), Reverend Gordon
Hutchins (US) and Ole Martin (Sweden) are being held at the Massyahu
prison in Ramle.
The four women, Esther Serra (Spain), Susan Barney (US), Rodhika
Sainath (US) and Charlotte Carson (Ireland) were released at approximately
2am this morning but must appear before a judge tomorrow, Sunday.
The status of the eight are “Pending Deportation”
The Israeli government has long been trying to keep the eyes of the
wold shut with regards to its grave violations of international law, its
blatant human rights abuses and its war crimes. This has been done
mainly through strong and well-coordinated propaganda – by labeling the
Palestinians “terrorists” and disguising all of its actions as “fighting
terrorism”. Now that average citizens from all over the world are taking
action, are coming to see for themselves what is being done in the name
of “Israeli security”, the Israeli government is doing whatever it can
to keep these people, that could see and dare speak the truth, out.
The accusation against these international activists? – Being in a
closed military zone. This “closed military zone” is Palestinian olive
groves that the military has closed off so bulldozers can work on uprooting
Palestinian farmers’ olive trees to make way for an “Apartheid Wall”,
stealing Palestinian land to cage them in their villages. The
internationals were there, using no violence, but rather the power of nonviolence
to protect Palestinian villagers from being shot for daring to protest
the confiscation and destruction of their land.
The farmers of Jayyous just want the world to now that the line about
this wall being built to protect Israeli citizens, is a lie. If security
and not expansion, really was the case, why is the wall not being built
on the Green Line – the internationally recognized border between
Israel and the West Bank? Why has the path of the wall been drawn to isolate
Palestine’s most fertile land from its owners? To deprive the
Palestinians of their water wells? To leave farming communities with no land?
Jayyous:
3,000 people / 450 families
Area = 13,000 dunams
600 dunams will be destoyed (flattened) to make way for the wall
9,000 dunams of farmland will fall on the other side of the wall,
including 7 water wells, and over 200 greenhouses.
The equivalent of pproximately 65,000 workdays per year will be lost to
the people of Jayyous as a result of this wall.
We will continue to protest this wall, nonviolently, meaning we will be
sitting on the land tomorrow. The media does not take an interest. They
tell us to call when there is blood. We just want you to know.
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2002 11:10 pm Post subject: Error-prone Israel Continues to Sell the Murder of Children
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http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20021125193157537
Error-prone Israel Continues to Sell the Murder of Children as One Big Mistake
Monday, November 25 2002 @ 07:31 PM GMT
"It is all too easy to continue this murderous catalogue. Simply typing the words “mistake” and “IDF” into a search engine .."
By Eddie Taylor
NEW YORK (PC) - We heard the “m” word again this weekend. When Jihad al-Faqeh, an 8-year-old walking back from school in Nablus, was struck in the chest by an IDF bullet, the explanation was immediate. No, make that reflexive. It was, the army spokesperson said, a “mistake”. As we have seen throughout the past two years, it is a word that trips off the tongues of the security chiefs as readily as “self-defense” or “responding to hostile fire.”
We’ve almost become immune to the many “mistakes” of the IDF. The West is even comforted by the notion. Rita Cosby, one of Fox News’s many Likud mouthpieces, practically instructed the unctuous Alom Pinkas to accept the death of UN worker Ian Hook as “a terrible mistake”.
Back in September, when dart-filled shells coursed into a Bedouin camp in Gaza and killed Ruwaida al Hajeen, her sons, Ashraf, 22, and Nihad, 17, and 20-year-old Muhammed al Hajeen, that was a mistake too. On the same day, a tank machine-gunned holes into the 10-year-old body of Abdul Hadi Anwar Hameeda. Another mistake.
On August 31st, Defense Minister Ben Eliezer declared the shelling of a car in Tubas as, yes, a mistake. Two children, Yazid Daraghmeh and Sari Subuh, were among the five dead. The same helicopter then pounded the home of Yousuf Darghmeh, killing his 8-year-old daughter Bahira and her 10-year-old cousin Ibrahim.
The explanation? You got it.
One year ago, on November 22, it was a mistake when five Palestinian children aged between 6 to 14 were blown to pieces by an Israeli mine as they trod their usual path to school in Khan Yunis.
It is all too easy to continue this murderous catalogue. Simply typing the words “mistake” and “IDF” into a search engine produces a mountain of similar instances. Try it. You find that “mistakes” are positively littering the Palestinian landscape. Israel may cling to the fallacy that the IDF is the most moral army in the world, but as the number of child deaths approaches 400, it is surely the most error-prone.
In the first Intifada, Israeli journalist Amira Hass calculated that a child was killed by the IDF every two weeks. In the current Intifada, that figure has climbed to three and a half every week. That’s seven every two weeks — an escalation of 700%. Careless, careless, careless.
Of course, it is absurd to try to continue categorizing this number of slain children as accidents. To use Amira Hass again, an IDF soldier rather gives the game away in her now famous Ha’aretz interview: “12 and up, you’re allowed to shoot ,” he said. “That’s what they tell us.”
And who are “they” exactly? Well, they’re probably the same people who celebrated the deaths of nine children in the 22 July bombing of a Gaza apartment block as a “ great success.” The same people who decreed that an Israeli settler should receive a suspended six-month jail term for pistol-whipping a 10-year-old Palestinian to death. The same people who consider a rock-throwing child a mortal danger to the fourth biggest military power in the world.
