Sharon’s paranoia

WHEN a desperate Ariel Sharon opened his mouth three days before the US-led attack on Afghanistan, it was slander made worse by righteous arrogance. That the Israeli leader literally barked up the wrong tree when he accused the US of compromising Israel’s security by ‘appeasing’ his ‘terrorist’ Arab neighbours, was amply clear: The White House did not mince words or lose time in rebutting the insinuation. A nervous Sharon was then hurriedly called upon by his colleagues to tone down his rhetoric. For all its rarity, the bitter exchange of words between Tel Aviv and Washington only proves that it takes someone as myopic and paranoid as Ariel Sharon to doubt what is common knowledge to the rest of the world — that America is the best friend Israel has.

While the bizarre episode exposed the Israelis’ innate sense of persecution and suspicion of even the best of their friends, it also laid bare Sharon’s distorted and dangerous sense of reality. Clearly, the Israeli leader is perversely averse to President Bush courting Arab governments in order to rally support for his military action in Afghanistan. What is worse, Washington’s snub seems to have had no effect on Sharon and his cohorts. Israeli tanks have since rolled deeper into the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and the massacre of innocent Palestinians continues on one contrived pretext or another. The US needs to do more than just snub the Israeli leader, especially at a time when Sharon’s brutal tactics can easily harm American interests in the region. After all, Israel’s state terrorism has been put into sharper focus in the aftermath of the September 11 suicide attacks in the US. It is time Washington bluntly told Sharon what it has been telling the Muslim leaders around the world: ‘You’re either with us or against us.’

Anger on the streets

THE backlash to the US-led attacks on Afghanistan spilled over onto the streets of Pakistan on Monday. The worst affected was Quetta, where frenzied mobs set alight a number of buildings, including the offices of UN agencies, banks and cinemas, and fought pitched battles with the police. One protester was killed during this day-long orgy of violence. On Tuesday, the protests continued with three people shot dead while trying to burn down a police station on the outskirts of Quetta. The other protests across the country, most notably in Peshawar, Karachi, Islamabad and parts of the