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Welcome to USAGOLD's "Gilded
Opinion" pages.
We invite you to browse our index
of outstanding gold-based commentary.
(Back to Holger Jensen Index)
While we find Mr. Jensen's columns particularly informative with respect to foreign affairs, his opinions do not necessarily represent those of Centennial Precious Metals, USAGOLD, its management and clientele.
INSIDE FOREIGN AFFAIRS
U.S. envoy to Mideast fed
up with stalling
by Holger Jensen, International Editor
Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni is becoming impatient.
Sent by President Bush on what was billed as an open-ended mission to secure a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians, he has seen 29 people killed by Islamic suicide bombers since his arrival Nov. 26.
And he has seen Israel retaliate with air strikes, assassinations and invasions of Palestinian towns that further weaken Yasser Arafat's waning authority while demanding that he "arrest, prosecute and punish those responsible for terrorist acts."
On Sunday Zinni spent all of five minutes at Israeli-Palestinian security talks -- just long enough to express his exasperation with both sides -- giving them 48 hours to demonstrate real progress toward halting the violence or he would give up his peacemaking efforts and go home.
The pressure is mostly on Arafat. By branding his Palestinian Authority a "terror-supporting entity" until it stops the bombers, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has placed the onus of protecting Israel's security squarely on the shoulders of the Palestinian leader.
Because of its own war on terrorism, the Bush administration has gone along with this while endorsing Israel's right to defend itself any way it sees fit. Appearing on weekend talk shows, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell both said "the burden is on Mr. Arafat" to control the extremists.
But Palestinians, who believe they are waging a legitimate struggle against Israeli occupation, ask why the occupied should be held responsible for the security of the occupier. An even better question would be why Sharon expects Arafat to do something he could not do himself.
Although Israel prides itself on being a country that knows how to fight terrorism, the world's fourth-ranked military power never managed to stamp out the scourge even when its army occupied all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And Sharon, nicknamed the "Bulldozer" for his tough stance against terrorists, has presided over the bloodiest spate of terrorist attacks in Israel's history, including the first-ever assassination of an Israeli Cabinet member.
Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, an unabashed racist who referred to Palestinians as "lice" and "vermin," was killed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in retaliation for Israel's assassination of PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa Zibri. Likewise, the suicide bombings that greeted Zinni's peace mission were claimed by Hamas as reprisals for the assassination of one of their leaders, Mahmoud Abu Hunud.
Some would argue that Sharon's harsh tactics have actually engendered more terrorism than they prevent. And more than one Israeli commentator has suggested that this is by design.
Sharon is intrinsically opposed to giving up land for peace, they say, so he is trying to ensure that there is no peace. He does so by goading the Palestinians to fresh atrocities then blaming Arafat, knowing he cannot control Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Even Arafat's grip on his own organization, Fatah, is questionable given that many of its members are in cahoots with the Islamic militants.
Alex Fishman, the hawkish security commentator for Israel's mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronot, previously supported Sharon's policy of "targeted killings" but turned against them after Abu Hunud's assassination.
"Whoever gave the green light to this act of liquidation," he wrote, "knew full well that he was thereby shattering in one blow the gentleman's agreement between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Under that agreement Hamas was to avoid suicide bombings inside the Green Line of the kind perpetrated at the Dolphinarium," a Tel Aviv disco where 22 young Israelis were killed three months ago.
Fishman then asks: "Do 20 liquidations, or 50, make any substantial difference, either in the campaign against terrorism or in the political arena? Do these liquidations, successful as they may be, detract even a little from the motivation of the terrorists?" The answer, he says, is no.
"In the fast-widening 'pockets of despair' to be found all over the occupied territories there is an inexhaustible supply of potential suicide bombers."
Whether by accident or design, Israel's latest attacks on Palestinian police stations have made it even more difficult for Arafat to fulfill Sharon's demands. He can hardly ask his cops to help those who are blowing them up.
December 11, 2001
Send your questions to international editor Holger Jensen, who will answer one each day. E-mail: hjens@aol.com
Copyright © 2001 The E.W. Scripps Co. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted by USAGOLD with permission of Mr. Jensen. No further reproduction without permission.
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