[CPI(ML) News Magazine , ML Update, Editorial] (Vol.5;No.14; 3-4-2002)
Down with the US-aided Israeli terrorism against the Palestinian leadership Yasser Arafat, the poster child of national liberation in the latter part of the 20th century and presently the head of state of Palestine, is now personally under siege. He is being held incommunicado without water and electricity in his own headquarters in Ramallah, West Bank, surrounded by booming Israeli tanks. The occupation army of the Israeli aggressors has been issued orders to "neutralize" him. Arafat, the moderate voice of Palestinian resistance all along, is heroically defying death and refusing to surrender. Meanwhile, scores of protesting Palestinians are being butchered everyday by the Israeli Army on the streets. Israel has made no secret of its plans to strangulate the nascent Palestinian Authority and throw back the peace process by decades. But they know they can't do it as long as Arafat is around. Hence, exploiting a few bomb attacks by hardliners, they are bombarding the headquarters of the Palestinian leadership. This is terrorism par excellence, perpetrated cynically in the name of "war against terror". Trying to decapitate the leadership of another state has so far remained a US privilege. Remember what they tried to do to Gaddafi and Saddam. Now, under their able guidance, the Israeli hawks are out to do the same, defying worldwide condemnation. The UN Security Council has called for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops. Even the EU has condemned the siege. The entire world community, except one nation, the USA, has reacted with outrage. In fact, the Arab Summit, held in Beirut last week, even went to the extent of formally endorsing the Saudi peace plan of Arab recognition of Israel in return for peaceful settlement of the Palestinian dispute and return of their occupied lands. This is a historic step forward. Yet, Israel only reacted to it with its own plan of "neutralizing" Arafat and destroying the Palestinian gains of a decade and a half since the Intifida of the 1980s. As only to be expected, George Bush condemned only the suicide bombings while maintaining a studied silence on the Israeli bombardment in Ramallah. And everyone knows that Israel acts with such brazenness only because it enjoys the US blessings. The media in the US has brought out the fact that the US administration was informed about the bombardment of Arafat's HQ well in advance by the Israelis. It is a matter of shame that India officially expressed only a mild "shock" and that too much belatedly. Ever since the Saffron-Zionist bonhomie began, the Indian foreign policy seems to have lost the backbone to forthrightly condemn blatant provocations to world peace and arrogant challenges to a just international order. The liberal conscience in the West has pinned its hopes on intervention by the USA. But whenever the US reined in Israel in the past it was the fear of an Arab or Soviet backlash. However, in the post-Cold War, and especially in the post-S11 world, the "war against terrorism" everywhere is being directed from the situations room in the White House. Hence only the pressure of popular protests can sober up the monsters a bit. To be sure, the storms of protests have already gathered momentum around the world, notably in the US itself. Bush and Sharon are incapable of realizing that sending in the army is no way to stop the young Palestinians from turning into suicide bombers. Incursions of Israeli ground troops has only increased the incidence of suicide bombings - five incidents in as many days. Absolute power seems to have blinded them absolutely. The only weapons the mighty imperialists and reactionaries lack in their arsenal are common sense and reason. No matter whether they let Arafat come out alive or not from the present siege, there can be no doubt that they have already buried Israel's security for years to come. The questions are simple: After Arafat what? Who, and in what numbers, are they going to kill to end the suicide bombings? But then, the imperial madness has always remained inexplicable in history. How nicely Mao Tse-tung put it when he said that the imperialists and reactionaries lift a big stone only to drop it on their own feet! _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
