Friday, January 25, 2002

Playing Into Sharon's Hands
There is an oddly abstract quality to the current reaction to Palestinian belligerence, as if that belligerence were devoid of context. Of course, it is not. The Palestinian people will have to think long and hard about how their actions led them to the edge of the abyss. But regardless of how the current intifada began, it has by now become a mutually reinforcing cycle of Palestinian violence and terror on the one hand and devastating Israeli military attacks on the other.

As evidenced by the increasing number of Palestinians protesting even halfhearted efforts by Yasir Arafat to detain his militants, for the Palestinian Authority to crack down on its own people while Israel maintains its aggressive military action is politically and practically implausible.

Of course, the United States is justified in pressuring Chairman Arafat to act against Palestinian terrorists. But so, too, must it admonish Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to cease those policies that inflame the Palestinian public and paralyze its security services: the targeted assassinations, home demolitions, suffocating closures and creeping reoccupation. By his actions, and not without considerable help from the Palestinians, Mr. Sharon has done all in his power to make it unfeasible for them to meet their obligations. For Mr. Arafat to play into Mr. Sharon's hands in this, alas, has come to be expected. But for the rest of us?
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/25/opinion/25MALL.html

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