STATEMENT ON THE MIDDLE EAST CRISIS



by the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism

We are pained and outraged at the carnage in the Middle East, which has now claimed over one hundred lives, overwhelmingly Palestinian.  While every death must be mourned, there is absolutely no moral equivalent to Israel's use of  heavy weapons and advanced sniper equipment against largely unarmed civilians.  No rationalization or media spin can justify this one-sided use of force, unprecedented in the history of the region, to vanquish stone-throwers.


WE DEMAND:

1. The US Administration must urgently prevail upon Israel to honor a cease fire, pull back its troops from confrontation points, and end the massacre that its armed forces have been carrying out.

The United States is Israel's one and only patron.  There is no way Israel
can resist even a minimal exertion of US will.  In 1998 Israel received $2.8
billion in economic aid, more than any other country.


2. In view of the now-obvious failure of the US-brokered Oslo peace process, the focus of mediation between Israel and the Palestinians must promptly revert to the United Nations and be carried out according to the terms of the new Security Council resolution (no. 1322, adopted October 7), which incorporates relevant earlier resolutions.

The Oslo Peace Accords were signed by Israel and the PLO in September
1993 after being negotiated secretly under Norwegian auspices.  The Accords
did begin a needed dialogue, but were fatally undermined when the United
States assumed control over the negotiations.  This contributed to a long term
process whereby the US has been drawing responsibility for Middle East issues
out of the hands of the UN, the international authority whose Partition
Resolution of 1947 had provided for two states to be set up in Palestine. 
The Oslo Accords postponed into the indefinite future implementation of UN
Resolutions 242 and 338.  Adopted in 1967 and 1973, these resolutions called
unambiguously for Israel's withdrawal from the Palestinian territories it had
occupied in 1967.  The new Security Council resolution reaffirms these older
resolutions as the basis for "a just and lasting solution" of the conflict.

The Oslo Accords were adopted by negotiating partners severely unequal in
power.  Washington did nothing to maintain a balance in the negotiations. 
This was to prove disastrous for peace; the Israeli Right was emboldened to
warp the negotiations so that the prospects for a sovereign Palestinian state
withered.  The final outcome was intact Israeli control over vanquished
Palestinians, who were to have limited "self rule" within an area carved by
Israeli roads and surrounded by Israeli settlements.  The Palestinians were
left with no state, no capital in East Jerusalem, no adequate access to water
and no right of return for refugees who had been expelled.  The frustration,
humiliation and anger wrought by unemployment, expulsions, home demolitions
and jailing without trial under the occupation finally burst on September 28. 
On that day, Ariel Sharon, organizer a generation earlier of the massacre at the
Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, was allowed by the Barak leadership to venture
with over 1,000 armed police onto Haram al Sharif, an Islamic holy place, to
emphasize Israel's claimed sovereignty over all Jerusalem.  And Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright, alone among world leaders, was unable to condemn this
action or comprehend the explosion of anger by the Palestinians.


3.  There must be an international investigation.  On October 9 Amnesty International called on the UN to "establish urgently an independent international investigation, to include criminal justice experts known for their impartiality and integrity, to investigate all killings of civilians that took place since 29 September in Israel, the Occupied territories and
South Lebanon."  In the context of strong support, we also urge that the scope of the investigation be enlarged to include responsibility for the crisis as a whole.

Finding the truth is essential for ending the conflict and bringing peace
with justice to the peoples of the region.  Accordingly, the emergency summit
on October 17 provided for the US to preside over an investigation.  However,
the US, having demonstrated its bias many times over in the past, is not a
fit arbiter in the new situation.

The National Executive Committee of the CofC urges its members—and activists everywhere--to send this statement to local media, reprint it for distribution at local meetings and discussions, and to publicize this point of view wherever possible. 

Issued: October 20, 2000