Devastation Only Feeds
Resistance to Israeli Rule

Not only has Israel been allowed to prevent a United Nations investigation into serious allegations of war crimes in Jenin by Israeli troops, it has placed Yasser Arafat in a daunting position. He is now seen to have benefited, personally and politically, from the exchange of his freedom for the truth.

In a deal that shocks the conscience, the United States reportedly agreed to shield Israel from action by the U.N. Security Council to enforce its resolution to send a fact-finding team to discover the truth about what happened in the devastated Jenin camp. This was in exchange for lifting the siege on Arafat's compound in Ramallah.

Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have just issued reports accusing Israeli forces of committing serious war crimes in Jenin. These partial and preliminary findings may be the last serious attempts to discover the facts.

Israel, it would seem, is once again to be the exception, shielded by the United States from the enforcement of international law and norms of conduct, allowed to defy any number of U.N. Security Council resolutions with impunity. Since Arafat has become implicated in this exchange as a direct beneficiary, some of the public outrage will inevitably rest on his shoulders. Preferring to change the subject, some official Palestinian rhetoric already has shifted from the "massacre at Jenin" to the "heroic resistance at Jenin."