It is quite amazing hearing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon uttering the words “occupation” to the Israeli people. Yet, for all the injustices he has done against Palestinians over the years, his latest stance has the possibility to redeem himself in the eyes of the international community. Lest we forget, Sharon was involved in the massacre in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon in the early eighties and has often said that having a Palestinian state right next to Israel would be like suicide for the Israelis. During his leadership as Israeli Premier, he has directed massive settlement building in the West Bank which has angered many Arabs and undermined any peace efforts. General Sharon said, in 1983, that the West Bank and Gaza “will not be, not now and not in the future, a Palestinian state.” Twenty years later, Prime Minister Sharon –not to be confused with dove Shimon Peres – pledged his support of the Bush Administration’s Middle East Peace Plan by stating that “keeping 3.5 million Palestinians under occupation is the worst thing for Israel, for the Palestinians and also for the Israeli economy.”

What has prompted the sudden change of heart by the hawkish Sharon? The current intifada, or Palestinian uprising, has ravaged the Israeli economy and has shattered the hearts and minds of Israelis. Suicide bombings after suicide bombings, military incursions after military incursions, they have done little to curb the violence; they have in fact created more violence. Some members of the Israeli Knesset have been skeptic of Sharon’s latest stance saying that he is a “wily politician” that knows what he’s doing. But, let’s ask ourselves this question: If not for this “wily politician,” who else could do the job of committing the State of Israel to peace? The answer: No one. Not since Bill Clinton’s failed attempt at peace with, then-Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat have the two sides been this close at finally ending the violence. That Camp David Summit ended in frustration after Arafat rejected Barak’s offering of the majority of the West Bank. The reason for the rejection? Arafat was receiving a fragmented state which Israel deemed necessary for the Israeli army to incur and protect Israeli communities inside the West Bank if need be. The reason for the fragmented state was necessary because of the inability of Arafat to uphold peace and security for Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Now, after getting through the initial hurdle of accepting the peace plan, the two sides must now clear further hurdles, each higher than the last, for Arab-Israeli peace.

SIGNS OF HOPE

After the election of new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, or Abu Mazen as he is known in the Arab world, there has been a renewed sense of hope among Israelis. For Sharon, this had to be the first step in his unofficial peace plan, getting rid of longtime nemesis Yasser Arafat. With that initial hurdle out of the way, the Bush Administration quickly got to work on a peace plan which has been formally accepted by the Israelis and Palestinians. There are three key phases in the road map for peace, they are as follows:
A) End Palestinian violence; Palestinian political reform; Israeli withdrawal and freeze of West Bank expansion.
B) Creation of an independent Palestinian state; international conference and international monitoring of compliance with road man.
C) Second international conference; permanent status agreement and end of conflict; agreement on final borders, Jerusalem, refugees and settlements; Arab states to agree with peace deals with Israel

The most important and most controversial part of the plan is the status of Jerusalem, the refugees and the settlements. Jerusalem has been called the spiritual capital of the State of Israel, but it is also a holy place for Christians and Muslims. Israel’s intention is to hand East Jerusalem to the Palestinians while keeping West Jerusalem and all the holy sites for Jews. The “right of return” for Palestinians that fled Israel is another hotly-contested issue. Palestinians want assurances from Israel that refugees that fled have a right to return to the land they abandoned. Israel has strongly opposed this because if would undermine the Jewish state with an Arab majority. The Palestinians also want Israel to stop building settlement in the West Bank and begin a transition of land to the Palestinians, this, however, causes grave problems for Israel because it has to uproot communities which have lived in the West Bank and have been protected by the Israeli military for years, even decades. The issue with borders has to do more with other Arab nations than the Palestinians. Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War along with the Golan Heights from Syria. If Israel concedes and gives the Palestinians the whole West Bank and gives Syria the militarily-strategic Golan Heights, then Israel would lose valuable land and would leave them prone to attack from a wild President, King, or a Prime Minister. The issue here is the security of Israel, would Mahmoud Abbas crack down on groups like Hamas which are a constant threat to the security of Israel? That remains to be seen.

THE HAMAS WILDCARD

Hamas, the Arabic acronym for “Islamic Resistance Movement” was founded on the premise that resisting Israeli occupation by unconventional means would eventually drive the “Jews into the sea.” Their goal has always been the destruction of the State of Israel and they constantly recruit young Arab men, and more recently Arab girls, and brainwash them into thinking that they will go to heaven if they blow themselves up in cafeterias, discos, restaurants, hotels, markets, buses, etc. In the case of young men, they are brainwashed to think that virgins will wait for them in heaven to please all their needs and that their families will be taken care of here on earth. It is very difficult for us Westerners to understand the thought process that leads you to forgo your life and commit suicide while killing innocent people. The desperation that many Palestinians find themselves in due to the occupation by the Israeli military fuels their desire to carry out their “martyrdom” operations as Hamas calls them. This, however, does not justify their actions and it is a terrorist organization that has to be stopped just like Al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade. This will prove to be the undoing or the victory for Abbas and the Palestinians. If he fails to curb the terrorism by these organizations, especially Hamas, then the whole peace process will go down the drain. If, on the other hand, he succeeds in putting an end to Hamas, then peace may finally find its way to the Holy Land.

Related links:

CNN
BBC
Jerusalem Post