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April 19,
2003
Sharon's Bloody
War Beat
When
the Drum is Louder than the Orchestra
by
OMAR BARGHOUTI
There is something terribly wrong in this picture!
A new game in town has become the latest
craze. Almost everyone seems to accept its rules, and enjoy playing
it accordingly.
The Palestinian Authority considered
it a triumph. The wimpy Russian and European governments welcomed
it as a belated adoption of their vision. And the ever so servile
Kofi Annan hailed it as an embodiment of new diplomatic thinking
from Washington, finally substituting a multilateral process
for an entrenched, decades-old unilateral approach to "resolving"--or
managing--the Arab-Israeli conflict. The extremist right-wing
government of Israel could not hide its glee, despite its public
grumbles about it.
The subject of all this frenzy is a new
creature called the Quartet. It comprises the United States (playing
the drum, and acting-maestro), the European Union (playing the
violin), Russia (trying to play the flute) and, yes, the United
Nations (playing the maestro's baton), in their respective order
of relevance, and it aims at tackling the conundrum, otherwise
called Middle East peace.
Seriously, now, the mere fact that the
UN should be relegated to the status of a junior partner with
two states--one and a half, really--and a collection of states
is a telling sign of the newest world order, where the international
organization--by definition, an umbrella that should be above
the three others--instead of leading the efforts to resolve the
age-old conflict in the region, according to the precepts of
international law, is being herded by a rope, a tight one at
that, and is forbidden from even barking when scolded for stepping
out of line.
A non skeptic might protest: what matters
is what the Quartet actually does, not its composition, or who
leads whom. Let us for the sake of argument grant the validity
of this pragmatic attitude. In other words, let's accept--for
now--that the recently throned American Empire is entitled to
command even the union of nations of which it is ostensibly a
mere member, and focus on that "team's" actions instead.
Well, the Quartet's first sonata was
to draft a so-called roadmap aimed at bringing peace to the Middle
East, by showing both parties how to get "there" from
here. Of course, no one agrees on quite where "there"
might be, but who cares? We were told about this draft in the
media, but hardly anyone really saw it. Since then, everyone
has been literally begging the US president--who?--to publish
that document in order to launch the negotiation process. "Why
the US president?", a semi-intelligent observer might ask?
"Shouldn't Kofi do the honours? He is, after all, the most
senior of all four players." He is, theoretically speaking.
But why get bogged down in such superficial detail? Let's focus
on the big picture, we are urged. Ok. Let's.
Regardless who ought to decide on the
date and manner of publication of this miraculous map--it is
sounding more like a faintly legible map to some treasure in
the Twilight Zone--why has it been delayed to this extent. Isn't
the situation between the Palestinians and Israelis pressing
enough to grant a prompt international involvement? Depends whom
you ask.
First, Sharon lobbied to delay the publication
until after the Israeli elections. Bush et al immediately accepted
that wise suggestion. When election day was behind us, though,
Sharon asked for another delay until after the new Israeli government
has been formed. Of course, that makes sense. For how can the
venerable Quartet sell its stuff without having a stable party
representing Israel on the other side of the table. And after
the most fanatical right-wing government to ever lead Israel
was sworn in, the whole circus was preempted--sorry, no better
term to use here--by the War on Terror: The Sequel. With everyone
busy planning, executing or protesting that, no one really had
the energy or resources to engage in deciphering thorny roadmaps.
Have some faith, please! Eventually,
we shall be blessed with the disclosure of this jewel.
Whenever the US president feels perfectly
focused--as if that were at all possible--and ready, he will
announce its contents. And each of the other members of the orchestra
will play along in impeccable harmony. Except, the thundering
thumps of the US drum will humble the rest of the pitiful orchestra.
And if we listen acutely enough we may well hear echoes of a
drum-beat that we've heard before. A relentlessly abrasive, repressive,
dominating beat that we grew sick of hearing. Only then shall
we recognize that we've been duped. It is Sharon's bloody war-beat,
fixed, mixed, carefully filtered, equalized, recycled, and marketed
to us as a genuine Vivaldi.
Omar Barghouti
is a Palestinian political analyst. His article "9.11 Putting
the Moment on Human Terms" was chosen among the "Best
of 2002" by the Guardian.
He can be reached at jenna@palnet.com.
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