U.N. Special Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, as he walked through the rubble in the Jenin refugee camp last week, just three days after the fighting had died down, virtually accused Israel of war crimes and spoke of \”a shameful chapter in Israel\’s history.\”
When Ariel Sharon decided to isolate Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah, he realized he would be accused of deliberately blocking diplomatic channels if he didn\’t find an alternative form of dialogue with the Palestinians. Sharon\’s answer: A regional conference of Israel, moderate Arab states and Palestinians — but not Arafat — to be convened under American auspices.
Even before the first Israeli tanks swept into Ramallah at the start of Operation Protective Wall, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was being asked what he intended to do the day after the tanks withdrew. From day one, it was clear that the operation would not in itself put a stop to Palestinian terror. No matter how badly the terrorist infrastructure was hit, it would be only a matter of time until the suicide bombers were back on Israel\’s streets.
Unless, that is, there was some political solution to the Palestinian- Israeli conflict.
For months now, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been convinced that the main problem in Israel\’s relations with the Palestinians is the president of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat.
When Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser swept into Khartoum for an Arab summit less than three months after the Arab debacle in the 1967 Six-Day War, he was greeted like a hero.
Newsweek ran a cover story titled, \”Hail to the Conquered!\” The summit passed the notorious \”three no\’s\” defining future relations with Israel: No negotiations, no recognition and no peace.
In July the following year, Nasser took a young Yasser Arafat, traveling on an Egyptian passport under the name of Muhsin Amin, with him to Moscow on an arms shopping spree.
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