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Sharon’s Visit Hints At Quest For Alternatives To Arafat
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| Sharon may urgethe Americans to find replacement for Arafat |
With additional reporting by S.M. Khalid
WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is scheduled to make his fourth meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush Thursday at the White House, amid indications that his government is actively searching for an alternative to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Late last year, Sharon declared Arafat "irrelevant" and halted all official communications with the Palestinian leader. This action raised concerns that Sharon's true objective is to eliminate Arafat and ultimately destroy the Palestinian Authority.
"Sharon wants less constraints from the U.S. and Labor party towards taking action directly against Arafat," said David Lieberfeld, a professor at Maine's Bowdoin College and a scholar on Israeli-Palestinian affairs. "Sharon is not interested in a negotiated settlement. His whole career has been about wiping out the Palestinian national movement and increasing settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.
"The U.S. has stressed that the address for the Palestinian leadership is still at Arafat's door. Sharon wants to widen his scope so he can get a seal of approval from Washington and Shimon Peres to bypass Arafat. He hopes to cultivate an alternative leadership to Arafat."
Lieberfeld argues that, "this has been a hope of Israeli leaders going back to Begin. But it's wishful thinking that an alternate leadership would do more for the Israelis than Arafat or make concessions that he wouldn't."
He said that Sharon is under domestic political pressure from right-wing members of his Likud party, who want him to take even more drastic measures against Arafat.
Sharon is also facing pressure from his foreign minister, Shimon Peres, who may bolt Labor's coalition with Likud unless the Israeli prime minister makes diplomatic gestures towards the Palestinians.
In Washington, officials are also pressing Sharon not to take any actions that will undermine the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism, particularly with Arab and Muslim countries.
On the eve of Sharon's visit, there are indications that he is moving deliberately in hopes of finding an alternative to Arafat.
Late last week, Sharon met in Jerusalem with several high-ranking Palestinian Authority leaders, including Arafat's deputy, Mahmoud Abbas, also known as "Abu Mazen."
Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met in Washington with Palestinian Parliament Speaker Ahmed Qurei, also known as "Abu Ala."
The meetings were approved by Arafat, who has been under virtual house arrest the last two months by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Israeli forces have re-occupied many Palestinian-ruled areas in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with U.S. support, until Arafat can effectively curb attacks by resistance groups, such as the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, against Israel.
Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer met with Powell and U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
After meeting with Powell, Ben-Eliezer identified a handful of Palestinians he portrayed as members of an alternative Palestinian leadership, including Abu Mazen, Abu Ala, and Palestinian security officials Jibril Rajoub and Mohammed Dahlan as figures with whom Israel could reach an eventual peace agreement.
All four men have played key roles in the U.S.-mediated peace process, which remains derailed by Sharon and the 17-month-old al-Aqsa Intifada against Israel's 35-year military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
"Our position is very clear, and that is that President Arafat is the elected leader of the Palestinian people, that we continue to work with the Palestinian Authority," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns told reporters in Cairo Wednesday after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Peres also voiced doubts that Israel could find any alternative to Arafat to do business with the Palestinians.
"When Sharon meets Palestinian officials, he is meeting in effect with representatives of Arafat," Peres said.
While the Bush administration has reiterated its support of Arafat as the leader of the Palestinian people, Washington has continued to publicly pressure him to crackdown on Hamas and other resistance groups.
"The Palestinian people will never see their aspirations achieved through violence," Powell told a Senate panel Tuesday. "Chairman Arafat must act decisively to confront the sources of terror and choose once and for all the option of peace over violence. He cannot have it both ways. He cannot engage with us and others in the pursuit of peace and at the same time permit or tolerate continued violence and terror."
The administration has held Arafat responsible for the recent shipment of arms that were confiscated by Israel in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Gaza. As far as Washington is concerned, Powell made it clear that the onus for ending continuing bloodshed remains on the Palestinian Authority.
"Chairman Arafat must ensure that no further activities of this kind ever take place and he must take swift action against all Palestinian officials who were involved," Powell added. "He knows what he must do. Actions are required, not just words, if we are to be able to move forward."
Bush has ordered a review of U.S. policy toward the Palestinians. A number of steps are believed under discussion, including closing the Palestine Liberation organization (PLO) office in Washington and placing two Fatah organizations, Tanzim and Force-17 (Arafat's presidential guard) on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist groups.
The administration is also expected to hear Israeli security concerns over Iran's alleged support for continued Hizbollah military activity in Lebanon, as well as potential threats from Iraq.
Some analysts claim that a further pro-Israeli shift, as well as repeated comments by senior Bush administration officials in support of Sharon's hard-line policies towards the Palestinians, is undermining support for a return to the peace process or a future U.S. role.
"It has had a devastating effect on the Palestinians," said Ghassan Khatib, the executive director of the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC) in Jerusalem. "When people lose hope, it only gives strength to the violent forces, segments in the society who feel peace is not possible, that this is an existential conflict. The U.S. should come up with statements to give hope."
Khatib said a recent poll by the JMCC has shown, for the first time, that more Palestinians support resistance groups, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, than favor Arafat's Fatah.
"There has been a slight shift in popular support to Hamas," said Khatib. "Hamas and Jihad have got a little more support than Fatah, by just a few percentage points. This is the first time this has happened since anyone started doing polls."
Ironically, it was Israel that initially cultivated support for Hamas as an alternative to Arafat's then-exiled PLO leadership during the first Intifada during the late-1980s.
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