On April 22, an Israeli armored column destroyed 13 homes in a second Gaza city, Rafah. In the West Bank, armored vehicles and helicopter gunships laid siege to a house in Tulkarm before troops broke in and shot dead the alleged local leader and two members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group affiliated with the Fatah organization of Palestinian Authority (PA) president Yasir Arafat. Three other brigade members were killed two days later in a raid in Jenin. Israeli officers claimed those they killed were preparing a suicide attack inside Israel.

Taking a step the Palestinian leadership had resisted up till now, on April 22 Arafat instructed 20 members of the brigade to vacate the Ramallah headquarters of the PA in an attempt to deprive Israeli officials of a pretext to attack the compound. In an interview broadcast the next day, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that in his recent meeting with U.S. president George Bush in Washington, “I told the president the following: ‘In our first meeting about three years ago, I accepted your request not to harm Arafat physically….’ I told him I understand the problems surrounding the situation, but I am released from that pledge.” U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell claimed that Bush “firmly believes that he has a commitment from Prime Minister Sharon that no such attempt [on Arafat’s life] will be made.”

Tel Aviv has assassinated more than 150 Palestinian leaders since September 2000. Helicopter gunships murdered Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin March 22, and Yassin’s successor Abdel Aziz Rantisi four weeks later. The Palestine Media Center said that the Beit Lahiya rocket attacks were an act of revenge for Rantisi’s killing, which had earlier sparked protests by thousands of Palestinians.

The Israeli offensive against Beit Lahiya, Rafah, Tulkarm, and other Palestinian centers came a week after Bush announced his support for Sharon’s so-called disengagement plan, under which Tel Aviv would expand Israel’s official borders to include major West Bank settlements. The proposal also includes the withdrawal of 7,500 Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip, a step that would rid Tel Aviv of a major “security” headache, while leaving it in control of the impoverished area’s airports, land borders, and seaport. Sharon has repeatedly stressed Tel Aviv’s intention to continue conducting military assaults throughout Palestinian territories to “defend Israel’s security.”

Seeking to make the most of his political victory, Sharon told the Israeli parliament April 22 that Palestinians view Bush’s statement as “the heaviest blow inflicted on them since the War of Independence”—the Zionist name for the 1947-48 assaults that set up the Israeli state. “Since the establishment of the state, we have not received such vast and staunch political support,” he crowed.

Sharon made it clear that he intends to drive the plan through with or without majority support in the right-wing Likud Party that he leads. A poll published April 22 indicated that 44 percent of party members would vote for the plan right now, and 40 percent would vote against. Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is one of the key Likud figures to back Sharon, citing Washington’s support as the decisive factor. “Whoever wishes to prevent the flooding of Israel with refugees, whoever wishes to keep the large Israeli settlement blocs under our control forever…must support the Disengagement Plan,” Sharon said.

The previous day, Bush stated that “Sharon came to America and he stood up with me and he said, ‘We are pulling out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank.’ In my judgment, the whole world should have said, ‘Thank you, Ariel. Now we have a chance to begin the construction of a peaceful Palestinian state.’”

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry also endorsed the plan, and has sought to outdo his Republican rival in presenting himself as an unswerving ally of Tel Aviv against the Palestinians. “I support the building of the security fence” he said April 23, referring to the 400-mile wall being constructed around and into the West Bank that will shut the majority of the Palestinian population off from 58 percent of the territory.  
 
 
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