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Bob Westbrook is a Titusville, Florida based professional
photographer, writer, and consultant. He writes commentaries
from a Christian Zionist perspective, endeavoring to encourage Christian support for Israel. He is the Bible Prophecy moderator for the website and the author of .
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By Bob Westbrook
June 10, 2001
The violence perpetrated by the Palestinians is about to reach a boiling point. Since October, Arafat has orchestrated the so-called popular uprising according to his strategic objectives. He has been declaring for years that the Palestinians would not be satisfied with less than a state comprised of the entire West Bank, at the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital. Yet when he declined to accept an offer for less than this, the diplomats and envoys and pundits seemed surprised. They should not be.
The phased plan of the PLO devised in 1974 stated that their strategy was to gain as much as possible by negotiations, after which they would gain the rest by force. Now we are seeing the implementation of this strategy, yet the "experts" seemed surprised that violence has erupted. This violence is a consequence of Arafat's strategic goals. It is no coincidence that he and his underlings often referred to the peace process as a "strategic choice." That is all that the peace process was to them, a ploy to allow them to get a military foothold in the major cities on the West Bank, which they now have.
So what are Arafat's strategic goals now? He knows that he alone does not possess sufficient military force to unilaterally acquire his objectives through violent action. He knows that the military might of the IDF will not allow him to establish his state. Therefore, only the imposition of a greater force will cause that to happen. That greater force is the will and might of the international community. Arafat has been clamoring for "international observers" in the West Bank for some time. His efforts have been directed towards a United Nations Security Council resolution to this effect. Only a U.S. veto prevented this resolution from being enacted.
Arafat's strategic objective for the violence is to get the UN to impose an international observer force on Israel. This will ensure he can move ahead with Palestinian independence with the minimal Israeli interference. If he can ratchet the violence up to a level that the international community can no longer stomach, so that the threat of a larger regional conflict looms, he supposes, then the UN will act to bring in observers to "keep the peace."
Arafat will then use these observers and the authority associated with them to create de facto borders of his emerging state. Once there, with the authority of the United Nations behind them, these "observers" will give Arafat the means to solidify his "state" which he was not able to achieve through negotiations.
Arafat is walking a tightrope concerning the level of violence. He knows that if he goes too far, it will provoke an overwhelming response from the Israelis. This is why, after events such as the Tel Aviv bombing, we see him apparently back off to some extent for a short time. He has to keep the violence at a level which will provoke UN intervention, but not enough to cause it all to come crashing in on him.
Arafat may have underestimated the intensity of reaction that would be unleashed in the wake of the brutal killing of so many teenagers. In an attempt to backpedal from the brink, he made his unprecedented yet spurious call for a "cease-fire."
So what should Israel's response be to Arafat's strategy? Push him off his tightrope. Declare that because the Oslo agreements have been nullified in their entirety, that the situation has reverted to pre-Oslo. The Palestinians have proved they deserve no Authority: it should be revoked. Move the IDF in to eliminate the Palestinian quasi-army, disarming them and confiscating all its weaponry.
The time has come for Israel to put an end to Arafat's duplicity. He has never been a genuine partner for peace, a fact now painfully evident to all. He must not be allowed to reach his strategic goals through violence and international coercion. Israel must preempt this plan by acting with resolve to thwart his strategy.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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