By Mahmoud Al Abed
English News Editor
Albawba.com – Amman
No, he can’t. The following scenario will help in understanding why.
Scene 1: 62 percent of Israeli voters head to the polls on Tuesday with only one thing on their minds: Sharon is not a good choice, but the veteran general will do a better job than Barak when it comes to our security.
Of course, they were realistic enough not to dream of peace. The polls had shown that more than 70 percent of the Israeli people did not believe peace was coming in the next few years. Yet, they voted for Sharon.
Scene 2: The moment Israeli TV was announces the victory of Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon based on exit polls, Palestinian gunmen were directing heavy fire at an Israeli army post in the Khader village south of Bethlehem, where, three months ago, an Israeli army officer and a soldier were killed. On the same day, and despite a complete closure of the Palestinian lands, more than 60 Palestinians were hurt in renewed mass clashes with the Israeli occupation troops. Two days later, “only luck” spared the Israelis tens of fatalities after a booby-trapped car exploded in west Jerusalem. The only casualty was an old lady who was lightly injured, while nine others were treated for shock. But for sure, thousands of the people of Israel were shocked with the escalated violence that still reach them while shopping after work near a central bus station.
Scene 3: Fateh leaders meet and agree to intensify operations against Israeli targets so as “not to enable Sharon to enter his new office with peace of mind,” according to Maariv. Scores of similar reports came out on the Palestinian “street” leaders determination to prove to Sharon that his promises cannot be kept as simple as he promised his voters.
Scene 4: Yasser Arafat phones Sharon on Friday. Following are excepts as published in Yadiot Ahranot:
Arafat: As you already know, peace is the strategic option for the Palestinians…
Sharon: …to reach peace, we need security….
Arafat:…to achieve security, I have to make the life of my people easier. The West Bank and Gaza are under a tight siege…the economic situation is so difficult…
…
Sharon: Everything is conditioned with security.
Scene 5: The same day in the Palestinian territories, Haaretz reports, “gun battles between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops ensued after demonstrations erupted in the West Bank cities of Hebron and Ramallah.”
In Gaza, Palestinian gunmen tossed a grenade and opened fire on an Israeli army outpost near the town of Rafah in the southern part of the strip Friday afternoon. Earlier in the day, a leader of the Islamic Jihad movement served the prime minister-elect with a warning – a car bomb which exploded in a Jerusalem neighborhood Thursday was just the first installment in a bloody welcome for him. “The choice of holy war will never stop,” Abdallah al-Shami told some 2,000 supporters in Gaza. “We confirm that the bombing missions will continue to create a balance of terror. So, be ready, Sharon.”
The picture is clear, and the question is whether Sharon and even Arafat can have control on the security situation.
Can Arafat, under great pressure from Israel and the US, hold down his people and do the job for Sharon? Can he stop a Palestinian from the Arab community in Israel from seeking revenge for a relative killed by the Israeli troops during demonstrations in support for the Aqsa Intifada, by collaborating with Hamas or the Islamic Jihad and detonating a car bomb in Tel Aviv, for example?
Can Arafat have control over Fateh leaders who have become popular heroes, like Marwan Bargouthi and others who fuel the anti-Israeli sentiments on a daily basis?
Would Sharon be able to do more than what Barak did in cracking down on street protestors by shelling towns and villages? Would he reoccupy Gaza and the West Bank? Will this ensure him security after all?
These are just some of the questions that might be raised. The answer to many of which is a big NO.
Obviously, with this state of frustration among the isolated, hungry and distressed Palestinians, increased support for Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, Barghouthi and the field commanders of the influential Fateh will be the Palestinians’ answer to the Israelis’ election of the notorious Sharon. After all, they have nothing to lose and the new Israeli premier should understand the psychology of the Palestinians and the millions of Arab street people supporting them, leaving behind all his “victories” in war and the massacres he committed.
