The positive vibes coming from Tuesday’s Palestinian reform
conference in London will soon become distant memories unless
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stops trying to make nice with
terrorists and starts confronting them with force.
Abbas has said all the right things following last Friday’s
suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. His unequivocal condemnation of the
attack is a welcome change from the typical Palestinian response
under the reign of Yassir Arafat.
In his public statements, Abbas insisted that terrorist attacks
“will not be tolerated” and said that Palestinians are “exerting
100% efforts” to end violence against Israel. But as long as Abbas
rules out the use of force against terrorist organizations, there
is no reason for these groups to heed his words.
In the West Bank town of Jenin on Tuesday, there was a taste of
how Abbas’s government coddles terrorist groups. Nasser Yousef,
Abbas’ newly appointed security chief, was in the town when members
of the terrorist organization Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades started
shooting in the air and demanding that he leave, according to an
Associated Press account. After first asking the police to arrest
the extremists, Yousef instead rewarded their leader with a meeting
and did not make one arrest.
Abbas is clearly in a bind. Newly elected, he is trying to put
together a legitimate Palestinian government after years of
corruption under the rule of Arafat. Abbas does not want to be seen
as a puppet of the United States and Israel and there are concerns
that using force against terrorist groups would trigger a civil
war. But Abbas should take a lesson from his Israeli counterpart,
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Even though Sharon is leading a fragile coalition government and
has received harsh criticism from within his own Likud Party, he
has forged ahead with plans to remove 9,000 Israeli settlers from
their homes in Gaza and part of the West Bank later this year. The
decision threatens to tear Israel apart, with some religious
members of the Israeli Defense Forces potentially disobeying orders
to evacuate settlers. Because of his decision to pullout from Gaza
(using force if necessary), Sharon has received 70 death threats in
the past three months alone.
But Sharon’s willingness to move aggressively against
bitter-enders is nothing new for Israelis. Time and again, Israel’s
leaders have demonstrated that they would not hesitate to use force
against extremist groups in the interests of peace and
security.
In a situation with close parallels to the Gaza pullout, Israel
sent its army to remove thousands of Israeli settlers from Sinai in
1982 to abide by the peace treaty Israel had negotiated with Egypt
at Camp David. At the time, Sharon was minister of defense.
When Israel was founded in 1948, it was a fledgling country
surrounded by neighbors that wanted to wipe it off the map. But
David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, forcibly disbanded
several paramilitary organizations and he even sunk a ship filled
with weapons that were purchased by one of these groups. The
controversial move claimed 82 lives.
Last Friday’s suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, which killed five
people and wounded at least 50 others, gives credence to right-wing
critics of Sharon who view the Feb. 8 negotiated truce with
Palestinians with skepticism. Following the attack, Sharon froze
plans to transfer control of five West Bank towns to Palestinians
and release additional Palestinian prisoners, but he has shown
restraint by not taking aggressive military action.
Facing pressure to protect his citizens from violence, Sharon
will not be able to hold back forever. If this bombing in Tel Aviv
was the first of more to come, eventually Sharon will have to step
up military actions against Palestinians, even at the risk of
scrapping the peace process.
So far, Abbas has dealt with terrorist organizations through
closed door politicking, but it is unlikely that this will yield
results over the long term with groups that are committed to
Israel’s destruction. Indeed, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas
has already stated that the period of calm it agreed to was
temporary.
Extremists will always have the power to derail the peace
process if Abbas does not move aggressively against them. If Abbas
cannot deliver security to Israel, it will be difficult for Sharon
to convince the Israeli public that negotiating will be
productive.
Abbas may never be able to prevent every single attack against
Israelis, but to be considered a viable partner for peace, he must
at least demonstrate that he is willing to do everything in his
power to stop terrorism. This must include the use of force.
