|
|
October 1, 2004/Tishri 6 5765, Vol. 57, No. 5
Violence continues into fifth year
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Four years ago this week, all hell broke loose in Israel.
Palestinians and Israelis, who for almost a decade seemed on the verge of historic reconciliation, turned in opposite directions - killing each other, hating each other and losing hope.
Who is winning this intifada? Who is losing?
Some losers are painfully obvious: According to figures released Sept. 27 by the Shin Bet security service, 1,017 Israelis and foreigners have been killed since the outbreak of the intifada in September 2000 and 5,598 have been wounded.
According to unofficial Palestinian figures, at least 3,300 Palestinians have died in the conflict - not to speak of the thousands of wounded, crippled and imprisoned.
The second intifada broke out after Ariel Sharon, then Israel's opposition Likud leader, visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, a site holy to both Jews and Muslims, on Sept. 28, 2000.
Some have insisted Sharon's visit triggered the uprising, while others have argued the outing was simply used as a pretext for Palestinians to revolt.
Either way, rioting soon engulfed the territories, spilling over briefly into Arab population centers inside Israel, and Israel reacted harshly. The area has since been caught in a bloody cycle of action and reaction with no end in sight.
This intifada, the second such uprising against Israel, has been the longest war in the long Arab-Israeli conflict.
Palestinian terrorism is being contained and Israelis have learned to live with whatever terrorism remains.
If the Palestinians had hoped to shift the national mood in Israel toward defeatism, they have achieved the opposite: Many Israelis who had been strong advocates of dialogue with the Palestinians no longer believe the conflict can be resolved.
In the face of Israeli military superiority, the Palestinians turned to their own so-called "F-16," the suicide bomber.
Palestinian groups - first the Islamist Hamas, and then secular organizations such as the Al-Aksa Brigade of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction - have staged 138 suicide attacks and 13,730 shooting attacks since the start of the intifada, according to the Shin Bet statistics.
Suicide bombers have staged some of the most horrendous terrorist attacks in the history of the Middle East. They have included the June 2001 Dolphinarium disco attack in Tel Aviv in which 21 youngsters were killed, and the 2002 Passover massacre at the Park Hotel in Netanya in which 30 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.
Nevertheless, the Palestinian cause has lost little credit in world public opinion. By and large the outside world linked Palestinian terrorism with the Israeli occupation. There was the paradox: As Israel paid a steadily growing price in blood, anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish feelings in Europe soared.
Still, there is evidence that this may be changing. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the lack of Palestinian political reform has led donors who provide financial assistance the Palestinians to grow weary.
U.S. President George Bush, who has shunned Arafat since entering the White House, last week called on the world community to end its support of "corrupt" Palestinian leaders in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly.
After recent meetings with Arab diplomats on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, American Jewish Committee executive director David Harris said, "There's a change in the tone and the substance of these meetings." Arab officials, he said, spoke openly about their hope for a successor to Arafat.
And on Sept. 28, the Palestinian Authority's prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, called on his people to rethink their fight against Israel.
|
|
