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.
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