While Bush, Sharon, and Abu Mazen were toasting peace in Aqaba, US-made Israeli tanks rolled into Palestinian villages and bulldozers continued to demolish Palestinian homes and offices. Israeli snipers continue to pick off Palestinian youth. The relentless construction of "security" highways, housing developments, and military outposts - all designed to further dismember the West Bank and render it economically unviable-has continued unabated. Sharon's "apartheid wall," that separates Palestinian villagers from their agricultural fields - and creates a legal pretext for the confiscation of their land - continues to snake southward. Israeli plans for the construction of maquiladora-type sweatshops between the wall and the '67 borders remain in place. Tens of thousands of Palestinian workers are still prevented from going to their jobs in Israel by closures, curfews, checkpoints, and direct military siege. Official unemployment in the occupied territories remains at over 50%.

The Cost of the Occupation Inside Israel

The Israeli government is implementing a neo-liberal austerity plan that cuts social benefits while allocating greater funds for the occupation. In response, public workers mobilized in May for a general strike against these austerity measures - and conducted the largest demonstration against social cutbacks in their history. This fight-back, along with the anti-war sentiments of working-class youth forced to fight in the territories, may soon weaken the hold of the Israeli state on the hearts and minds of workers. That Israel's rulers fear such a shift in sentiment is made evident by a recent escalation in their harassment of peace activists.Israeli employers are attempting to prevent the development of working class unity by crude policies of divide and rule. Near the bottom of the economic ladder are the Palestinian and other Arab workers who live inside Israel, and the "foreign" workers whom Israeli employers are recruiting to replace them. While discriminating against Israeli Arabs in hiring, employers have brought in over 200,000 workers from Romania, Thailand, China, and other impoverished parts of the globe. These workers slave for sweatshop wages and hours, undermining the standard of living for all