CONOR McCARTHY,
Sir, - What is one to make of Ariel Sharon's latest brutal insult to the Palestinian people? What masquerades behind the idea of an "offer" of voluntary exile for their leader is the shadow of ethnic cleansing. If Mr Arafat leaves, he will never be allowed back.
This, one feels increasingly, is Mr Sharon's preferred "solution" for the great bulk of the Palestinian people. How long, one wonders, can a civilian population stay put, while they suffer from lack of water, food, medical facilities, and from military assault, on top of the pre-existing economic blockade, water theft, destruction of agricultural resources, destruction of the entire array of infrastructural mechanisms, human rights abuses and colonisation by 400,000 illegal settlers?
It is unfortunate that this kind of thinking also infects your paper's coverage of the issue. When David Horowitz writes that Israelis "still have no clue what to do with Arafat" (The Irish Times, April 3rd), the crucial point being missed is that while raw military brawn and apparent de facto diplomatic immunity from Western criticism may allow Israel to do what it chooses with Arafat, it has no right in international law to do anything with him. Like it or not, he is the elected leader of his people.
Who, then, is the danger to the free world Sharon recently spoke of? Alas, he is himself fair set to become that danger, with his bloated armed forces, his blinded supporters (and even worse on his right), his weapons of mass destruction, and his willingness to flout the opinion of most of the world. - Yours, etc.,
CONOR McCARTHY,
Ireland-Palestine
Solidarity Campaign,
Dame Street,
Dublin 2.
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Sir, - So Bertie Ahern tried to "keep the balance" when he told Yasser Arafat that he had been "badly sidelined" by Hamas suicide-bombers (The Irish Times, March 30th).
The semantic wriggling in Ahern's slippery words is unseemly from an EU prime minister who opposes international terrorism. It ineptly tries to absolve Arafat from responsibility for his use of suicide bombers as a form of warfare to maintain "a balance of terror" against Israel. Mr Ahern speaks of "Israeli harassment", as if Israel has no right to defend its citizens from Arafat's killers.
Would Mr Ahern stand idly by if the United Kingdom government were to allow terrorists in Northern Ireland to send suicide bombers to kill citizens in the Republic?
In the harness of retrospect, it is clear that Arafat went to the Camp David summit exuding the deadly intent to question Israel's right to exist, and not to negotiate. (He even questioned whether Jews had any historical connection to Jerusalem.) Mr Ahern resides in the sham notion that Arafat has any interest in working out a final agreement with Israel. Perhaps in light of Mr Ahern's phone call, Arafat will now intensify his manipulation of the EU (with its baggage of anti-Jewish history) into an Anti-Israeli stance.
The fact is Arafat lacks sensible ideas for a future within the bounds of reason for Palestinians. His pretence of a lack of control over terrorist bands, while relying on their violence to terrorise Israelis, shows that homicidal menace mines his policy.
His promotion of "martyrdom" among young Palestinians allied to his incitement of hatred against Israelis in schools and mosques attest his blind blood rage against Israel. Surely it's time that Mr Ahern faced up to the hard truth: Arafat the terrorist eclipses Arafat the statesman; and Arafat's attempt under torchlight in Ramallah to cloth himself in contrived victimhood cannot hide his brutal aggression. - Yours, etc.,
TOM COONEY,
c/o Faculty of Law,
UCD,
Dublin 4.
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Sir, - I want to preface my remarks on the escalating crisis in the Middle East by making certain matters clear. I condemn terrorism, whether by a State or by a group, as there is never justification, whatever the provocation, for injuring innocent civilians.
I condemn the shocking Easter/Passover atrocities in Israel which indiscriminately took so many innocent Jewish and Arab lives. And I deplore the recent attacks on Jews and their property in France and Belgium. The competent authorities must give not quarter to those guilty of anti-Jewish attacks anywhere in the EU and John O'Donoghue should bring that message home to the EU Council of Home Affairs Ministers.
There is, however, no military solution to the conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. Prime Minister Sharon has offered an uncompromising war on terror but has not offered any diplomatic solution at all to end the present spiral of violence and horror.The initiative drawn up by the Saudi Arabian Government does offer some diplomatic hope.
Terrorist attacks against innocent civilians result only in deepening hatred and recrimination. But the sheer scale of the Israeli response appears to be premised on brutality and military might, which achieves little other than further alienation and increased numbers of innocent fatalities.
Mr Sharon must recognise that destroying the Palestinian Authority will not bring Israel any closer to peace. Moreover, I fully agree with the position of the Irish Government that the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, is the political leader with whom Israel should be working in an effort to halt the spiralling violence in the Middle East. President Arafat is simply not able to fulfil this role because the Israeli Government is physically isolating him at every turn.
This week in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians are stockpiling food because of the fear of more military attacks. Equally, restaurants in Israel are now being policed by the Israeli army for fear of future terrorist attacks.
The international community will have to continue to intervene to try and broker an agreement between both sides. The Irish Government must continue to be pro-active in the search for peace in our capacity as a member of the UN Security Council.
Many buildings in Palestine, constructed with the help of EU taxpayers' money, have been destroyed. As unacceptable as this is, at least buildings can be replaced. The lives of innocent people cannot! - Yours, etc.,
NIALL ANDREWS MEP,
European Parliament Office,
Dublin 2.