Death grip
A hard-hitting new book by two mainstream Israeli journalists blames both Sharon and Arafat for the bloody stalemate that grips the Holy Land.

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By Aluf Benn

Oct. 6, 2004 | TEL AVIV, Israel --

Has the Israeli-Palestinian catastrophe been inevitable? A new book (in Hebrew), "The Seventh War: How We Won and Why We Lost the War With the Palestinians," depicts the crisis as a tragedy of mutual miscalculations, lost opportunities and overreacting. The authors, Amos Harel, the military correspondent of Haaretz newspaper, and Avi Isacharoff, the Arab affairs correspondent of Israel's state-owned radio network, have covered the conflict from its first day, when Sharon, then opposition leader, visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the holiest, most contested site in the embattled land, prompting wide-spread Palestinian demonstrations. For the book, they interviewed a wide range of ministers, commanders and warriors on both sides, including jailed Palestinian ringleaders who had sent suicide bombers on their murderous missions. However, rich as it is with details and analysis of what went wrong, their book offers no clue to what could have been done to lead the duelers out of their self-created morass.

Harel and Isacharoff blame both sides. They reject the official Israeli narrative, which charges Arafat with planning and launching the intifada after rejecting Israel's "generous offer" at the failed Camp David summit of summer 2000. They write that Israel failed to produce "convincing evidence" that Arafat "gave instructions to pour fuel on the fire," or evidence linking him directly to suicide attacks on Israelis. But they have few positive words for the Palestinian leader. "When Sharon came atop the Temple Mount and the riots erupted, the Rais [Arafat] seized the opportunity. He made no effort to halt the violence, and quickly contributed to its spreading. In later stages, he lost control over the terror offensive, but it hasn't bothered him, as long as the blame could be put on Israel, and as long as no unreasonable concessions, in his view, were imposed upon him."

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