Arafat under fire
With no sign of an end to the present cycle of Israeli- Palestinian violence, America’s administration appears, like Israel’s, to have lost all faith in Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader. But it is not clear there is an alternative to him

IT IS not the Israeli tanks penning him into his presidential compound that worry Yasser Arafat but the bullets being fired at him from Washington. In the past week, the Bush administration has rounded vigorously on the Palestinian leader—Vice- President Dick Cheney all but calling him a liar for denying his involvement in an attempt to smuggle in Iranian arms—and has gone a long way towards an unreserved acceptance of Israel’s policy. Israeli actions which the Americans might once have called “provocative” or even “excessive” are now deemed legitimate acts of self- defence.

This partisanship has rattled everyone, including America’s closest friends. Breaking their long silence on Mr Arafat’s internment in Ramallah, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the European Union have all pointed out to the United States that the Palestinians have an elected leader, and that Mr Arafat is he. The American response is mealy-mouthed. “As far as whether Chairman Arafat has the ability or the authority, as leader of the Palestinian Authority, we have said he needs to exercise leadership and exercise the authority that he has,” said the State Department on January 28th.
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The state rejoices, the nation bleeds

Remember the Labor Party's election commercial that just a year ago depicted an apocalyptic scenario of security anarchy, despair, the crumbling of policy and a huge wave of terror expected after Ariel Sharon comes into power? Even from within the degenerating situation of the days of Ehud Barak as prime minister, this horrific vision seemed exaggerated and impossible at the time. Yet today - one year after the election - this same prophecy looks in retrospect like a pastoral idyll.
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Palestinians Hail a Heroine; Israelis See Rising Threat
Suicide Bomber Elicits Pride and Fear

Go to Ramallah, Avrum!

It is in the national interest for Knesset Speaker Avraham (Avrum) Burg to go to Ramallah, with or without the blessing of the Shin Bet security service. It is to be hoped that Burg will have the courage and the determination required to overcome the coalition, which is mobilizing to torpedo the visit - the coalition of petty accounting (Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer), refusal (Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the settlers) and incitement (the entire right wing).

If the initiative is indeed implemented, Burg's speech to the Palestinian Legislative Council, in the midst of these dark days, will be a turning point. There are times when one has to take responsibility, even if this entails a radical step: The civil society must rise up against rulers who send their people plunging into the abyss.
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The task is terribly onerous because the Oslo accords have been effectively annulled, the settlements are expanding, and the occupation will slowly but surely cause the delegitimization of the Zionist movement. Indeed, we have reached the point at which Zionism has ceased to be associated with freedom, liberty and national rebirth, and has become synonymous with occupation, suppression and the deprivation of human rights. This is our image not only in the eyes of large parts of world public opinion, but also among many of the second and third generation of native Israelis, those for whom Sharon's parents established Kfar Malal.

The rift in Israeli society is becoming deeper. The refusal to serve in the territories is an expression of legitimate moral protest by soldiers and officers who will not hesitate to lay down their lives if the homeland is in danger, but who are unwilling to put on hobnail boots and serve in a colonial army. In the eyes of those young men, human beings are moral creatures who know that there are values that transcend orders issued by the government. The individual citizen is beginning to make his opinions known, and there can be no better symptom of the health of Israeli society.
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Choosing to serve a higher cause

In the letter, the reservists said that, although they believe in the state and have often fought for it on the front lines, they no longer intend to "take part in the war for the peace of the settlements."

"We will not continue to fight beyond the Green Line in order to rule, to expel, to destroy, to blockade, to assassinate, to starve, and to humiliate an entire people," they wrote.

Amit Mashiah, a reserve sergeant who also signed the letter, explained, "We are patriots. Most of us are at the end of our 20s and the beginning of our 30s. We did what we were told, and now we see things as they are. There is a lim
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