Israel must stop military attacks -- Akahata editorial, December 19, 2001

Israel's Sharon government has denounced the Palestinian Authority as a
terrorist support group and declared that it would cut off contacts with
Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, thus prosecuting a de facto
war against the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli forces have occupied part
of Palestinian territory, causing heavy casualties to Palestinians.

Israel must stop trying to kill Oslo Accords

Military attacks carried out by the Israeli government will only help to
spoil the way opened by the 1993 Oslo Accords toward peaceful coexistence
and the negotiated settlement of the problem.

Even after President Arafat called for an end to all forms of terrorism
and pledged to crack down on those who act against his call, Israel has not
stopped attacking. This clearly shows that Israel will continue to deny the
Palestinian people's right to national self-determination and impose its
military rule on the Palestinian people.

The present situation is very serious in that the U.N. resolutions which
have defined the basic framework of the settlement of the question of
Palestine and the Oslo accord are being endangered.

In his speech at the December 7 JCP Dietmembers general meeting, Japanese
Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo strongly criticized the
Israeli government for directly targeting the Palestinian Authority in
military attacks by labeling it a terrorist support group. He stated that
the Israeli action amounts to bringing in illegitimacy to international
politics in the name of a response to terrorist attacks.

The JCP strongly demands that the Israeli government relinquish their
policy of trying to destroy the Oslo Accords, and immediately halt military
attacks.

International community must not tolerate illegitimate actions

The Japanese Communist Party has long been calling for a just settlement
of the Palestine question, the right of national self-determination for
Palestinians, including the establishment of an independent state, the
withdrawal of Israeli forces from all occupied territories, and the
establishment of conditions for the peaceful coexistence of the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel recognizing each other's right to
exist and not calling for the destruction of the other.

In the 1970s, there were calls prevailing for the destruction of Israel,
but the JCP rejected them and maintained that Israel's right to exist as a
sovereign state should be recognized. Expressing its clear opposition to
acts of terrorism that indiscriminately kill and injure citizens, the JCP
consistently called for the coexistence of a Palestinian sovereign state and
Israel.

The JCP view has since taken root internationally as the main direction
towards settling the question of Palestine. In 1993 Israel and the PLO
produced the Oslo Accords. Notwithstanding some problems involved, it
called for direct dialogue and mutual recognition of the right to exist.
This is important and is in accord with the JCP position.

The present Israeli military action is intended to undermine the basis of
the Oslo Accords and its positive elements conducive to a settlement. It
amounts to denying the framework for a Middle East peace and leading to a
new Middle East war. The international community will never tolerate
Israel's illegitimate action from the viewpoint of seeking a just
settlement of the question of Palestine and peace in the Middle East and the
rest of the world.

No justification for Israel's acts of war

The U.S. government is backing Israel's outrageous action, which must be
condemned severely. Past U.S. governments always defended Israel on the
question of Palestine. On December 15, the United States vetoed a United
Nations Security Council resolution that called for a monitoring
organization to be established in order to protect the Palestinian people by
preventing violence from taking place between Israel and the PLO.

The Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has declared war on terrorism
just as the United States has done in Afghanistan against international
terrorism. He has used the need to oppose terrorism as a justification for
Israel's military attacks against the Palestinian Authority.

Since September 2000, when the Palestinian situation took a turn for the
worse, the JCP has made its position known, that it is opposed to either
terrorism or military attacks, calls on both sides to show restraint, stop
the cycle of terrorism and retaliation, and put the question on the right
track toward a peaceful settlement. Today, the JCP more strongly maintains
this view. At the same time, the JCP denounces the position of the Israeli
government as untenable because it refuses to acknowledge the existence of
the Palestinian Authority under the pretext that terrorism is emerging and
thus justifies its war against the Palestinian Authority.

The JCP again calls on the Israeli government to immediately stop its
military attacks. (end)