Sharon’s Intransigence Hurts Israel

Since the Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation began, 600 Israelis have died in the violence. Never mind that over 1,800 Palestinians also perished in this conflagration provoked by Likud radicals bent on keeping the West Bank and Gaza an Israeli colony. In 2002 alone, Israel will lose an estimated $5 billion in income if the occupation does not end. Prime Minister Sharon's regime has steered Israel's economy into a deep recession. Investment and consumption are down sharply, and the once booming high technology sector is severely depressed.

The Palestine Chronicle (published in Jerusalem) reports that, within one year, Israel lost over $2 billion (or over 50 percent) of tourism, $500 million in trade with Palestinians, $650 million in construction, and $120 million in agriculture. 235,000 persons, or 9.3 percent of Israel's labor force, are unemployed. According to the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, the number of immigrants decreased from 78,000 in 1999 to a mere 11,250 in 2000. Nineteen Arab countries are continuing to boycott Israeli products and to blacklist traders with the Likud regime, because Sharon and President Bush refuse to come to the negotiating table.

"The visitor to Israel finds a sad and frightened nation," reports the British Economist. "Life goes on, but in the knowledge that any bus, café or university campus could be the target of the next suicide bomb; the guards posted outside shops and restaurants seem almost to flinch as they ask customers to open their bags."

On Israeli radio, Sharon's minister of communications, stressed that even if the Palestinian Authority were allowed to resume its administrative functions, Israeli troops will remain in the territories and continue to remove--by assassination, if necessary--participants in the Palestinian resistance. Israel's hardliners are bent on keeping the West Bank and Gaza an Israeli colony, even if there is no violent Palestinian resistance.

With Likud radicals in power and Palestinian radicals determined to resist, there is no end in sight for the 35-year conflict. To prevent peace talks in the near future, the Sharon regime and its allies in our country are eagerly looking for other priorities. No talks are possible, they claim, unless the Palestinian Authority is reformed and Chairman Arafat replaced. No doubt, a more democratic and dynamic Palestinian leader would be a blessing for all concerned, but the ouster of the chauvinistic Likud regime would serve the Israeli people and the cause of peace even more.

President Bush and Congress have made it clear that, wherever Israel stands, we stand with Israel. Unfortunately, however, they are doing nothing to bring peace and economic prosperity to Israel's suffering people, except by routinely spending billions of taxpayer dollars annually for Israel's armed forces. Can such irrational and aimless policy really be in the national interest?

By myopically following Sharon's course into more Israeli-Palestinian confrontations, the President is steadily inciting more anger against America and breeding more potential terrorists among Muslim extremists. Does he and his advisers not recognize that we cannot end the war against terrorism militarily alone, but that we have to persuade the Muslim masses that most Americans want to be evenhanded mediators in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Instead of helping our Israeli friends to end the ruinous conflict with their Palestinian neighbors, the Administration further aggravates the tension in the Middle East by agitating for war against Saddam Hussein, a move of much lower urgency than peace in the Holy Land. Sharon wants an American invasion of Iraq now, so that he can detract further from his opposition to any negotiated settlement with the Palestinians.

If the President listened to the near-unanimous advice of our allies, he would, first of all, use America's moral strength and economic power to compel Israel and the Palestinians to make peace. Then, and only then, could he count on worldwide support, particularly Arab support, for the removal of the dictator in Baghdad.

Wolf D. Fuhrig	Home	9-01-02
Sharon's Intransigence Hurts Israel
Since the Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation began, 600 Israelis have died in the violence. Never mind that over 1,800 Palestinians also perished in this conflagration provoked by Likud radicals bent on keeping the West Bank and Gaza an Israeli colony. In 2002 alone, Israel will lose an estimated $5 billion in income if the occupation does not end. Prime Minister Sharon's regime has steered Israel's economy into a deep recession. Investment and consumption are down sharply, and the once booming high technology sector is severely depressed. The Palestine Chronicle (published in Jerusalem) reports that, within one year, Israel lost over $2 billion (or over 50 percent) of tourism, $500 million in trade with Palestinians, $650 million in construction, and $120 million in agriculture. 235,000 persons, or 9.3 percent of Israel's labor force, are unemployed. According to the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, the number of immigrants decreased from 78,000 in 1999 to a mere 11,250 in 2000. Nineteen Arab countries are continuing to boycott Israeli products and to blacklist traders with the Likud regime, because Sharon and President Bush refuse to come to the negotiating table. "The visitor to Israel finds a sad and frightened nation," reports the British Economist. "Life goes on, but in the knowledge that any bus, café or university campus could be the target of the next suicide bomb; the guards posted outside shops and restaurants seem almost to flinch as they ask customers to open their bags." On Israeli radio, Sharon's minister of communications, stressed that even if the Palestinian Authority were allowed to resume its administrative functions, Israeli troops will remain in the territories and continue to remove--by assassination, if necessary--participants in the Palestinian resistance. Israel's hardliners are bent on keeping the West Bank and Gaza an Israeli colony, even if there is no violent Palestinian resistance. With Likud radicals in power and Palestinian radicals determined to resist, there is no end in sight for the 35-year conflict. To prevent peace talks in the near future, the Sharon regime and its allies in our country are eagerly looking for other priorities. No talks are possible, they claim, unless the Palestinian Authority is reformed and Chairman Arafat replaced. No doubt, a more democratic and dynamic Palestinian leader would be a blessing for all concerned, but the ouster of the chauvinistic Likud regime would serve the Israeli people and the cause of peace even more. President Bush and Congress have made it clear that, wherever Israel stands, we stand with Israel. Unfortunately, however, they are doing nothing to bring peace and economic prosperity to Israel's suffering people, except by routinely spending billions of taxpayer dollars annually for Israel's armed forces. Can such irrational and aimless policy really be in the national interest? By myopically following Sharon's course into more Israeli-Palestinian confrontations, the President is steadily inciting more anger against America and breeding more potential terrorists among Muslim extremists. Does he and his advisers not recognize that we cannot end the war against terrorism militarily alone, but that we have to persuade the Muslim masses that most Americans want to be evenhanded mediators in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Instead of helping our Israeli friends to end the ruinous conflict with their Palestinian neighbors, the Administration further aggravates the tension in the Middle East by agitating for war against Saddam Hussein, a move of much lower urgency than peace in the Holy Land. Sharon wants an American invasion of Iraq now, so that he can detract further from his opposition to any negotiated settlement with the Palestinians. If the President listened to the near-unanimous advice of our allies, he would, first of all, use America's moral strength and economic power to compel Israel and the Palestinians to make peace. Then, and only then, could he count on worldwide support, particularly Arab support, for the removal of the dictator in Baghdad.

Wolf D. Fuhrig

Home

9-01-02

Sharon's Intransigence Hurts Israel