The Israeli Communist Forum reiterates its firm condemnation of the aggressive policies of the government of Israel, which in the past month considerably widened the scope of its military, political and economic offensive against the Palestinian people. Its operations included a prolonged re-occupation of Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, accompanied by the killing and wounding of many inhabitants (most of them boys and children) and depriving the population of elementary existential rights. The closure and sieges are tightened to the point of starvation, accompanied by intensified humiliations and mistreatment of those forced to go through military checkpoints. In addition to all these, the government recently adopted a series of far-reaching political decisions concerning the Palestinian Authority and its president Yasser Arafat. Altogether, these decisions amount to the public and official renunciation of any further effort to resume negotiations with the Palestinians - or even the pretence of it. Not only are negotiations on a definite solution to the conflict ruled out - so are even talks about a cease-fire, or discussions of the modalities for resuming substantive negotiations.

In our earlier statements (for example, the one of October 26) we repeatedly warned that the government's policies, such as the systematic "liquidations", may exact a heavy toll of bloodshed - not only from the Arab Palestinian people, but also from innocent Israeli civilians. And indeed, in the past weeks suicide bombing attacks within the territory of Israel left dozens of inhabitants dead or severely wounded. We firmly condemn these attacks and are strongly opposed to any harming of innocent civilians. At the same time, we reiterate that the overall responsibility for the worsening situation and the increased bloodshed lies upon the government of Israel. It is the government's unprecedented acts of oppression - and its denial of any option of a political solution - which are pushing an increasing number of Palestinians into despair, thus creating a breeding ground for the terrorist masterminds of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Therefore, the way to end terrorism and stop the bloodshed is primarily by ending Israeli state terrorism, and more fundamentally - by ending the occupation.

While condemning terrorism we once again reject the assertion that opposing the occupation and struggling against it constitute terrorism in themselves. On the contrary, it is the right of the Arab Palestinian people to conduct a struggle against the occupation and for the implementation of its just national rights - in particular, the right to create an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the '67 borders, including in Jerusalem, and the right for a just solution to the refugee problem in accordance with UN resolutions.

The obstacle to the achievement of a just peace is the policy of the government of Israel, which foils every attempt at negotiations and strives to perpetuate the occupation. The Palestinian side has many times expressed its willingness to reach an agreement on the above-mentioned basis. In this context we welcome the December 16 speech by Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestinian Authority, in which he called for resumption of the negotiations, expressing clear objection to terrorist attacks and to suicide bombings in particular.

We condemn the resolution of the government's inner cabinet, taken this week, in which Arafat was declared "irrelevant". The practical effect is to stop any kind of dialogue or talks with the Palestinian people. During the 34 years of the occupation there were many attempts to destroy the authorized and recognized leadership of the Arab Palestinian people, the PLO, and replace it by collaborators of various stripes. All these attempts ended with utter failure. So it was in 1982, when Begin and Sharon launched the Lebanon War in an attempt to liquidate the Palestinian problem and destroy the leadership headed by Arafat. The futile attempts to bring about a violent military solution of the Palestinian problem had no other result than the loss of many Jewish and Arab lives. So will it be this time, too, if the same Sharon manages to drag all of us into an new cycle of bloodshed for the sake of his nationalist aspirations.

It was the United States which in 1982 gave Sharon the green light to launch the bloody invasion of Lebanon. Nowadays it is the United States which takes a biased stance, more openly biased than ever before, in favor of the Israeli governmental policies, thereby encouraging the aggressive policies and bearing a considerable part of the responsibility for the escalating situation. Also some statements by the leaders of the European Union had a negative effect. They played down the Israeli government's aggression, and presented the terrorist attacks which were the result of this aggression - and which do deserve to be condemned - as if they were the source of the problem rather than one of its effects.