Letters | Sunday, 08 February 2009

PRINT THIS ARTICLE

A shattered dream

Samir El Nahhal’s account of his shattered dream (February 1) deserves analysis. In my view the key sentence is “the problem began in 2000 with the Al Aqsa Intifada”.
Of course, the origin of the problem for the Palestinians began with the creation of the state of Israel by a United Nations decision, which was rejected by the Arab states.
They launched a war which they lost. The conflict festered, and erupted in open warfare several times, giving Israel the opportunity to occupy new territory, paying scant respect to international law in the process. However, a time did come when Egypt and Jordan decided to abandon war against Israel, and the Palestinians themselves accepted the UN resolution setting up Israel.
They went further by engaging in secret negotiations with Israel in Norway, which held good prospects for an end to the conflict.
The Al Aqsa Intifada stopped the peaceful process.
The first Intifada was a genuine grass-roots resistance movement which created worldwide sympathy for the Palestinian cause, and it exerted political pressure on Israel more than any armed conflict.
The Al Aqsa Intifada was different. It was an unwise, violent reaction to a calculated provocation by the Israeli “hawk”, Ariel Sharon, on the eve of an Israeli election, which he eventually won to the detriment of the Palestinians.
Sharon himself came to realise that security for Israel demanded that negotiations for peace with the Palestinian Authority be held, but the damage had been done. Both Sharon and Fatah were challenged by the hawks: Netanyahu in Israel and Hamas in Palestine. Now we are on the eve of new national elections in the area, and the contrived conflicts by both sides have ensured that no political party which has on its agenda peaceful negotiations with the other side has a chance of winning.
Thus the conflict feeds on itself.
The outside world may help, as Norway did in the past, but what is indispensable is a ‘Sadat’ for the Palestinians and a ‘Shamir’ for Israel.
Incidentally, the number of Christian Palestinians is not negligible. What will be their status in an Islamic Palestine that Hamas wants to create?

Evarist Saliba
Ta’ l-Ibrag

Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below.
Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.