Posted on 7-6-2002

Mid-East Bombs Grow Bigger
by Alan Marston

The suicide bombing Wednesday near the northern city of Megido was carried
out by a 16 years old resident of Jenin who was driving an explosives-laden
car in tandem with a passenger bus. The first such attack in 20 months of
bloodshed. The Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility and said the
attack was timed to mark the 35th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast War when
Israel captured the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
Israel again sent tanks into Jenin, on Wednesday and then later into Ramallah.

The debilitated and deliberately weakened Palestinian Authority (PA) headed
by Yassar Arafat is caught, as is the entire Palestinian populace, like a
rat in a trap. Militarily attacked and for years economically starved by
Israel on the basis that any Palestinian, especially the PA is a war enemy,
the racially branded PA is then roundly condemned as being impotent to stop
terrorism against the very Israel that treats them as enemy number one. An
amazing bit of political logos that nevertheless holds the Western world
enthralled. The PA condemned the bombing in a statement that for the first
time underscored it had no advance knowledge of the attack. Palestinian
officials said they were under orders to arrest members of the group.

Like a childs game of tit-for-tat that has been `globalised' way out of its
proper existential context into a murderous war setting, those who see
personal advantage in promoting the complete occupation and subjugation of
Palestine used this latest situation they created to issue more calls for
the army to reoccupy the West Bank and to move against Islamic Jihad
headquarters in the Gaza Strip. Foreshadowing Israeli retaliation, Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon delayed his departure for the United States
after the bombing attack. Sharon was due to leave Thursday for talks in New
York before meeting Bush in Washington on Monday. There has been
`speculation' in Israeli media that another major Palestinian terror attack
would bring the Israeli government to a decision to expel Arafat.
Speculation is one word that could be used, others are `stoking the fire',
a fire that is indifferent to who and what it burns once out of control,
and it is spiralling out of control.

The White House cynically exploited the tragedy to condemn the suicide
attack and then add `it raised questions anew about Arafat's relevance to
the Middle East peace process' - that political logos again. "In the
president's eyes, Yasser Arafat has never played a role of someone who can
be trusted or effective," presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer said.

Wednesday's blast went off at about 7:20 a.m. near Megiddo — the Hebrew
word for Armageddon, scene of the final battle between good and evil in the
Book of Revelations. "In the blink of an eye, I saw a car passing and then
there was an explosion," said Sharon Levinger, a soldier who was in the
front of the bus. Bus driver Mickey Harel, who survived three previous
attacks, said he felt his bus "leap and then turn over." Passengers were
hurled onto the pavement as the bus tumbled; others, including a man and
woman embracing in their final moments, died trapped in the burning
vehicle. Body parts and personal belongings scattered well away from the
bus as rescue workers in white overalls collected human remains. The
soldiers killed in the attack were in their late teens and early 20s.
Thirty-eight other people were hurt, 10 seriously. The attacker was also
killed.

It was the deadliest attack since Israel ended its six-week offensive in
the West Bank last month. The mission underscored the ability of suicide
bombers to strike despite the arrest and killing of many of their number
during and after the Israeli incursion. The attack also came a day after
CIA chief George Tenet met Arafat to press him to carry out reforms that
would make his security apparatus more effective in preventing terror
attacks. Arafat presented a reform plan, but Israeli media reports said
Tenet considered it insufficient. A Palestinian official said Tenet warned
Arafat that if the Palestinian leader did not prevent terror attacks, he
would stand alone in facing Israeli reprisals — an apparent threat that the
United States would give Sharon a freer hand in retaliating.

Anybody who corners and entraps another must face the blind panic so caused.