Ayoon wa Azan (72 Difficult Hours)

Jihad Al Khazen     Al-Hayat     2003/08/16

Mahmoud Abbas tried his best to control the situation and prevent the truce from collapsing, after the Israelis killed Mohamad Sader, a local leader of an Islamic Jihad faction. However, the information I received right until yesterday indicate that the Jihad is insisting on taking revenge and refuses that its men become open targets for the Israelis under the pretext of truce.

The Palestinian Premier faced 72 extremely difficult hours, which he would rather forget, as the Americans are making almost impossible demands and holding the Palestinians responsible for what happened; in fact, the meeting with the U.S. Under Secretary of State, William Burns was intense, and the latter took a very severe stance, even though he is one of the most understanding American leaders towards the Palestinian position. Then came the assassination of Mohamad Sader to jeopardize the truce, and Al Jihad announced its intention to avenge him. Abbas tried to contain the situation, especially since Mohamad Dahlan had held a fair meeting with the Israeli Minister of Defense, Shaul Mofaz, during which he asked him to withdraw from four other Palestinian cities, and Mofaz promised to transfer the message to Sharon, with a possibility of an agreement. All this was taking place as Abbas was meeting with the staff of the PLO in Tunis, to review their achievements and discuss future ones, before he returns to negotiate with Al Jihad leaders in Gaza.

I contacted Abbas in Tunisia, and as his cell phone was being taken to him, I heard him raise his voice, which is unusual for him, so I asked him what was going on, and he said that he had to do everything as if there were no one but him on the scene.

Abbas is trying hard to save whatever can be saved, but the situation is critical now, as Israel is gradually destroying the truce and Hamas members have mentioned more than 100 Israeli violations ever since the truce started end of June 2003. Hamas avenged its four men, two of whom died last Friday, by carrying out a suicide operation on Tuesday; now, it's Jihad's turn.

Following my phone call with Abbas, I tried to call Ramadan Shallah, the head of Jihad, but the offices of the faction were closed in Damascus and the old numbers were not working, as the members have left Syria. Eventually, I managed to find out that the Israeli crime would not go by peacefully, even if the resistance knows that Sharon's government is seeking a retaliation, so as to hold the Palestinians responsible for breaking the truce.

Still, the truce has not ended yet, and Abbas will meet Sharon next week after having canceled their last meeting. Palestinian Premier has insisted on setting an agenda for the meeting, in order to discuss the Palestinian and Israeli demands, and hence implement what is possible; in fact, Abbas realized that Sharon replies to every demand by saying the he would sleep on it, then comes up with requests of his own, without implementing anything.

Abbas told me yesterday over the phone that the Israelis had "made demands we cannot meet, and we are ready to carry out a lot, but we would be heading towards a war with our people and we will not accept any confrontation between our citizens."

I asked him why he was angry, and he said there were a million reasons why he was angry, complaining about the fact that the Israelis are asking for what they know his government cannot do, and the Americans are supporting them; then come the members of the PLO and the Authority to ask him for results within a month, after three years of chaos and destruction.

Personally, I believe Israel is a criminal terrorist state, and that the Bush administration is doing wrong by encouraging it to pursue its crimes - the assassinations, invasions and destruction - made to provoke retaliations, and the guilty party would be the first one to attack, whether in Nablus or anywhere else.

The Palestinians want Israel to withdraw from four large Palestinian cities, and this could happen following Dahlan's meeting with Mofazl; but the Israelis have offered so far to withdraw from Qalqilya and Jericho. The first is besieged by the separation wall, and might still have one exit to the West Bank and the world, whereas Jericho was not even occupied according to Abbas, but then Israelis occupied it just to retreat again, "and we cannot accept this."

Moreover, there is the issue of the detainees, and Abbas is reiterating what every Palestinian knows about these prisoners being released when they have almost finished their sentence, knowing that Israelis arrest 50 or 100 of them, and then release another 50 or 100. Abbas says it is unacceptable, and that he wants all the prisoners and detainees to be released indiscriminately.

The worst thing about the last 72 hours was that the Americans were clearly supporting the Israeli stance, as they threatened Palestinians to withdraw from sponsoring the Roadmap, and leave Israel to handle the security situation, unless the Palestinians start dismantling the infrastructure of terrorism.

Terrorism has always been Israeli, but the Americans support it instead of trying to stop it, and then they accuse the Palestinians and hold them responsible. Mohamad Dahlan has complained that the Israelis were provoking the Americans against him, and demanding to do what they know he is not capable of.

In such an atmosphere, I do not believe the truce will last long. If it collapses because of deliberate and regular Israeli violations, then the Roadmap shall end too. Still, I found Abbas very persistent on continuing, as he knows that "there is no other game in town" but the peace process, and he refuses to think of the famous substitutes to it. I believe that next week will settle things, either by the Palestinian Premier managing to overcome the difficulties, which would almost be a miracle, or with the return of the old vicious cycle of violence that seems to have never left us.