As Sharon and Abu Mazen hold a futile meeting in West Jerusalem, a bloody week of attacks and counter-attacks dims hopes for a breakthrough in implementing the roadmap. Khaled Amayreh reports from occupied Jerusalem A spate of Israeli incursions into the Gaza Strip, which left more than 20 Palestinians, most of them civilians, dead and many more maimed, has triggered a spate of equally deadly Palestinian suicide bombings inside Israel, resulting in scores of Israeli deaths and injuries. Thousands of Israeli troops, backed by some 70 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and attack helicopters, stormed the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun last Thursday, killing at least eight Palestinians, including two children. The invading forces continued to rampage in northern Gaza for five days (they withdrew Tuesday morning) during which army bulldozers destroyed scores of homes, ravaged streets, pulverised farms and uprooted orchards and vineyards. The "routine military activity", as the Israeli army referred to the wanton killing and destruction, came less than 24 hours after another "routine activity" was carried out in Rafah and Khan Younis, in which eight Palestinians were killed and a dozen homes were destroyed. The two bloody incursions in southern and northern Gaza, coupled with the Israeli Government's decision to allow Jews to pray at Al- Haram Al-Sharif, were aimed at provoking Palestinian resistance groups and sending an unmistakable message of ill will to the new Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen. This, at least, is how Hamas, and later Fatah and the Islamic Jihad, understood the Israeli message. Shortly after sunset on Saturday, a young Palestinian guerrilla carrying an explosive belt on his waist and disguised as a religious Jew, blew himself next to a messianic Jewish settler couple at the Jewish enclave in downtown Hebron, killing himself and them both. The incident didn't succeed in stopping the much heralded encounter between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Abu Mazen, but it did succeed in predetermining, or at least contributing to, its failure. The meeting, held in Sharon's office in West Jerusalem, was a classical dialogue of the deaf. Sharon sought to coerce the weak Abu Mazen to "destroy the infrastructure of terror", promising in return to "ease Palestinian suffering". Abu Mazen, eager to make substantive progress -- if only to justify the very existence of his government -- asked Sharon how he could possibly crack down on the resistance groups while the PA has no control in the West Bank and very little control in the Gaza Strip. Sharon reportedly didn't bother to listen, insisting with characteristic insolence that the PA first deal with the "effect", meaning the resistance, suggesting that Israel would deal with the "cause" later. Abu Mazen reportedly informed Sharon he would seek to convince the resistance groups to agree to a year-long cease-fire if Israel agreed to reciprocate by withdrawing its occupation forces from Palestinian population centres. To this, Sharon's response was a resounding "NO". According to PA sources, Sharon demanded that the Palestinian government "wage open war on terror", a measure that would certainly spark off civil war among the Palestinians. Predictably, Abu Mazen rejected, though politely, what one Palestinian official labelled as Sharon's "irrational demands". Consistent with his ideological and political views, Sharon wants to throw the ball back into the Palestinian court and blame the Palestinians for thwarting the American-backed "roadmap" which he tacitly rejected. Some Palestinian officials, like veteran negotiator Sa'eb Ereikat, had earlier detected Sharon's real intentions. Ereikat warned Abu Mazen prior to his meeting with Sharon that the Israeli premier had no intention of accepting the roadmap and that he was only trying to outmanoeuvre the Palestinians. "If the Pope will ever cancel the Christmas mass, Sharon will accept the roadmap," Ereikat was quoted as saying. Reacting to Ereikat's public warnings, Abu Mazen decided to exclude him from the meeting with Sharon. Soon afterwards, Ereikat submitted his resignation to Abu Mazen and to Arafat. Ereikat's resignation seems to reflect a growing awareness within the PA that neither Israel nor the United States are really sincere about the roadmap. One PA source has indicated that this awareness is likely to be reinforced in the coming days and weeks as the Bush administration continues to treat Sharon's de facto rejection of the roadmap with utter flaccidity, while continuing to employ "hectoring language" when dealing with the Palestinians. The failure of the Sharon-Abu Mazen meeting, Ereikat's resignation, and the apparent mendacity of Israel's "easing" of Palestinian suffering boomeranged sooner than expected. On Sunday morning, a member of Hamas from Hebron blew himself up aboard an Israeli bus travelling near the northern Jerusalem outskirt of Beit Hanina, killing six Jewish settlers and injuring 15 others. Another simultaneous bombing took place a few miles northward, at Al-Ram Junction, but this time the bomber, also a Hamas guerrilla from Hebron, killed only himself. A fourth bomber rode his bicycle next to an Israeli military jeep in southern Gaza, and then blew himself up, killing and injuring three Israeli soldiers. The fifth bombing took place Monday afternoon when a 19-year-old Palestinian female college student blew herself up at the entrance of a shopping mall, killing herself and three Israelis, including an Arab, and injuring 20 others. Fatah and Islamic Jihad both claimed responsibility for the last bombing. A statement issued by Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martys Brigade said the attack came in retaliation for "continued Israeli atrocities against our men, women and children". In a call to the Agence France Presse office in Jenin, an annonymous caller claimed the attack was carried out by the Islamic Jihad. Arafat and Abu Mazen have strongly condemned the latest bombings in Jerusalem and Affula, reiterating the long-standing PA opposition to attacks targeting Palestinian and Israeli civilians. This however, didn't prevent many of Sharon's ministers, including Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, from demanding the immediate expulsion of Arafat. Sharon reportedly rejected the idea, arguing that this is not the right time to expel Arafat. For his part, Abu Mazen warned that he would immediately resign if Israel expelled the Palestinian leader. Sharon reacted as he always did. He cancelled his scheduled visit to the US and ordered his army to carry out a fresh campaign of repression and collective punishment in the West Bank. And as in the past, the repression, which is expected to be bloody, will most certainly trigger more bombings by Palestinian resistance groups, and vice versa. Some observers in Palestine have been prompted to conclude that the recent bombings are aimed first and foremost at killing the roadmap. However, another assessment suggests that the bombings only highlighted the inherent precariousness of a plan which even the US, not to mention Israel, never showed genuine commitment to its implementation.
