Exile For The Enemy of Peace?

As fighting between Israelis and Palestinians reaches horrible new heights,many are asking whether the time has not finally come to stop tolerating anintransigent leader who refuses to put an end to the violence. Not that heshould be killed, or even arrested, but wouldn't exile be an appropriateresponse?

The case seems rather compelling. This is not simply an inept leader, but onewhose commission of horrendous atrocities going back many years has been welldocumented. Despite the signing of the Oslo Agreement in 1993, he has in factopposed the accords, believing that only one people -- his own -- is entitled tonational rights in historic Palestine. For many months he has allowed theslaughter of innocent civilians and today he is authorizing the slaughter ofeven more.

Indeed, the case for exiling Ariel Sharon is a strong one.

Yes, I have been referring to the crimes not of Yasser Arafat -- though theseare real too -- but of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. It was Sharon whowas responsible for the massacre of some seventy civilians in the Jordanianvillage of Qibya in 1953. It was Sharon who served as Defense Minister duringthe 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which led to the deaths of 17,000civilians. It was Sharon who an Israeli commission found to bear indirectresponsibility for the killing of hundreds of Palestinians in the Sabra andShitila refugee camps. It was Sharon who has publicly denounced the Oslo Accordsat every opportunity and is determined to block any Palestinian state except onethat is equivalent to a Bantustan, totally dominated by Israel. And it is Sharonwho presides over massive attacks on Palestinians, attacks which, according toreports from international -- and Israeli -- human rights organizations, haveoften involving the use of lethal force against unarmed civilians,extra-judicial assassinations, firing on medical personnel, and the denial ofmedical care to the wounded.

The case is strong, but in fact it would be wrong to focus just on Sharon.The underlying cause of the current crisis is that Palestinians have been deniedtheir basic right of self-determination. They have been forced to endure a cruelIsraeli occupation for thirty-five years. Under both the Labor Party andSharon's Likud, Israeli settlements -- illegal under international law -- havegrown in the Occupied Territories. Under both Labor and Likud, Palestinians havebeen subject to daily oppression and humiliation. And Labor's Shimon Peres ispart of the Sharon government that is today laying siege to Palestinian citiesand refugee camps.

And the responsibility goes beyond Israel. Washington has backed the Israelioccupation with military, economic, and diplomatic support for years. Sharon'spresent ruthless offensive was given a green light by the Bush administrationand is being carried out with U.S. planes, helicopters, and armored vehicles.The press criticizes Bush for his "arms-length" approach to thecurrent crisis, but the problem is not arms length, but arms shipments.

Peace in the Middle East would be enhanced by the exiling of Sharon, Peres,and Bush. In lieu of these admittedly unlikely prospects, the American peopleneed to bring pressure to bear on their government to withdraw its support forthe Israeli occupation.

Stephen R. Shalom teaches political science at William Paterson Universityin New Jersey. Courtesy, Znet