Calling the shots

Sharon applauded the "great accomplishments" of his army during its re-conquest of the West Bank. Now he expects total surrender, writes Graham Usher from Jerusalem
On 23 April Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reversed an earlier decision and announced Israel would not now cooperate with a UN fact-finding team authorised by the Security Council to investigate what happened in Jenin refugee camp.
Israel, said Sharon, was unhappy with the team's composition as well as with the remit that it would investigate incidents in other West Bank cities during Israel's recent military offensive.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed on Wednesday to postpone the dispatch of the team for 48 hours to look into Israel's "concerns." The only explanation for this delay is "US pressure," said Palestinian Authority Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdel-Rahman.
The Palestinian leadership had initially welcomed the decision to send a fact-finding team despite anger over the limitation of its brief. It was seen as a "first step" leading to a fully-fledged enquiry empowered to investigate possible war crimes committed by the army during the camp's invasion.
At the very least the team would highlight that many of the army's acts were in breach of humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions on the protection of civilians in combat areas. These include denial of medical treatment to the injured, mass and arbitrary detentions and wanton destruction by air and ground of Palestinian civilian properties in the camp.
It would also lend weight to Annan's call last week for a multi-national force to be sent to the occupied territories to police a ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal and ensure humanitarian access to Palestinians currently at the mercy of the Israeli army.
On 21 April Sharon had said a fact- finding mission was the "least objectionable option available to Israel." He now appears to prefer no independent examination of his army's actions inside Jenin camp.
A similar rejectionism is apparent in his stances to Israel's siege of Yasser Arafat's presidential compound in Ramallah and the simmering stand off between soldiers outside and Palestinians within the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem.
On Tuesday Palestinian Preventive Security Chief Mohamed Dahlan said the PA would try four Palestinians accused by Israel of assassinating Israeli Minister Rehavam Zeevi last October once the siege on Arafat's compound was lifted.
In December this had been Sharon's position. No longer. Today he insists that the four -- together with PA financier Fuad Shubaki, allegedly involved in an arms shipment to Gaza -- be transferred into Israeli custody. Arafat told US Secretary of State Colin Powell that he would prefer martyrdom to extradition, said Dahlan.
This may happen. Israel is threatening that if the transfer of suspects does not occur soon it will storm the compound and arrest the five men, who are reportedly housed in rooms near Arafat.
Sharon is no more flexible over the crisis in Bethlehem, now into its 24th day. Amid worsening conditions within the church, and under inordinate international pressure exerted mainly on the Palestinian leader, there have been three Palestinian-Israeli meetings to work out a pacific solution. They have got nowhere.
Israel is insisting on the right to interrogate all 200 Palestinians within the church and either imprison or permanently exile the around 30 fugitives among them. The Palestinians are offering a solution where the fugitives would go to Gaza and be tried there "under international auspices."
Finally, in a video conference address to (American Israeli Political Affairs Committee) AIPAC in Washington on Tuesday, Sharon laid down his road to peace in the Middle East. It consists of a ceasefire, a long term interim agreement or armistice with the Palestinians and finally a permanent agreement based on a definition of borders and full normalisation with the Arab world. These borders and relations would be based on Israel's vital security needs.
Most Palestinians would see such a future as surrender. Which may explain Sharon's present tactics over Jenin and in Ramallah and Bethlehem.
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