November 08, 2004
Schwartz - The Curtain is Beginning to Close
[Palestinian protester in Jerusalem. Photograph courtesy of AP]
These are dark days for the Palestinians. Rumors are in the air that Yassir Arafat has been poisoned, most likely by Mossad, the Israeli foreign security service. If Arafat dies and it can be medically proven that Arafat's condition was due to synthetic toxins, the Intifada might just explode into a full-on insurrection. There is no telling where matters might go from there, with an American presence fighting insurgency in Iraq and surrounding Arab regimes--and their populations--jittery with the US presence in the Middle East.
If Arafat passes away, Palestinians have told me that there must be elections immediately. Abu Mazen and Abu Ala must not make any unilateral deals with the Sharon government, for doing so will spark a fitna, a civil war among the Palestinians. [For more information on contenders for the Palestinian presidency, see this article.]
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Also, unfortunately Arafat's death does not necessarily mean that the US and Israel shall no longer have an excuse to prevent reinitiating the peace-process. Bush and Sharon marginalized Arafat by deeming him genocidal and murderous; but they have also deemed all Palestinian political organizations as terroristic. So, if the Palestinians erupt into fitna, this will only help Sharon's colonial agenda for the West Bank: he can simply declare all Palestinians terrorists and begin to militarily be rid of them. But if there are elections and a Fatah candidate wins the Palestinian presidency, there is a slim chance that the US and Israel may decide (or be compelled by their electorates) to reinitiate the peace process. What is certain, however, is that if a Hamas candidate wins the presidency, then Palestinians' days are numbered. Electing Hamas into power would be the Palestinian equivalent of America's recent election of the belicose and murderous George W. Bush: both peoples know better, they know that the Republicans and Hamas incite more hatred toward their respective nations because they have committed grievous crimes against humanity, but out of fear and anger, they vote for them anyway.
[T-shirt rack in Jewish Quarter of the Old City, Jerusalem]
Israelis, for their part, strike me as being very quiet. Indeed, all of Israel proper is still, as if the very soil itself were awaiting the first thunderbolts of Armageddon's storm.
They try to bluster and posture self-confidence: 'What does Arafat matter anyhow?' they say with a disdainful wave of the hand, 'he was a son of a bitch.' And they leave it at that.
But everyone here knows that heretofore lethargic history is starting to budge, and in the next few months it may break out into a cataclysmic sprint into the unknown. With one leader dead and the other, Sharon, ancient and near death himself, soon the curtains shall close on this fifty-year drama's first act... but shall the genocidal rivalry that defined these two men go with them to the grave?
Both Israel and Palestine are enterring new existential territory. Yet, it seems that, for now, only the Palestinians are willing to admit this fact.
[Independence Hall, Tel Aviv. What shall be the future of the Jewish State?]
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