Ariel Sharon's Gamble
For the past few weeks, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has gambled that attacking the Palestinian refugee camps would cause the Palestinian bombers to rethink their suicide bomber strategy because of the high loss of Palestinian lives. He assumed that as his army troops arrested and killed any Palestinian gunmen they encountered, this would result in a rethinking of the Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians.
The result of Sharon's policy has been to create more Palestinians that are willing to commit suicide in bomb attacks within Israel. What Sharon failed to understand is that as a loose knit organization, the Palestinians can continue the suicide bombings until they run out of explosives as they will never run out of suicide bomber volunteers. They can claim to be outside the Arafat's government. Israel, as a government, cannot afford to continue to attack and bomb the Palestinians as world opinion will not allow them to do so.
Sharon must agree to discuss dis-engagement with the Palestinians and offer the Palestinians more that lip-service when it comes to defining the borders of a Palestinian state. The Israeli settlements must be on the table; even to the extent of offering the settlers a choice of a buying out of their homes and returning to Israel proper or living under Palestinian rule.
03/09/02 ( 345 )
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