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June
4, 2003
Jason
Leopold
Manufacturing the Iraq War
Mazin
Qumsiyeh
Summit: Peace or Pretense?
Issam Nashashibi
Sharon's Sword of Damocles
June
3, 2003
Chris
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Wolfowitz Tells All
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Cassel
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from Michael Powell: "Go to Hell, Americans!"
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Avnery
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Guthrie
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Roy
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June
4, 2003
Hanging Over the Road Map
Sharon's Sword
of Damocles
By ISSAM MUFID NASHASHIBI
On May 14, 2003, Israeli Public Security Minister
Tzachi Hanegbi commented that Jews will soon be able to visit
and pray at Islam's third holiest shrine, Jerusalem's Nobel Sanctuary
or Haram al-Sharif, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
The director of the Muslim Trust that
governs the site reacted immediately saying that non-Muslims
are not welcome. "There is no change in the decision of
not allowing non-Muslims to enter the place," emphasized
the Muslim official.
That decision came shortly after September
28, 2000, when then-candidate for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,
accompanied by over 1,000 Israeli police officers visited the
holy site. Ehud Barak, Israel's Prime Minster at the time rejected
US urgings to prohibit Sharon from entering the Noble Sanctuary/Temple
Mount stating that the visit was a domestic electioneering act
directed against him by a political opponent. Palestinians saw
Sharon's visit as highly provocative.
The following day a large number of unarmed
Palestinian demonstrators and a large Israeli police force confronted
each other. According to the US Department of State, "Palestinians
held large demonstrations and threw stones at [the Israeli] police.
Police used rubber-coated metal bullets and live ammunition to
disperse the demonstrators, killing 4 persons and injuring about
200." Thus began what has become known as the current Palestinian
uprising against Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and
East Jerusalem and the demise of the Oslo peace process, which
Sharon opposed all along.
History tells that the Palestinian reaction
to Sharon's incursion was predictable. In August 1929, Sharon's
political mentor, Vladimir Jabotinsky, had attempted to challenge
the Muslim Trust's control over the Western Wall of the Noble
Sanctuary/Temple Mount. In the resulting riots, 133 Jewish Palestinians
were killed and 330 injured while British governing forces also
killed 116 Arabs and injured 232, thus igniting disharmony between
Palestine's Jews and non-Jews.
Such lessons of history are well understood
by the Jordanians who will host today's meeting of President
Bush with the Israeli and Palestinian Prime Ministers. "The
hectic campaign being waged, with backing from officials of the
Israeli government, to open the Mosque to the Jews, is in fact
tantamount to laying the foundation for a destructive religious
war, the consequences of which nobody knows," said Abdullah
Kana'an, the chairman of the Jordanian Royal Committee for Jerusalem
Affairs.
Despite Sharon's reservations to the
Road Map, the Bush Administration continued its preparation for
today's meeting to implement the replacement of the Oslo process
by the Road Map towards peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
The Administration may be happy thinking that it has successfully
sidelined Sharon's objections.
Moreover, the Administration has the
support of the Arab states, whose plan to recognize Israel in
return for Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders and solving
the Palestinian refugee issue was announced last year. It is
also flush with popularity at home and the endorsement of its
Road Map by most prominent Jewish Americans.
The Bush Administration also thinks that
it can penalize Israel should it refuse to comply with the Road
Map. Such penalties might include an "examination"
of the use of US supplied weapons in the occupied West Bank and
Gaza and the suspension of the recently approved $9 billion in
emergency American aid.
While opponents of the Road Map shudder
at the use of such sanctions, they may have nothing to worry
about. It was no coincidence that the Israeli announcement on
the Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount visits came as Washington was
telling Israel that despite its reservations, there would be
no changes to the Road Map.
Having well learned Jabotinsky's lessons
on religious provocations, Sharon may override the Muslim Trust's
prohibition and authorize visits to the Noble Sanctuary/Temple
Mount in an tempt to escape any US pressure. The resulting riots
will be difficult for the incapacitated Palestinian Authority
to contain. Political demonstrations in Arab and Muslim countries
will be equally difficult to suppress. Another ensuing causality
will be the interests of the US, perceived as Israel's patron
and protector, especially in the war against terror.
That is the sword of Damocles that Sharon
holds over the Bush Administration, just as in the original story
Told By Cicero, the tyrant Dionysius of Syracuse suspended a
sword by a hair over the head of Damocles to remind him that
life is not always happiness and that tragedy might befall him
at any moment.
With plans for President Bush's re-election
in the works and his Christian right constituency already opposing
the Road Map, how will the Administration react if Sharon authorizes
such provocative visits to escape US pressure? Will it try to
save the Road Map by pressing Sharon to rescind the decision,
or will it abandon the Road Map and quickly return to the safety
of pleasing a key constituency and hope for more pro-Republican
Jewish votes than ever?
Issam Mufid Nashashibi, director of Deir
Yassin Remembered, is a freelance writer on Middle East
issues. He can be reached at inashashibi@hotmail.com
Today's
Features
Chris
Floyd
Copycat Killers: Bush, Jakarta and
the Slaughter in Aceh
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Tells All
Elaine
Cassel
We Interrupt Your Normal Show to Bring You an Important Message
from Michael Powell: "Go to Hell, Americans!"
Tom
Crumpacker
The Politics of US Cuba Policy
William
S. Lind
Fourth Generation Warfare in Iraq
Sam
Hamod
The Final Brick in the Wall
Uri
Avnery
The Altalena Affair
Hammond
Guthrie
Stepping into Some Deep DARPA
Steve
Perry
The WashTimes'
al-Qaeda nuke "exclusive"
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