Cynthia Yacowar-Sweeney is a Montreal-based PR communications professional and a research associate of Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (CIJR). She monitors and comments on Mideast media reports.
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CIA Director George Tenet's ceasefire plan was accepted by the Israelis on June 13th, and hours later by the Palestinians albeit with great reservation. It called for Israel to withdraw its troops to positions held before the outbreak of the Intifada last September, and to lift its siege on the West Bank and Gaza. Done. Israel began pulling back its tanks and troops, dismantled roadblocks, lifted the closure on all cities in the West Bank (except for Hebron and Ramallah, where heavier violence continues), and opened the Rafah border crossing to Egypt and the Allenby bridge to Jordan, allowing Palestinians to travel freely.

It called for Palestinians to confiscate illegal weapons, to stop media incitement that encourages attacks against Israelis, to prevent other Palestinians from attacking Israelis, and to re-arrest Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who were freed from Palestinian jails at the start of the Intifada. Not done. So far, weapons have not been collected. Incitement and attacks continue. And Palestinian leaders have explicitly objected to arresting terrorists, including arch-terrorists Muhammed Def and Abu Hanoud, both of whom continue to plot terrorist attacks.

Marwan Bargouti, Tanzim head in the West Bank, the military offshoot of Arafat's Fatah group, said the ceasefire applies only to areas under total Palestinian control, Area A, and that the Palestinians will "escalate their attacks and the Intifada" in other areas. So we now have a "selective" ceasefire, which legitimizes terrorist attacks in Areas B and C, where the settlements are, and in Israel proper.

And selective ceasefire violations continue. Palestinians managed to get in some last-minute killings immediately before and after the ceasefire agreement. A Greek monk was murdered in a drive-by shooting near Jerusalem the night before the ceasefire was to take effect. And an Israeli intelligence officer was shot and killed in the West Bank the first day the ceasefire officially began. A 12-year old Palestinian boy was also shot dead late Saturday in Gaza - by Palestinian fire, contrary to Palestinian reports.

Mortar and bomb ceasefire attacks continue on Jewish communities in Gaza and the West Bank. And IDF positions are being bombarded by heavy gunfire, grenades and firebombs. Fifteen firebombs were hurled at an IDF position in Hebron last Thursday, and hundreds of Palestinian rioters threw rocks at IDF forces while tearing down security fences. Fifty grenades were hurled at an IDF outpost on the Israeli-Egyptian border on Sunday. And the largest explosive package ever assembled during this Intifada detonated in Gaza that same day. More bombs, mortars and drive-by-shootings on Monday, leaving two Israelis dead on the West bank. Early that morning, several pipe bombs hidden in a motorcycle bin were discovered, along with three more in the same area of Haifa. Bombs in Hadera, and still more Israelis killed.

Despite all these selective ceasefire violations, West Bank Palestinian Security Chief Jibril Rajoub said on Monday that Palestinians have observed Arafat's call for an end to violence: "I was surprised with the way that the Palestinian people did respect the cease-fire". And Arafat has asked Powell on Sunday to force Israel to keep its ceasefire commitments. Something is not right.

Arafat has violated dozens of ceasefire agreements in the past. Why should he honor this one, which obligates Arafat to the same conditions he has already transgressed at Oslo, Wye, Camp David and Sharm el-Sheikh? An Arab woman in Ramallah said on Saturday that "Arafat shouldn't have accepted the deal. Either he gets everything or nothing." That's what Hanan Ashrawi, PA spokesperson, said a few years ago, that "we are not like the Jews, we are an all-or-nothing people." She was referring to the Palestinian rejection of a homeland. They had a chance to obtain statehood three times, but rejected the 1937 Peel Partition Plan, the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan, and Barak's offer at Camp David last July. Why? Because these plans included a Jewish homeland as well. And that is what this wave of violence is all about, the Palestinian refusal to recognize a Jewish State. When will Arafat stop pretending he wants peace?

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