GROWING Palestinian discontent with the Israel-PLO 'peace' deal has led to the establishment of a new Palestinian Democratic Party.
It describes the Oslo and Cairo agreements as a 'consolidation of all Israeli demands' and calls for "free and democratic elections.... based on the principle of the unity of the Palestinian nation'.
This party is backed by the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP & DFLP), by independent activists, and by several prominent members of Arafat's Fatah, including Dr Haider Abdel Shafi, former head of the Palestinian delegation to the negotiations, Fatah co-founder Hani al-Hassan, and former PLO executive member Shafiq al-Hut.
The recent murder by Israeli troops of several sleeping Palestinian police (Israel claimed that the police, while asleep, had fired through a concrete wall and across the border at an Israeli patrol!) is a further sign of Israel's contempt for Palestinian opinion, and for its supposed partners in the deal.
But it would be a mistake to assume that the agreement is failing. On the contrary, for Israel it is succeeding well in its purpose of coopting the PLO into an unequal relationship as protectors of the occupation, while Israel continues with its projects of regional domination Israeli troops help to enforce regional domination and colonisation of Palestine.
The past few weeks have been marked by clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian residents, backed by Israeli activists, protesting against land expropriations for new settlements in the Bethlehem area.
This is just one of several planned expansions of settlements. For example, the Israeli settlement of Eli Zahav, on the lands of Kufr al-Deik village near Nablus, is projected to increase from 65 to 4400 families.
By Israeli law, only Jews will be permitted to live in these settlements, whose lands are officially described as 'redeemed'.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to consolidate its political gains and expand its influence in the Arab world.
Visit
Following the treaty with Jordan, King Hussein made a wellpublicised visit to Israel, where he was promised a continuing role in Jerusalem affairs - a further snub to the PLO and insult to the Palestinian people.
Israeli Prime Minister the first Arab Gulf state to welcome an Israeli leader. It cannot be long before Saudi Arabia too signs a deal with Israel, with which it has no border dispute and much common interest.
As if to symbolise this deepening alliance with Arab reaction, Israel has now threatened a preemptive air strike against Iranian nuclear reactors, to prevent the development of nuclear weapons by Iran.
Ironically, Iran and Israel had earlier been nuclear partners, collaborating to assist the South African nuclear project.
Sheikhs
The loss of these two former staunch allies has encouraged Israel's turn to the sheikhs and colonels of the Arab regimes - a direction long advocated by a part of Israel's military establishment, notably Rabin himself, who has reportedly for many years viewed Iran as a greater long-term threat than the Arab states.
In confirming these threats to Iran in a BBC interview, Rabin repeated Israel's standard claim that 'Israel will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East'.
This is a lie; Israel has had nuclear weapons since a project was developed by Shimon Peres, now Defence Minister, in the 1950s, and currently has about 300 nuclear warheads.
Some days before Rabin made his threat, Israeli prisoner of conscience Mordechai Vanunu passed his 3000th day in solitary confinement. technician who leaked details of Israel's nuclear industry to the Sunday Times in 1986, was enticed from London to Rome, and on 30 September 1986 he was kidnapped, drugged, and flown back to Israel.
Tried under conditions of strict secrecy, Vanunu was convicted of treason and espionage, and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment.
He has spent the entire time since his kidnapping in solitary confinement, permitted no physical contact even with members of his family, in conditions described by Amnesty International as 'cruel, inhuman and degrading'.
Vanunu's brother, Meir, now lives in exile after an Israeli court ordered his arrest for publishing details of Mordechai's kidnapping; the British government has rejected his application for political asylum.
Insanity
Israeli officials have claimed that Vanunu's conversion to Christianity is a betrayal of his family and his country, and evidence of insanity.
By their treatment oif him, they seem to be driving him towards a breakdown, though people who have visited him report that he is surviving and has great inner strength.
Vanunu has been nominated several times for the Nobel prize, and has been supported by the European Parliament, as well as by many British MPs and labour movement bodies.