an Anglican experience of anti-terrorist terrorism

(draw whatever parallels with us on your own)

======================================================
Ross Jones is the former rector of Trinity church in
Tulsa.  He is currently the dean of St. George's
College in Jerusalem.

UPDATE

St. George's College Jerusalem

11 March 2002

If you look at what is happening, these are the worst
of times for The Holy Land.  If you listen to the
shifts in political currents, these are certainly not
the best of times but there are suddenly many signs of
hope.  Let us begin with what has happened.

Gwin and I have friends in Deheishe Refugee Camp in
Bethlehem, a camp that has historically been very low
key in its politics but out of which came the suicide
bomber outside the synagogue on 2 March.  Israel had
already occupied most of Bethlehem, and this took them
into Deheishe.  Since Wednesday night our friends and
their children have been confined to a brother's home
just outside Deheishe in which they took shelter.  No
one can leave home without risking being shot.
Yesterday afternoon the confinement was lifted for one
hour, so people can buy food (and our friends were
without, by then).  Our friend's father died (of
natural causes) Wednesday night, and they were not
even allowed to go to the cemetery to bury him, forced
to bury him in their own back yard.  All men in the
Camp between the ages of 14 and 40 have been ordered
to register (though our friends are not in the Camp at
the moment).  Fearful that the soldiers will trash
their own home inside Deheishe if it stays empty any
longer, wife and daughter this morning are going to
risk walking back and living there.  Husband other
children will remain with outside with his brother.
The family home of the suicide bomber has been
bulldozed.  The hospital in Bethlehem has been closed,
and doctors/ambulances are no longer given access to
the ill or wounded.  There is no indication of any end
to this.

The same story is repeated throughout the West Bank
and Gaza.  Gaza is surely the worst, and Jenin,
Tulkarm, Ramallah, etc.  are at least as bad as
Bethlehem.  Several doctors and two UN guards have
been killed, one even after getting Israeli permission
to visit the hospital.  Checkpoints are closed or
strict everywhere.  Some 150 have been killed in the
last ten days.  The Israeli cabinet met yesterday and
endorsed a widening of the oppression.

Please understand that this is done in the name of
security even as virtually everyone agrees it has the
opposite effect.  The real reason is that Prime
Minister Sharon's support is falling so fast that he
has to do something to satisfy the right wing.  Enter
politics.

This morning Sharon bowed to US pressure and began to
chart a new course, first agreeing to release Arafat
from the house arrest he has been under since
December.  (But where will he go?  His Gaza home and
headquarters were being destroyed even as the release
was being announced.)  Sharon has also accepted the US
demand to drop the requirement of seven days of quiet
before any negotiations.  Two right-wing parties have
threatened withdrawal from the coalition government as
a result, and this morning's paper already contains
speculation that Sharon's tenure as Prime Minister may
be coming to an end.

General Zinni of the United States is scheduled to
arrive (not yet certain, but as early as tomorrow) and
Vice President Cheney later in the week.  secretary of
State Powell has said he would support an American
team to monitor violations by either side of a
cease-fire agreement.  So finally the United States is
exerting muscle here, and that just has to be.  It is
imperative that the monitoring team not be exclusively
American if it is to have credibility.  No one wants
a court where the judge is the opponent's brother.
Yet these are all hopeful signs as the region prepares
both for the Arab Summit in Beirut and for whatever
happens with Iraq.  It is time for the United States
to stop its bellicose talk and for both Israel and
Palestine to stop senseless violence that is suicidal
for all.  Jesus preached "love your enemy", a message
often dismissed by "realists" as naïve because force
is the only language the world understands.  Would
that the final result of all this turmoil be a
reversal of the understanding of realism.  The
realistic truth is that force solves nothing, and only
begets force in return.  May the rest of the world
learn from the Holy Land.

Dean Ross Jones

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