Will to die Vs capacity to kill

NEW YORK— As the killings and suicide bombings continued to escalate in the Israeli-occupied territories last week, a determined Palestinian summed up the ongoing conflict with a telling comment: "Our will to die is far greater than the Israeli capacity to kill."

The 17-month-old guerrilla war against the Israelis has taken a turn for the worse— even as Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned a hastily-summoned Security Council last week that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was now "sliding toward a full-fledged war."

But unfortunately it is not a "war" in the classic sense because it is a one-sided battle with Palestinians fighting against heavy odds— including some of the most sophisticated US-made weapons in the Israeli military arsenal.

The Israelis have deployed US-supplied F-16 fighter planes, combat helicopters, armored personnel carriers, air-to-surface missiles and rocket propelled grenades— all provided gratis as US military grants to counter the continued attacks by Palestinian suicide bombers.

But Israel's battlefield invicibility was shattered by a single incident: the use of explosives to blow up one of Israel's pridest military possessions, the domestically-manufactured Merkava battle tank, described as a symbol of Israeli occupation.

The Palestinians say they are ready to fight a more conventional war if only they are properly equipped for battle. But in reality they have been cut off from all sources of weapons. The only known large shipment of weapons to the Palestinians was intercepted by the Israelis last month.

But as the conflict continues to take a heavy toll on civilians on both sides of the battlefront, the international community has remained paralyzed. The League of Arab States is expected to resurrect a proposal for despatching UN monitors to the West Bank and Gaza in order to keep the peace. But any such resolution will certainly be vetoed by the US as it did on an earlier resolution late last year.

As long as the US continues to stand by Israel— right or wrong— there is nothing the United Nations or even European Union (EU) can do to resolve the conflict.

Annan has called for third party mediation, perhaps even the intervention of the EU, but such efforts are being resisted both by Israel and the US.

Meanwhile, Israeli attacks have also spilled over into UN territory. Peter Hansen, Commissoner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has expressed outrage over the Israeli bombing of Gaza City causing extensive damage to UN offices, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Bank and UNRWA.

Israel, retaliating against a Palestinian attack on one of its military bases in Jerusalem, unleashed its F-16 fighter planes firing deadly air-to-surface missiles at civilian targets.

The bombing, presumably directed at the security headquarters of Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat, also caused substantial damage to the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Terje Roed-Larsen.

Asked how the United Nations can prevent such future attacks, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters: "We can do nothing except use the power of moral suasion."

Israel has been reminded that under international law, the Israeli government is responsible for providing safety and security to international civil servants.

Last month the Israeli army retaliated against the killing of four soldiers by bulldozing dozens of houses in a refugee camp in Gaza. The demolition was described as the largest in over 17 months since the start of the current conflict.

The Israeli terror tactics against Palestinians have also evoked anger among Israeli army reservists.

Last month more than 100 reservists signed a petition refusing to serve in the West Bank and Gaza protesting Israeli policies which, they said, involved "dominating, expelling, starving and humiliating an entire people."

"The price of occupation is the loss of the Israel Defence Forces' semblance of humanity and the corruption of all of Israeli society," the petition said.

The petition has also generated a heated debate in Israel over the legality and morality of using brute force and heavy firepower to fight stone-throwing Palestinians and suicide bombers.

The EU, on the other hand, has expressed anger over the destruction of Palestinian property and infrastructure specially funded with EU aid.

The worst hit by Israeli mortar attacks has been the Gaza airport which has been made inoperable so that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who remains isolated, cannot fly out of the occupied territories. The Israelis have also blown up the headquarters of the Palestine Broadcasting Corporation, thereby destroying some $3.0 million worth of communications equipment donated by Germany, France, Denmark and other EU nations.