Editor's Note:
I must admit to weariness. Friends, the news around the
Middle East is almost all terrible news. We read over
100 different essays and articles a week to select the
main selection and then additional readings at the end.
Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Israel - these
are all tinder boxes. Iran may have a bull's eye on
their capital from both Israel and the US. The US just
sold 3000 "smart bombs" to Israel. These may be used
sooner than we think.
Our Arab "friends" in the region like Egypt, Jordan and
Saudi Arabia have domestic unrest that we seldom read
about.
Their governments serve interests other for their own
people. We might have civil unrest in America if people
thought our government served other interests rather
than our people - say interests of: Halliburton, Exxon,
Deutsche Bank - but that is for another day.
Sorry for the rant. Today we have another gem from Amira
Haas.
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And still the occupation - by Amira Haas
The screaming and shouting by opponents of disengagement
and the settlement lobby is creating an image of the
prime minister being a man of the political center.
Their threats and accusations are painting him with the
colors of a persecuted peacemaker, so much so that
kibbutzniks in the north are joining the Likud to help
the man who sprang forth from their very tradition of
farming the land, Ariel Sharon. That may be marginal,
but it says something about the sympathy on that part of
the electorate that regards itself as moderate, and
supports a political compromise with the Palestinians
and a two-state solution.
Support and sympathy from parts of the Israeli peace
camp for the disengagement is a dangerous part of the
plan because it enables Sharon and his partners in his
world view to continue executing their real plan and to
do so without public criticism, without protests,
without effective opposition. Their goal is control over
as much of the West Bank as possible, without Arabs or
with as few Arabs as possible, and the continued
expansion of settlements that separate Palestinian
population centers from each other. In that vision, the
Palestinians are not a nation with national rights over
their land, which is entirely under Israeli control, but
a collection of individual communities, and the Israeli
ruler is preparing a different future for each one of
those communities: two of them, in Gaza and the northern
West Bank, will soon enjoy an Israeli "withdrawal."
Sharon himself has made openly clear his intentions in
the disengagement plan. As he said in the Rosh Hashanah
issue of Yedioth Ahronoth, the disengagement "frees
Israel from pressure to adopt one or another plan that
would have been dangerous for it. I don't see the terror
coming to an end ... [Bush] promised there won't be any
pressure on Israel to accept any plan other than the
road map. And I don't see the Palestinians doing their
part in the road map. It is very possible that after the
evacuation, for a very long period there won't be
anything else ... there has to be a change in
Palestinian strategy, and there is not even the smallest
sign of such a change. Israel will continue its campaign
against terror and will remain in the territories after
the execution of the disengagement."
In other words the essential elements of disengagement
include Sharon counting on Palestinian terror. Moreover,
he is counting on the durability of the prevailing
Israeli view that Palestinian terror has nothing to do
with the occupation policies and the Israeli control
over Palestinian lives. His plan is based on American
support, which will guarantee, despite reservations,
American and European financing. Sharon's plan precludes
any negotiations or even pretense of negotiation over a
permanent political deal with the Palestinians. And
Israel remains in the West Bank, which means the army
remains, along with arrests, checkpoints,
assassinations, settlement expansion, more bypass roads,
subsidies for Jewish settlers, land expropriations, and
deforestation of Palestinian orchards and groves - the
very substance of what many Israelis believe has nothing
to do with Palestinian terror.
Since Sharon's working assumption is that "the terror
will continue," Israel will leave all the existing
security measures around Gaza that exist now, for an
unlimited time. The Strip will remain cut off from the
West Bank. Israel will not only control the border
crossings at Karni and Erez, but also at Rafah. As
exists now, control over the Allenby Bridge will
guarantee that Gazans cannot enter the West Bank though
Jordan. Thus, the freedom of movement for Gazans and
their ability to leave the Strip will remain entirely in
Israeli hands, meaning that freedom of movement will be
severely limited, as will be the freedom of journalists,
diplomats and political activists to enter Gaza.
Israel will guarantee that its merchandise will continue
to flood the Strip, even though Palestinian workers will
no longer be working inside Israel. Israeli control over
freedom of movement will block Gazan products and
produce from reaching West Bank markets - as it does now
- and vice versa. It will deter potential investors, who
have learned the bitter lessons of the Oslo years: the
chances of new industry to succeed depends on freedom of
movement of workers, trainers, engineers, merchandise,
equipment and know-how.
The disengagement, therefore, will not guarantee the
residents of Gaza any recovery out of chronic poverty,
and the main element in the plan is the expectation that
foreign countries will continue to donate money to the
Palestinians. In other words, they will be charitable
organizations that will continue sending food and
medicine.
The disengagement plan will lead to Gazans being
disconnected from the world and the rest of the
Palestinian people. It will create a static market,
retard social and cultural development, and create a
sense of insult for all those who depend on charity.
The Palestinian people will perhaps live in a different
reality, but will regard itself as a nation living under
various forms of Israeli occupation. Therefore, there
won't be any lack of people in Gaza, the West Bank and
the rest of the world who will plan and conduct armed
retaliation against that occupation.
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More Readings about the Middle East
US Troops in Iraq- A growing disenchantment over mission
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0921/p02s02-usmi.htm
Are Neo-Cons Losing Their Grip?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0713/p01s02-usfp.htm
Staying The Course Must Revive Draft- Howard Dean
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/features/2004/09/20/hidden_agenda_a_natio
nal_draft_in_the_future.php
Bush Urges Sharon To End Humiliation of Palestinians
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/480059.html
Pakistan Urges US to Address Israeli-Palestinian Crisis
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/9/88D83F83-8C75-4BA8-80EE-A009A1AB
E0D6.html
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