The Situation

Text by Robert Rosenberg, images by Silvia Rosenberg (unless otherwise noted)

Reverberations from a tyrant’s capture

Monday, December 15, 2003

The launch, from Voyages to Promised Lands 1982, Acrylic on paper

And since it was obvious that except for the cash at his disposal there was no evidence of any command and control in the 2 meter by 2 meter hole where he was captured, nobody believes that his orders were behind the terror and guerrilla campaign against Americans in Baghdad. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, at the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee predictably said the arrest would not end violence in the short term but in the long term would have an impact. It was the kind of analysis heard at any local grocery shop this morning – and two deadly bombings in Iraq this morning only confirmed it.

There was no getting around the Israeli reports of how shocked Palestinians were that Saddam did not go out in a heroic blaze of fire, or at the very least preferred to be taken dead than alive – and Syrian President Bashar Assad was imagined by more than one commentator, wondering how he’d look with a matted beard after hiding in a hole in the ground. Some, like Uri Dan, the prime minister’s confidante, on Israel Radio this morning, made the comparison between Saddam and Yasser Arafat, and how Israel should do to Arafat what the Americans are doing to Saddam. But more than one expert noted that Arafat might be corrupt and a terrorist, but he never gassed his own people, threw his rivals into acid baths, or held parties where his sons decapitated enemies for fun. Nobody in Iraq loved Saddam. For Palestinians, even Arafat’s most bitter political opponents, Arafat was nonetheless the man who put their problem on the global agenda and kept it there for nearly half a century. In any case, Israelis were talking about evidence from Israel being presented at any trial of Saddam. ‘We need this,’ said Justice Minister Yosef Lapid, ‘we are part of the Middle East map and we were attacked and we cannot let this pass silently. One of the worst things he did as dictator of Iraq was to fire 39 missiles at us,’ during the first Gulf War.

nknown yet is whether the Saddam capture means more or less American involvement in the local Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some predicted Bush will feel he doesn’t owe any favors to the Arabs, so now Israel can do what it wants. Others aid Bush will now feel more confident about pressing his two-state ‘vision.’ Almost all agree nowadays that Bush has made clear he is disappointed with Sharon. Lately, every successive Bush statement referring to Israel has been harsher, blunter, and more direct in its criticism of Israeli policy that makes changes on the ground that will make it more difficult to establish a viable Palestinian state. And almost everyone agrees that the Americans have made it clear to Sharon that they don’t want to see unilateral Israeli measures.

Nor does Mofaz, slamming his ministerial colleague Ehud Olmert for his recent statements about the need for an Israeli initiative to quit most if not all the territories. Mofaz told the Knesset committee that the government has not held an open discussion of the unilateral withdrawal issue, ‘so nobody should be announcing such plans, especially since the army hasn’t had its say on the matter,’ according to an Israel Radio report. The same report said committee member Meretz MK Yossi Sarid baldly called Mofaz a liar for telling the government and the Knesset that the army had taken down 43 illegal outposts. ‘Not only were no such outposts removed, more were added,’ said Sarid.

One outpost that was removed, came down yesterday at a place called Havat Shaked, not far from the radical settlement of Yitzhar, known as a hotbed of religious—Rightist activity. A few dozen ‘Hilltop Youth’ fought soldiers, and four were arrested, before the army demolished some chicken coops. Nobody actually lived at the site.

Now the question becomes what Sharon plans to announce in his much touted speech this week at the Herzliya Conference on National Security. Reports today said that officials in his office were softening the unilateral steps aspect of his speech, saying that Israel would not do anything for months, as it gave time to the roadmap efforts to succeed. But the same sources were denying Palestinian reports that there were contacts today between Sharon’s office and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei’s for a meeting in the coming days. One meeting that is in the offing is a three-way U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian session to discuss Palestinian reforms and ways to improve the Palestinian economy. Also reported today was that Joschke Fischer, the German foreign minister, is touring the region and will attend the Herzliya conference, which formally opens today.

An appropriate poem for the occasion

Red Dawn

by Janet I. Buck

Justice can't undig thousands
and thousands of bodies in graves
stacked like mindless lumps of coal.
Music on encouraged streets
will not erase the memory.
But crumbs of comfort
sail the wind -- this manna
we've been waiting for --
buttered by the oils of battle,
sweat and blood.
In moments of hope,
an olive branch is tapping
on a window's glass.
I see a river galloping
under a standing bridge --
prayers a bit more audible,
the water a little less red.

Comments on the poem to Janet I. Buck

Recommended articles:

The Barrier of Jerusalem – Political Not Security by Gershon Baskin, December 09, 2003

FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCYALYPSE On November 14, 2003, in a dramatic development, four former Shin Bet chiefs call on the political leadership to make peace with the Palestinians. Read the full interview.

Sharon’s policy is bringing us to the brink of existential abyss a speech by Victoria Buch to the Peace Coalition weekly vigil outside the Prime Minister's Residence, November 29, 2003

The Weathervanes Are Turning Uri Avnery analyzes the changes that led to Ehud Olmert saying Israel must quit the West Bank and Gaza.

Also recommended

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