“In general, it is better to admit a mistake and apologize for it, if necessary, than to deny something that will later damage one’s credibility,” said Nahman Shai on the death of Mohammad Al-Dura. In other words, the loss of innocent young life is significantly less corrupting to the state of Israel than poor PR.
And in a week when Amnesty International declared that, despite repeated lip-service to the contrary, “no judicial investigation is known to have been carried out into any of the killings of children by Israeli soldiers,” it should hardly raise an eyebrow that the IDF continue to operate with impunity.
There will be more mistakes between now and the creation of a Palestinian state. The biggest would be to fail to hold Israeli accountable for them.
-Palestine Chronicle (palestinechronicle.com). Redistributed via Press International News Agency (PINA).
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dangerousdna
Joined: 21 Jul 2002
Posts: 13274
Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2002 11:11 pm Post subject: The Aim: Victory
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http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20021125193758332
The Aim: Victory
Monday, November 25 2002 @ 07:37 PM GMT
By Uri Avnery
It seems that a new wind is blowing in the country.
This week I flew to Europe. On the way to the Airport, the taxi-driver told me: That’s it, there is no hope left. We shall never have peace with the Palestinians. There is no one to talk with. No compromise is possible. The war will go on and on. Therefore he will vote for Sharon.
Amram Mitzna
I remarked that if this is so, his grandchildren would certainly leave the country.
"What grandchildren," he replied with sorrow, mingled with pride, "My son is an architect in Los Angeles!"
I returned after five days. The taxi driver who took me home from the airport surprised me. "All my life I have voted Likud," he said, "But the Likud has failed. There is no difference between Sharon and Netanyahu. They have not brought security but look how the economy has gone to pieces. This time I shall vote for Mitzna."
What has happened during these five days? One thing: Amram Mitzna has won the primary election in the Labor Party.
This, by itself, is a stunning feat in every respect. An introvert "Yekke" (as German Jews are condescendingly called) without charisma has defeated an "authentic", back-slapping Iraqi. A dove has beaten a hawk. A political newcomer, who has announced that he is ready to talk with Arafat, has routed the Defense Minister, who has tried to destroy the Palestinian Authority.
That is a shining victory of Mitzna’s. But it is much more. It is a symptom of mysterious happenings in the depths of the national consciousness.
During the last two years, while the cycle of atrocities got wider and wider, I was often asked how I managed to remain optimistic, while everybody around lost all hope. I answered that one day, in a week or in five years, the public will wake up in the morning and exclaim: "Enough! This can’t go on! A solution must be found!"
"What good will that do?" the doom-sayers would say, "There is no politician around who could lead the country towards peace."
"The demand will create the offer," I answered, "When there is a demand for such a leader, he will appear from somewhere."
I think that this forecast is beginning to be realized. The currents beneath the surface of public consciousness are changing. The IDF conquers, occupies, kills, "destroys the terror infrastructure", and the Palestinian attacks do not stop for a moment. The regular declarations of Sharon and Mofaz start to sound like self-parody. For the first time, "simple" people realize that there is a close relationship between the intifada, the economic crisis and the social emergency.
That does not cause the public to love the Palestinians or to get enamored with peace. Not at all. But it causes it to look for a leader with vision, who will try sincerely to break out of the bloody cycle and find a solution. The settlers are "out", compromise is "in". Amram Mitzna has appeared at the right place, at the right time, with the right message.
Now the slogan must be: Full Steam Ahead!
Some cautious peace activists say that we should not ask for too much. One has to look at the public opinion polls. Mitzna cannot beat Sharon. But he can overhaul the Labor Party in opposition, and that is also important.
This is a mistake. The polls photograph the situation on the ground. They do not see what’s happening underneath. There, new currents are flowing. Therefore, the aim must be: victory.
True, a victory of Mitzna over the Sharonyahu looks like a miracle. But that’s how a victory of Mitzna over Ben-Eliezer looked a month ago. It will be difficult, very difficult. But it is possible. All efforts must be made to achieve it.
According to all the polls, the gap between the two big blocs, the right and the left, is quite small even now, before the public has grasped the full impact of what happened in the Labor Party. Something like 65 against 55. Which means that it is enough to capture five-six seats in the Knesset in order to achieve an enormous change.
There is no alternative to victory. For the future of Israel, the saving of human lives and the reconstruction of the state, the difference between Mitzna and Sharon is colossal.
If the hour has not yet struck, and the Likud wins after all, the struggle must not be stopped for a moment. If Sharon or Netanyahu win, they will head a narrow, divided and fragile coalition, unable to solve any problems. It will be torn between the need to please Bush and the need to appease the extreme right wing of Lieberman-Eytam. Since things under their leadership will go on deteriorating, it can be brought down within a year and then the big reversal must be effected.
Therefore, any thought about an effort to set up a "national unity" government after the election is dangerous. No doubt Sharon will offer Labor seductive terms for joining. In the language of the Mafia: "An offer they can’t refuse." But Sharon is Sharon and will never change. In order to remain true to himself, Mitzna will have to refuse. Even if his job-hungry and unprincipled colleagues urge him to accept.
The aim must be: a total reversal, all along the front and in every area. Nothing less will suffice.
True, Amram Mitzna may disappoint us. Let’s not forget the enthusiasm with which we welcomed Ehud Barak, who led to disaster. He may break on the way. That can also happen, and we must be ready for it. But it is reasonable to expect the opposite. A person can grow in the job and fulfill the mission history has placed on him.
At this moment, ecce homo.
-Palestine Chronicle (palestinechronicle.com). Redistributed via Press International News Agency (PINA).
