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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
Israeli-Palestinian situation
looks more and more like all-out war
by Holger Jensen, International Editor
After 15 months of intifada, some senior Israeli security officials concede there is no military solution to a conflict that creates more Palestinian terrorists than it eliminates.
The daily Haaretz quotes one as saying: "All of the anti-terror measures which we've implemented over the past year can be compared figuratively to trying to empty the sea by using a spoon."
But, given the lack of political compromise -- and Israel's refusal to accept international peacekeepers -- the two sides are approaching all-out war. In the words of United Nations envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, they're "as close as they've ever been to a full military confrontation."
The Palestinians see terror as their only weapon against Israel's military might. And while Yasser Arafat is under intense international pressure to enforce a cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is not. U.S. criticism of Arafat has become decidedly one-sided since a spate of suicide attacks prompted Israel to accuse the Palestinian Authority of supporting terror and declare Arafat "irrelevant."
Arafat has arrested 15 of his own police officers and about 160 Islamic militants, sparking gunbattles between his security forces and Hamas supporters in Gaza. But he risks civil war if he calls off the intifada without any political gains to show for it.
A poll conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center indicated that 64 percent of Palestinians back suicide bombing attacks on Israel and 58 percent feel "a cease-fire is unjustified in the current circumstances." Only 35 percent want a truce.
Sharon says he will not negotiate under fire and will not make any compromises that would "reward" Palestinian violence. Any softening of that position, he fears, could collapse his coalition government and help former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu challenge his leadership of the Likud Party.
But Sharon's hard-line stance has not brought Israel the security he promised. Israelis have been killed at the rate of about 19 a month since he came to power compared with 13 a month under his predecessor, Ehud Barak. The death toll since the uprising began in September 2000 now exceeds 1,000.
Present and former members of Israel's security establishment, attending the Herzliya Conference for National Security in Tel Aviv, all agreed that terrorism has worsened under Sharon's stewardship.
One said all the Palestinian territories had become "a terrorist infrastructure, a large network for the production and smuggling of weapons, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. Nowhere in the world have such situations been solved by military actions."
Suicide bombing, a tactic once limited to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, is being adopted by non-Islamic groups. Engineers recruited from Arab universities have improved their bomb-making skills. Hamas is now spiking its bombs with nitroglycerin and pesticides. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah, once confined to Lebanon, has moved into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And other groups that previously eschewed violence have embraced terrorism.
Shin Bet and the Israeli army have arrested an average of 100 suspected terrorists a month. They have also assassinated more than 70 Palestinians believed to be responsible for, or planning, attacks on Israelis. But these hits have only prompted more suicide bombings and driven more Palestinians into the terrorist camp.
"Our successes are, to a great extent, our long-term failures," said Ami Ayalon, former head of Shin Bet. "You cannot kill ideologies by killing leaders.
"In the end, diplomacy and military strategy have to go hand in hand. We cannot deal with this reality without peace talks or only by military means."
But European Union envoy Miguel Moratinos reported this week that there is little prospect of peace. "There is no trust," he said. "There is no confidence. There is no cooperation. There is no security work together, and practically all the ties and contacts have been broken."
December 22, 2001
Palestinians endure life in a giant
prison
by Holger Jensen, International Editor
Christmas is not joyous in the Holy Land.
If Joseph and Mary were to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, normally a 90-mile road trip, they would have to detour through Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah and Jerusalem. It's doubtful they'd ever reach Bethlehem because Israeli soldiers probably wouldn't let them through.
There are more than 150 military checkpoints in the West Bank. All entry and exit routes, even footpaths and dirt roads, are manned by security forces and closed to most Palestinian travelers. Many towns and villages are completely sealed off and under 24-hour or dusk-to-dawn curfews.
The roads around them are blocked to auto traffic by trenches or concrete barriers. Palestinians who try to get around them on foot are shot at.
Would Mary, a pregnant woman, be allowed to pass through one of these roadblocks?
One month ago, Fatima Abed Rabbo and her husband tried to reach the hospital in Bethlehem. Fatima was seven months pregnant and in labor. Soldiers at military checkpoints twice refused to let them through, saying Fatima's condition was not critical. After waiting about one hour at one checkpoint Fatima gave birth to a son in her car.
The premature baby, Walid, weighed only 3 pounds, had a low body temperature and required urgent medical attention. But, by the time the family finally reached the hospital in Bethlehem, it was too late. Walid died soon after being admitted.
If they did reach Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary wouldn't have to stay in a manger. There are plenty of rooms. The city's numerous tourist hotels, normally crammed with pilgrims at this time of the year, are begging for business. Some have had so few bookings they've let their staff go and shut down. Others are shelled or burnt. The Nativity Church where Jesus was born is empty.
While the world sings "Peace on Earth," the Palestinians in Bethlehem are not allowed to go to work, school or hospitals. There may be a "little star of Bethlehem" somewhere above them, but also Apache helicopters.
This gloomy "Christmas Letter," which I've paraphrased,
was written by Arjan el Fassad of the Palestinian Society for
the Protection of Human Rights and Annete Meeuiws of the Jerusalem
Center for Social and Economic Rights. It is not an exaggeration.
There is no question that Israel has suffered suicide bombings and other devastating terrorist attacks since Palestinians launched their intifada, or uprising, 15 months ago. And there is no denying that most of these attacks originated in the occupied territories. But is collective punishment the answer? Should 3.2 million people, most of them not terrorists, be penalized for the sins of a few?
Aid groups and human rights workers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip say military sieges and economic blockades have caused a humanitarian crisis.
Because people and goods can no longer travel freely between Palestinian towns and villages, they are beginning to suffer shortages of gasoline, food and medical supplies. Uncollected garbage and sewage pose a mounting public health hazard. Vaccinations and primary health care systems are paralyzed, increasing the risk of epidemics.
Most universities and schools are not functioning. More than 50 percent of the population is unemployed and many of those who still have jobs often can't reach them. About 30 Palestinians have died because they were denied access to medical care. And there have been numerous reports of women giving birth at checkpoints.
Val Phillips, a physics student at the University of Colorado at Denver, is one of five Coloradans who decided to give up Christmas at home to go and tear down barricades in the West Bank. You can call her a "peacenik" or "Nazi," as some Jewish settlers did in one confrontation with the Colorado Coalition for Mideast Peace, but you have to admire her dedication.
Since Val's arrival Dec. 14, she has lain in front of advancing Israeli tanks, had shots fired over her head by Israeli soldiers, been attacked by militant settlers and had pizza with Yasser Arafat. She has also torn down one barrier outside a Palestinian village only to see an Israeli bulldozer build another one.
"People here are so depressed but so grateful for what we're doing," Val told me by phone. "It shows them another face of America, one that actually cares about what's happening to them."
December 25, 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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