Re: “Sharon’s worst enemy is peace,” March 14, 2002,

By Michael Lipton

Editor, the Gauntlet,

Re: "Sharon’s worst enemy is peace," March 14, 2002,

It is unfortunate that Israel and its Prime Minister Ariel Sharon are so erroneously percieved by the western world. Meraj Abedin’s recent article is a prime example of misunderstandings about Israel, its policies and actions. This slanted view of events in the Middle East has perpetuated negative opinions towards Israel.

Abedin praises the recently unveiled Saudi peace proposal by Crown Prince Abdullah. However, what many fail to realize is that the ideas it contains are nothing new. Less then two years ago, then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered a landmark proposal to Yasser Arafat only to be rejected. This proposal, so blithely discarded by Arafat, was quite similar to Prince Abdullah’s plan, offering virtually all of the occupied territories for a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital in exchange for peace. So, why does Abedin accuse Sharon of fearing peace when Arafat rejected the similar Israeli proposal less then two years ago?

The article mentioned that the Saudi proposal called for full and warm diplomatic relations between Israelis and Arabs, with Israeli embassies from Damascus to Rabat. Surely, Abedin realizes that before nations exchange ambassadors, there must be mutual recognition of their existence. Currently, Syria does not recognize Israel’s existence and even the charter of the Palestinian Liberation Organization still calls for the destruction of Israel. How can Israel be expected to negotiate with entities that will not recognize it, or worse, call for its annihilation?

The article also accuses Sharon of running from peace even though he was elected on a platform of peace and security. In fact, Sharon ran for office on a platform of bringing peace with security. How can Sharon and Israel be expected to negotiate with Arafat at the same time as terrorist groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas are permitted by his administration to roam freely and murder innocent Israeli civilians? Even groups affiliated with Arafat, such as the Tanzim and Al-Aqsa Brigade, are unbridled in their terrorism.

Arafat calls on Sharon to end Israeli military strikes against Palestinian targets. Yet, over the weekend of March 23rd, Israel did not respond to three consecutive days of terrorist attacks, and there was still no movement towards peace from Arafat.

It is quite clear that as long as Arafat is the leader of the Palestinian Authority, there will be no peace. A balanced view of the Middle East must recognize this.

Michael Lipton