ONE OF the most obscene sights of recent politics was the grin with which PLO Ieader Yasser Arafat greeted Isracli PM Shimon Peres on the day when Israeli "precision bombing slaughtered over 100 Lebanese civilian refugees sheltering at a UN base in southern Lebanon.
within a weck, Ararat had persuaded the Palestine National Coun cil-ine PLO's "parliament in exile' to drop the central points of the 1964 Palestine Charter. Arafat's role as stacts lackoy has never been so publicly and humiliatingly flaunted.
Israel's response to the massacre was characteristic.
Officials blamed the victims for their effrontery in sacrificing themselves by not accepting Israel's dictat to leave their homes and villages. Isracl is presented as the true victim of this "unfortunate mistake'.
The response recalls the appalling comment of former PM Golda Meir 'We may eventually be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our chil. dren. But we will never be able to forgive them for forcing us to kill theer children".
At one level Israel's attack failed.
The final agreement with Hizbollah. under which both sides agreed to rerestated the situation which has existed since the previous ceasefire in 1993. Refugees in the Shufot refugee comp founding conference of thie new organisation "Corialist bemorsant, this propramme is tie mosi exiensive incityist analysis of Ireland since flir ignore f: indudes: "Rew World Groer, Europe - Mational cuestiori in Inland • Iris; economy = "Social Partneralip" , Mromen in Imland • Sociarianism • Environmeni • Fight for socialism.
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Te order eand your disgue, Fund, in RO Ear Fins, London, 1 2U1 Despite Isracli propaganda claims. Hizbollah has not been shelling Isracli civilians or territory since then.
Indeed, in implicitly recognising Hizbollah's right to attack Israeli troops occupying, southern Lebanon Shimon Peres: Israel precision bombing' sloughtered over 100 Lebanese chillan refugees sheitering of o UN base in south Leba. since 1978, the agreement actually was a setback for Israel.
But this is only the superficial aspect of the attack. Not for the first time, Lebanon has been the stage for a proxy war between other powers.
In 1982 Isracl devastated Lebanon in an attempt to destroy the PLO. This war creato the conortons icading to the present attack ane power vacuum icitin Lebanon. and the resentment at Isracli militarist arrogance, immeasurably strengthened Hizbollah, which has since acquired a national legitimacy as the only Lebanese force effectively combatting occupation.
Meanwhile, by effectively disabling enabled the tise of a new, Palestine. based, leadership of the national strug. gle. This leadership. through the Intifada, posed a more serious challenge to Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip than decades of the PLO's diplomacy and guerrillaism. the children at Ma'aloe were in fact killed 'accidentally" by the Isracli army And this success, which meant the new leadership was as much of a threat to Arafat and his team as it was to Israel, created the community of interest oerween wact and Aralal. Enis 1s behind the Isracl-PLO 'peace agreement.
The agreement reached its conclusion at the meeting of the Palestine This attack is also a warning to Syria, which has been reluctant to enter the 'peace process' National Council, when an overwhelming majority of the delegates (many hand-picked by Arafat) voted to repeal all sections of their charter which denied the legitimacy of the state of Isracl.
The session was boycotted by sup.
porters of the PFLP and DFLP oppositions within the PLO. Prominent Palestine-based leaders such as Hanar Ashrawi and Dr Haidar Abd al-Shafi As most commentators have noted. the latest attack was designed to bolster Peres in the Isracli elections due later attacks on Isracli civilians-most car. ried out by desperate Palestinians from the miserable refugee camps of Gaza, not by Hizbollah guerrillas from south Lebanon—has croded the massive opini pol lead which feres neid when he took over from his assassinated predecessor. Yitzhak Rabin.
By making the Lebanese pay, and by humiliating Arafar, Peres hopes to claw But the PLO leadership and the Isracli public are not the only audience which Peres is addressing.
This attack is also a warning to Syria, which has been reluctant to enter the "peace process' without guarantees of the full return of the occupied Golan Heights, and of greater autonomy for Palestine.
syna is concernica by the recent military cooperation agreement be. tween Israel and Turkey under which Isracli pilots are allowed to carry out "training flights" in Turkish airspace.
The agreement is Isracl's greatest success in its search for allies in the periphery of the Arab world since the It threatens a two-pronged attack on Syria, and is also seen as a threat by Iran.
While undoubtedly putting pressure on Syria, the agreement will also rein. force the Istamic opposition in Turkey.
The recent expelsion of four Iranian diplomats for contact with fundamentalists in Turkey suggests a developing alliance between israel and turkey to Sether with the USA and European states, against popular dissent across the Arab and Muslim world.
The Lebanese people have been the ing Palestinian unrest, and growing dissent in Bahrain. Outar, Egype and even Saudi Arabia, means that they will not be the last.
And the continuing failure of the secular left in the region leaves the political terrain open for fundamentalist populism.