The Americans did not fall into this primitive trap, and so Sharon decided to be a little more sophisticated. This week he announced that he will not speak with Abu-Mazen unless he immediately stops the “incitement” against Israel in all Palestinian media and schools.
Abu-Mazen might just as well be requested to pluck the moon from the heavens. How could the new democratic chairman abolish freedom of speech on TV and in the press – while incitement against the Palestinians continues in the Israeli media at full blast, not to mention their dancing on Arafat’s grave? And how does one change the schoolbooks (most of them Egyptian and Jordanian in any case) within two months – while in Israeli schools, especially the religious ones, both orally and in writing, the right of the Palestinian people to their country is totally denied?
The presentation of impossible demands as a pre-condition to negotiations is an old trick of Sharon’s. One may assume that the Americans will not fall into this trap again. Something more extreme and immediate must happen. For example: bloody attacks, acts of “terrorism” that can be attributed to the new chairman, civil war, anarchy.
Abu-Mazen and his colleagues know this full well. They are working to prevent this. Since they lack the means to apply force, they must use persuasion. The traditional Arab method is “Ijmah” – a round of discussions that goes on until everybody is persuaded, so that no minority will feel that it has been vanquished by a majority. Arafat was a past master of this.
If this succeeds, there will be a temporary cease-fire until the elections. But the main problem will remain: the new Chairman will be unable to persuade his people to end the armed intifada if he cannot show another way of ending the occupation and achieving Palestinian independence. If the Americans want the new regime to take hold, they must bring about the immediate start of negotiations, with the clear aim of establishing the State of Palestine within a strict timetable.
Sharon will do everything he can to destroy Abu-Mazen before this happens. He wrecked the first Abu-Mazen government, two years ago, by withholding anything which might contribute to political progress (blaming, as usual, Arafat). Now he must wreck Abu-Mazen under much more difficult circumstances.
Let no one have any illusions: Sharon will use every means, overt and covert, in order to destroy any “moderate” Palestinian leadership. His natural ally is Hamas, which opposes any negotiations with Israel. As of now, Abu-Mazen is Enemy No. 1.
