Monday, September 12, 2005
The Fires of Gaza
The culmination of the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was followed - almost immediately - by the burning of the synagogues left behind in the deserrted settlements.
At the eleventh hour, the Israeli government had decided that it would not demolish these buildings; this decision followed an emotional appeal to the cabinet by a panel of rabbis. The synagogues were entrusted to the tender mercies of the Palestinian Authority.
In so doing, Ariel Sharon showed that he still knows how to play the Palestinians.
Five years ago, Sharon's walk on the Temple Mount helped set into motion the destruction of the peace process. He has been accused of intending this all along, but he could only have achieved this with the witting or unwitting assistance of the Palestinians. Arafat took the bait, embraced the uprising like a long-lost relative, and never really looked back. He died four years later, the stir-crazy inmate of his own gilded prison. Sharon managed to fire both the first and the last shots.
Abandoning the synagogues gives the world the image of gleeful Palestinians destroying holy sites. It may be argued that these were the holy sites of settlers - a group not particularly liked in the West - but the image remains. Sharon values Gaza much less than he does the settlement blocs of the West Bank or the city of Jerusalem. Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's feeble defence of the arson - that there weren't synagogues, only abandoned unsafe buildings - will not help his hand.
The willful complicity of the Palestinian Authority in acts of desecration undermine its case for sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the case that it could respect other holy sites in the West Bank. The destruction of Joseph's Tomb in 2000 already made that clear, the Gaza burnings reconfirm it. Hamas and the PA have willfully traded a bargaining chip for the joys of destruction. It isn't the first time and it's not likely to be the last.
At the eleventh hour, the Israeli government had decided that it would not demolish these buildings; this decision followed an emotional appeal to the cabinet by a panel of rabbis. The synagogues were entrusted to the tender mercies of the Palestinian Authority.
In so doing, Ariel Sharon showed that he still knows how to play the Palestinians.
Five years ago, Sharon's walk on the Temple Mount helped set into motion the destruction of the peace process. He has been accused of intending this all along, but he could only have achieved this with the witting or unwitting assistance of the Palestinians. Arafat took the bait, embraced the uprising like a long-lost relative, and never really looked back. He died four years later, the stir-crazy inmate of his own gilded prison. Sharon managed to fire both the first and the last shots.
Abandoning the synagogues gives the world the image of gleeful Palestinians destroying holy sites. It may be argued that these were the holy sites of settlers - a group not particularly liked in the West - but the image remains. Sharon values Gaza much less than he does the settlement blocs of the West Bank or the city of Jerusalem. Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's feeble defence of the arson - that there weren't synagogues, only abandoned unsafe buildings - will not help his hand.
The willful complicity of the Palestinian Authority in acts of desecration undermine its case for sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the case that it could respect other holy sites in the West Bank. The destruction of Joseph's Tomb in 2000 already made that clear, the Gaza burnings reconfirm it. Hamas and the PA have willfully traded a bargaining chip for the joys of destruction. It isn't the first time and it's not likely to be the last.
