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By Bruce S. Ticker
April 25, 2004
Ariel Sharon's assassination policy is bound to cause conflicts in my office. How can I get permission to take more time off from work when all these new Jewish holidays are being clustered so close together?
Jay Leno had a great line after Hamas picked a new leader - or, as they say in Israel, a temp worker.
In all seriousness, the Israeli government has genuinely put Arab terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank on the defensive in a couple different ways.
This combines American support for Sharon's Gaza pullout plan and the recent pair of assassinations of Hamas leaders. It is all having a positive impact for Israel.
The Arabs are screaming bloody murder over both moves, and there they betray that Israel is getting under their skin.
Sharon pulled off a coup when the Israeli prime minister stood with U.S. President Bush on April 14 to announce their joint agreement on a unilateral plan to withdraw civilians from Gaza, retain some settlements in the West Bank and bar the right-of-return from Israel proper.
While I have long had serious qualms about Bush and Sharon, the Arab reaction left no doubt that they did the right thing this time.
A few choice senseless responses quoted in The New York Times tell the tale. Yasser Arafat: "The Palestinian leadership warns of the dangers of reaching such an accord, because it means the complete end of the peace process."
What peace process? I thought the peace process reached "the complete end" when Arafat himself spurned an offer for a Palestinian state and then launched a war against Israel.
Ahmed Qurei, Palestinian prime minister: President Bush "is the first president who has legitimized the settlements in the Palestinian territories."
Oh, no, President Clinton never did that as part of the offer that he and then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak made at the Camp David meetings in July 2000. That package would have allowed some settlements to remain in the West Bank.
And finally, self-proclaimed moderate Hanan Ashrawi: "For the first time, American policy violates the basic conditions for peace."
As if the Gaza and West Bank Arabs have been peaceful.
Likewise, Arabs and European leaders are decrying the killings of Sheik Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the two Hamas leaders. Maybe the timing of these assassinations is open to dispute, but they won't be missed. This is a war that Arab extremists started. Rantisi was prolific in his Israel-bashing. He was such a creep that he was willing to send other people's children in harm's way, but he made certain that his own children were kept safe.
What's galling about European criticism is the hypocrisy from British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who called Israel's actions "unlawful, unjustified and counterproductive."
The same words can be directed against Britain's participation in the invasion of Iraq.
What proves that Hamas is suffering is the way they selected their new leader. Not only was he chosen in secret but they won't even identify him.
Maybe nobody had the guts to take the job and they are compelled to run Hamas by committee.
That would mean one less Jewish holiday for me to worry about.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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