Review 22.4
22 March- 10 April, 1997

EDITORIAL

Last week, a member of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas walked into a crowded city cafe in Tel Aviv and detonated himself together with several bags of explosives. Two seconds later he had achieved his objective - three dead Israelis, 46 wounded, international media coverage, retaliation for Israel's decision to build in Jerusalem, and martyrdom in perpetuity.

The international community said it was a tragedy. They also said that if Israel hadn't been building at Har Homa it wouldn't have happened. There's the victory for Hamas and Arafat. Kill innocent Israeli civilians and the world tells Israel it's brought it upon itself. Should Israel retaliate, watch for the full chorus of outraged UN delegates yet again censuring it for destroying the peace process.

Here's Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi in response to the Tel Aviv suicide bombing. "This attack was provoked by Israel's policy, by the Netanyahu Government. Honouring agreements will take care of violence."

A dispute about a block of houses has become a suitable provocation for killing innocent civilians. The problem with Israel's partners in peace is that if they don't like what you're doing there's a good chance that at some stage they are going to kill you. The problem with half the world is that after years of conflict and argument they almost believe that there's some legitimacy to it.

For the week before this latest tragedy, Mrs Ashrawi's colleagues, Palestinian leaders engaged in a peace process with Israel, were threatening violent actions. Why? Well, they knew they could get away with it.

Last September, Arafat pulled the same stunt. Israel opened a tunnel in Jerusalem. Arafat started a war. International outrage followed Netanyahu's decision to open a tunnel near the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Why was it necessary for Arafat to order his police (read AK47 totting paramilitary forces) to open fire on Israelis? The Arab League claimed the tunnel was "part of an Israeli Zionist plot to destroy the Aqsa Mosque and set up the temple of Solomon". It wasn't. Arafat said it was a "desecration of the holy places". Turns out, the tunnel did not go under, over, or near a holy place - Muslim or otherwise. All too late. By the time the West caught up - little of which was reported - Arafat had returned to his traditional violent techniques and Israel's 'right wing, intransigent' government was held as the provocateurs. They were called Tunnel riots. In reality Arafat ordered a military assault on Israel, leaving more than 70 dead. In so doing he broke his pledge to Rabin of September 9 1993 that "The PLO commits itself to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

Accordingly, the PLO renounces acts of violence and will assume responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance..."

After the September riots he repeatedly broke the pledge for the remainder of 1996. Then he broke it all summer, calling, together with his advisers, for a return to armed struggle. Then he broke it all last month threatening the renewal of violence if his demands were not met over Har Homa. But who was there to say no, stop, this is a breach of the peace accord: Well nobody, actually.

And now Arafat has had an opportunity to sell his rug twice. There is a new crisis in the peace process. Not much different from the last one and again of Arafat's own making. But nevertheless again Israel's sins are the source of a thousand columns of news print. What has Netanyahu done that has warranted such international condemnation and enabled Arafat to give a green light to terrorist attacks? In no particular order, these are the 10 sins of Israel:

1) Netanyahu is building a Jewish neighbourhood in Har Homa in southern Jerusalem. It is not East Jerusalem, nor a settlement, as incorrectly reported. Nor is it Arab land as claimed. Har Homa will be built on 76% Jewish owned land and 24% Palestinian-owned land, all of which was purchased and paid for by the Jerusalem Council in the same manner as any local council would purchase land it was intending to build a road through.

2) Netanyahu, as a gesture of his commitment to the Peace Process made a substantial unilateral withdrawal from 9% of the West Bank . The first of several such withdrawals, which the United States declared to be "a serious expansion of Palestinian Authority and a show of Israel's commitment to the peace process." Arafat called it a "big deceit operation." Why? Arafat claims Israel should have withdrawn from 30% of the West Bank. But this is nowhere in the Oslo peace agreement. The withdrawal was unilateral anyway - a goodwill bonus for Arafat, who didn't expect to even get that until final status talks began next month. There are more withdrawals to come. Arafat's 30% was a clever ploy which made Netanyahu look as if he had cheated the Palestinians. Israel did what the UN and European Union always tells it to - trust, compromise and offer confidence building gestures.

3) Arafat wants Jerusalem as the future capital of a Palestinian State. Netanyahu says no. Jerusalem has never been up for consideration during any negotiations whether with Peres, Rabin or Netanyahu. Israel is committed to Jerusalem as its undivided capital and holds that while it recognises the city's sensitivity and importance, it will never allow Arafat to have final approval over urban development or improvement in Israel's capital - especially when it is on Jewish territory, the building is legal and there is no breach of any accords. Arafat seizes every building project, even the opening of a second door on a tunnel for tourists as a pretext to engineer international crises, condemnation and furore - holding Israel hostage to threats, international censure and terror attacks. Israel suggests negotiations over Arafat's concerns. Arafat refuses to take Netanyahu's calls as long as the Palestinians continue to get strong international support.

