The Devil You Know

If you haven't already heard about the continued bloodshed against innocents in Israel, then you must have been under a rock in Antartica. The media has blared out a nearly incessant stream of pictures showing Israeli soldiers firing on Palestinians and Israelis picking up the pieces after yet another terrorist attack. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon delcared a unilateral ceasefire in an attempt to show that Israel was going to be better than the Palestinian Authority and that the Israelis would use force only in self defense. Sharon speaks with the authority and power of the state of Israel. What he says goes.

Arafat is the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority and leader of the Fatah faction of the PLO. He could bring an end to the violence if he ordered it. The Palestinian security forces could easily round up and arrest those who were part of the violence (not to mention those members of the security forces who were instigating the violence at what for intents and purposes was Arafat's direction). The Palestinians could easily stop the violence. It's not in Arafat's interests to do so.

The terrorist bombing that took the lives of at least 20 teenagers in front of a Tel Aviv disco rocked the Israeli public to the core. Previous attacks during the last seven months weren't as brazen as this one. Pictures of children bandaged and bleeding, shot across the airwaves. People around the world thought this might be the straw that broke the camel's back and brought a swift and violent response against the Palestinian Authority for their inability to curb the violence against the Israeli public. The Bush Administration, which had sought to keep out of the peace process and reevaluate US policy, was promptly sucked back into the morass with the violence and the rise in tempo appeared to startle those who had covered the region.

Only after the disco bombing did the Palestinian Chairman, Yasir Arafat, declare that he would work towards a ceasefire. A question that needs to be asked at this juncture, is whether Arafat is truly an individual that the Israelis can trust anymore. Arafat only resorted to the ceasefire overtures when his personal safety became a question; the Israelis have taken to attacking the Palestinian leadership in retaliation for attacks on the Israeli public. The previous Israeli attack involved the use of F-16 fighters against Palestinian positions. This startled the Palestinian leaders and got world opinion against Israel for this 'escalation' in force.

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