"You can’t fight terrorism with the military,” Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh,
from Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, told the World Dec. 4.
“Israel has tried to do that for 53 years. It’s an example of what not
to do.”

Al-Awda is the largest network of grass-roots activists dedicated to Palestinian
human rights.

Qumsiyeh said the recent suicide bombings and Israel’s military attacks
are “part of the cycle of violence.” The violence is a symptom, he
said, of an underlying cause: the disease of occupation.

The violence in the Middle East reached even more dangerous levels after three
suicide bombings and a shooting by extremists killed 26 Israeli civilians and
injured 200 over the Dec. 1-2 weekend.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon retaliated Dec. 3 with a massive military
response, including firing nine missiles at the offices of the Palestinian National
Authority (PNA) President Yasser Arafat. The military strikes killed two Palestinians
and injured 150. Much of the world has condemned the suicide bombings and cautioned
restraint on the Israeli response.

However, the Bush administration has given the green light to Israel’s
new round of military attacks against the Palestinian people. Israel declared
the PNA a “supporter of terrorism” and unleashed what The Detroit
News called “the second front in the terrorism war.”

The heightened drive to demonize Palestinians and their fight for a homeland
is in lock-step with the Bush administration’s “war on terrorism”
here and abroad. The recent suicide bombings are also being used as an excuse
to clamp down on pro-Palestinian groups in the United States.

The past week’s violence threatens to wreck any hope for a peace effort
and has increased concern that 14 months of violence, which resulted in the
deaths of at least 850 Palestinians and 222 Israelis – many of them children
– is spiralling out of control.

Arafat, speaking to CNN after the air strike on his Ramallah compound, accused
Sharon of trying to undermine his efforts to combat terrorism. Another Palestinain
Authority spokesperson asked how they can be expected to crack down on terrorists
when they are under direct attack by the Israeli Army.

“The Israelis don’t want me to succeed and for this [Sharon] is escalating
his military activities against our people, against our towns, against our cities,
against our establishments,” Arafat said. “He doesn’t want a
peace process to start.”

Sharon is facing genocide and crimes against humanity charges in a Belgian
court for his role in the massacre of several thousand Palestinian refugees
in Beirut in 1982. In Geneva, 100 Geneva Convention countries are meeting to
look into Israel’s violations of the Convention in their treatment of Palestinians.
The U.S. and Israel are both boycotting the meeting.

“This weekend’s attacks in Jerusalem and Haifa are morally unjustifiable
and politically counter-productive, however, these attacks did not occur in
vacuum,” American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) President Ziad
Asali said in a Dec. 3 press release.

“Fourteen months of economic siege, collective punishment and death squad
killings by Israel, resulting in more than 850 Palestinian deaths, including
77 assassinations, and 20,000 injuries have produced an environment of hatred
and violence. These tactics have clearly failed to provide greater security
for Israelis or Palestinians.”

The Bush administration’s actions are in direct opposition to international
and American desires. The ADC called on the U.S. “to direct all their diplomatic
efforts to put an immediate end to the cycle of violence and impress upon the
parties to return to the negotiating table to find a prompt and permanent end
to Israeli occupation and the creation of a fully independent Palestinian state
alongside a secure Israel in internationally recognized borders.”

The ADC also noted that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s recent
declaration that “‘the occupation must end’ should be more clearly
reflected in U.S. policy towards Israel and the Palestinians.”

Dr. Nurit Peled-Elhanan is an Israeli peace activist and recent recipient of
a European Parliament peace award whose daughter, Smadar Elhanan, was killed
by a suicide bomber in September 1997.

“But anyone who can remember back not even one year but just one week
or several hours knows the story is different, that each attack is a link in
a chain of horrific bloody events that extends back 34 years and has but one
cause: a brutal occupation,” she wrote Dec. 1.

“An occupation that humiliates, starves, denies jobs, demolishes homes,
destroys crops, murders children, imprisons minors without trial under appalling
conditions, lets babies die at checkpoints and spreads lies.”

Many religious-based peace organizations, like the American Friends Service
Committee (AFSC), have been working for years on a just peace in the Middle
East. Kathy Bergen, the national coordinator of AFSC’s Middle East peace
program, told the World, “Nothing can condone violence and terrorism.”

Unfortunately, Bergen said, “the U.S. media is not reporting the complete
picture. Referring to the unabated build-up of Jewish-only settlements by Israel,
she said, “There isn’t a level playing field. Violence is also land
confiscation.”

In Bergen’s opinion, “Most people support peaceful negotiations.”

A growing “just peace” movement among Jewish Americans is an important
part of any Middle East peace coalition. Elliott Bat Tzedek, from the Jewish
Mobilization for a Just Peace in the U.S., said the new round of violence is
“heart-breaking.”

“A majority of Israelis – a silent majority – want to end occupation
and have peace, she told the World. “The majority of Palestinians want
a homeland to raise their kids, work and live in peace. Extremists on both sides
prevent that from happening.”

Sarah Staggs, chairwoman of the Communist Party’s peace and solidarity
commission, said, “The American people can pressure the Bush administration
to seriously pursue the peace process.” This demand should include that
Israel stop its attacks and call for a cease fire by all parties, she said.

“Congress should cancel the $7.6 billion military aid package to Israel
until they end the occupation of and halt and dismantle the Jewish settlements
in Palestinian territory,” Staggs added.

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