4) Arafat is using every international forum available, including a recent international conference in Gaza, and the UN, to force Israel to make concessions over Jerusalem. When Israel continues with its long term program of rebuilding Jerusalem - commenced 30 years ago and continued under Peres and Rabin - Arafat orchestrates condemnation with other Arab countries. Israel says peace cannot be achieved through blackmail, threats, incitement or fear. The Oslo agreement specifically contains a promise from Arafat to Rabin which states " in choosing this course, every problem or difference that arises in the future will be resolved directly by us, without recourse to international forums." Arafat insists on condemnation of Israel through international forums - often without Israeli participation - rather than negotiations.

5) After last September's tunnel incident, warnings from Israel that a repetition of such violence would lead to serious reprisals has stemmed a replica of open Palestinian hostilities. Israel believes Arafat is running a two track policy: appearing to publicly condemn violence and terrorism, while secretly authorising attacks by the Islamic extremist group Hamas. Israeli intelligence claims that on the evening of March 9 Arafat met secretly with Hamas leaders, giving them the green light to commence terror operations. The next day, against the advice of many of his advisers, Arafat released from prison Ibrahim Maqadma, leader of Hamas' secret military arm. The meeting, which lasted until 6am, was also attended by representatives from the Islamic Salvation Front, PFLP and DFLP. Since the meeting there has been a sudden return of Molotov cocktail attacks and stonings of Israeli soldiers. One Israeli soldier has been stabbed, two shot. The Hamas bombing in Tel Aviv is believed to be a direct result of the green light given by Arafat at the March 9 meeting.

6) Israel claims that Palestinian complaints over an extra 4000 Jewish apartments at Har Homa are ingenuous. Israel is building 3,500 Palestinian homes in Jerusalem neighbourhoods. Further, Arab building and population in Jerusalem has skyrocketed. In 1967 there were 12,200 Arab owned apartments in Jerusalem. In 1995 there were 27,066 - an increase of 122%. Between 1971 and 1994, the Jerusalem Council granted permits for 1.1 million square meters of residential development by Palestinians. The real figure is believed to be double, with many buildings having no permits. Arab construction has also been done in a strategic manner to surround the Jewish Old city with new Palestinian neighbourhoods emerging in the North, South eastern and Southern parts of Jerusalem.

7) While Arafat and colleagues are breaching the Oslo peace accords daily there is no international censure. The UN has not mentioned a word about Arafat and the Palestinian Authority's incitement of violence (there are more than 70 documented examples since the accord was signed). Israel is bitter that the UN has an unprecedented double standard on Israel. Australia's representative at the UN, Richard Butler, condemned Israel for being "unhelpful" and "complicating the peace process". Australia then joined with the European Union, Japan, China, Russia, Latin America and African Nations in declaring the Har Homa housing project a threat to Middle East peace. What could Australia have asked the UN? How about when will the Palestinian Authority stop inciting violence every time they don't get their way? or Why have the Palestinians breached their promise to change the PLO covenant calling for the destruction of Israel? or Why hasn't the PLO confiscated unlicensed weapons and reduced the number of armed Palestinian police to those levels agreed upon in Oslo? or Why does the PLO still not transfer terrorists to Israeli custody? or Why is the Palestinian Authority establishing illegal offices throughout Jerusalem? So bewildered is Israel by this blind double standard that Netanyahu exploded at a press conference last week "I'm getting, frankly, fed up with the idea that everything we do is a violation of the peace agreement, and everything the Palestinians say is in compliance with the agreement."

8) When Israel issued a list of more than 100 violations by the PLO of the Oslo accords last December it was hard to find a report of it let alone international condemnation. When David Bar Illan, Netanyahu's senior adviser, documented Arafat's calls to arms -"we know only one word: Jihad, Jihad, Jihad. When we stopped the intifada, we did not stop the jihad for the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital" - there was little reaction from the media, foreign governments and silence from the UN. Even the US held back from censure. Arafat watched this with interest. What limits would the international community set on his breaches of the accord? None.

9) By contrast, Mr Netanyahu and his Cabinet agreed to abide by the Oslo accords and have violated not a letter nor the spirit of the agreement For their trouble from Tulsa to Brisbane they have been portrayed as impeding peace with the Palestinians. They have risked repeated cabinet , party and electoral revolt in releasing Palestinian women prisoners, announcing a further withdrawal from 9% of the West Bank (larger than the entire Gaza strip), withdrawn from 80% of the city of Hebron and granted autonomy and self rule to a further 400,000 Palestinians.

10) Arafat has his nose out of joint because Netanyahu has not been suitably obsequious and solicitous towards him. He is particularly put out by Israel's restrictions over landing rights for his private plane. Netanyahu has given in to this demand. Arafat is now permitted to fly to and from Gaza without undergoing Israeli customs inspections. Arafat says this has "fulfilled a Palestinian dream." Israeli intelligence warn that neither Rabin nor Peres would give in to this demand. Allowing the Palestinian airport at Dahaniya to operate unchecked will ensure that Arafat can flood Gaza with modern weaponry, which Arafat's security people are known to smuggle on his aircraft. So these are the 10 sins of Israel. That's why Mrs Ashrawi and Yasser Arafat claim the murder of innocent Israeli civilians drinking coffee in Tel Aviv is the result of Mr Netanyahu's policies. And that's why most of the world let them get away with it.