Republican News · Thursday 8 February 2001

[An Phoblacht]

Setting the course for tragedy

John White's outrageous claim last week that nationalists were attacking their own homes is a repugnant reminder of a particular loyalist mindset but it went strangely unreported in the mainstream media.

White, a spokesperson for the UDA-aligned UDP, said it was his belief that nationalists and republicans were responsible for recent attacks in North and East Belfast - attacks perpetrated on their own homes. He accused republicans of staging the attacks in order to cash in on security grants and said that they had nothing to do with the recent split in the UDP.

He said this despite the fact that the first in this recent wave of attacks came just after that aformentioned split.

John White and the UDP know very well what's going on. Loyalist paramilitaries are slapping down nationalist communities that are perceived to be encroaching on `traditional' loyalist territory or are just plain vulnerable. Sectarian attacks are also the tried and tested method whjereby rival loyalist groups flex their muscles to win support and recruits.

But the cynicism and hatred that inspired White's outrageous comments are also sadly evident in the more subtle and finessed strategems of mainstream unionism. Assembly Arts Minister Michael McGimpsey said on Tuesday that his party would maintain its sanctions against Sinn Féin ministers in the absence of IRA decommissioning. He was setting the scene for further hardline antics at the Ulster Unionist Council meeting this Saturday and at their AGM in March.

The silence of the UUP and broad sections of the media has been deafening when it comes to loyalist attacks, although the same sources have ranted incessantly about the decommissioning of silent IRA weapons. It took the gutting of a North Belfast home, 40 attacks on this year, before the onslaught against vulnerable Catholics was taken seriously.

It is only a matter of time before there are fatalities, like the deaths of the three Quinn brothers at Ballymoney that terrible summer of 1998.

d then, of course, the hollow condemnations will flow.

Shame of Sharon

It was bitterly ironic and telling of the Israeli electorate that they chose this week as their new leader the man who is responsible for initiating their latest bout of war with Palestinians.

Four months and 380 deaths after Ariel Sharon's coat-trailing visit to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, he can now look back on his reckless action as the single most dynamic element of his electoral campaign.

But for Sharon this was merely the continuation of a bloody history of genocide. He will always be remembered for his unilateral decision, as Israeli defense minister in 1982, to allow Christian militias to enter the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, in Beirut's southern suburbs, where they massacred 800 Palestinians. While his actions then forced him to resign, Sharon it seems, is now back in business.

The Israeli people have not just opted for increased `security' against the Palestinians, as the papers tend to say, they have also opted for a rejection of the Oslo peace process. This leaves them, and the Palestinians who have suffered their oppression, with the daunting prospect of an intensified conflict.

Sharon's supporters were seen on Tuesday night jubilantly chanting his campaign slogans: ``End of peace process!'' and ``Thank you God for this turnaround!''

The Israelis have now elected a leader with a military past, bloodied by ruthless, genocidal policies against the Palestinian people.

While we all hope that the peace process will resume, the Israelis have made a decision described by Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo as ``the most foolish event in Israel's history''.


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