Closed minds abound in the Middle East
 
Graham E. Fuller is a former vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA and he believes that the Israeli-Palestinian situation has moved into what can only be described as a stage of collective madness. And Washington is walking right down that same path, apparently unaware of or unconcerned about the abyss yawning ahead. Fuller argues that two basic schools of thought exist. One says: Unacceptable terrorism is running rampant in Israel and nothing can be done until the terror is brought under control or eliminated. The other view says: The core of the problem is 35 years of harsh and humiliating occupation. Ending the occupation is the sole means of beginning to attain peace.
 
It is true that Israel's 'European history' leaves little room for trusting those who have openly advocated the destruction of the Jewish people for much of the last 54 years and the fact that the racist Islamic Jihad movement represents a ground swell of ordinary Muslim opinion adds further to Israel's unease. Osama Bin-Laden's movement has established close contacts with right wing and anti-Semitic groups in Europe and there is a long history of German scientists helping Egypt build missiles capable of reaching Jerusalem & Haifa. Israel will not forget the presence of ex-Nazi security personnel in Arab countries or the help East Germany's Statsi secret police gave to both Syria and Iraq.
 
However, the Arab peoples can list the Israeli Irgun extremist group's terror tactics in 1948, Israel's collusion with both Britain and France in 1956 during the Suez campaign, the invasion and seizure of Arab lands in 1967, the invasion of the Lebanon in 1982 and the slaughter of Palestinian civilians by Israel's allies in the refugee camps of Beirut, the rise to power of wanted terrorists such as Menaghim Begin or those accused even by other Israelis of war crimes like Ariel Sharon. But most of all the humiliation of seeing Israel continually flout United Nations resolutions over illegal settlements and 35 years of military occupation.
 
Violence begets violence
 
Whatever the rights or wrongs of Israel's policy towards its neighbours since its creation in 1948 it is self evidently true that Israel is on the receiving end of a vast increase in Arab terrorism.  Israeli police commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki recently reported a 337 percent increase during 2001 in terrorist attacks compared with 2000, a total of 1,794 assaults which included 603 bombings, 367 mortar bomb attack, 236 shootings and 503 other violent incidents. Almost half the attacks were staged in the centre of Jerusalem with a total of 208 Israelis killed and 1,563 injured.
 
Bad as this level of casualties undoubtedly is it must be seen in perspective when compared with the levels of violence within a nation supposedly then still at peace, the United States, where according to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) in 2000, 533,470 victims of serious violent crimes including rape and sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault stated that they faced an offender with a firearm and the FBI's 'Crime in the United States' estimated that 66% of the 15,517 murders in 2000 were committed with firearms.
However, Israel is a small country and rightly unwilling to take this steady drain on its population, unfortunately all its actions so far merely ensure that future generations of Israeli's will continue to face ever growing levels of Arab hostility.
 
US Chickens come home to roost
 
The United States unwillingness over decades to take an even handed attitude towards all sides in the Middle East has 'blown back' in a massive fashion with the attacks on September 11th leaving the United States with little option but to respond vigorously. However justified the US military action may appear to be it has in fact slammed shut the door on peace and reconciliation in the region for a decade or more to come. Military action and terrorist reaction will be the norm for the foreseeable future and the only thing that can be guaranteed is the death of many more young people be they Israeli, Arab or American. A bleak prospect, but the only one left in the absence of any chance of the hard decisions on ending military occupation and restoring a genuine peace process being high on the political agenda in Washington and Jerusalem.
 
The course that Sharon, Bush and his British cheerleader, Tony Blair seem set upon will probably in the long run destabilize the Arab moderates, to the delight of the reactionary regimes in Syria, Iraq and Iran and the only true beneficiaries will once again be the extremists and the terrorists.
 
Richard M. Bennett
 
 

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