Israel divides and rules
ciof.s | 06.07.2007 23:19 | Palestine | London
During the past half century the search for a pacific solution to the Palestine question has been no more then a fake trail laid down by the old Zionist plan of an Eretz that includes all of the West Bank.
The old plan is doing well: By this year only 22 per cent of the original Palestine remains in Palestinian hands.
So, why then are we subjected periodically to the charade of a solution?
The old plan is doing well: By this year only 22 per cent of the original Palestine remains in Palestinian hands.
So, why then are we subjected periodically to the charade of a solution?
Israel divides and rules
By Uli Schmetzer
www.uli-schmetzer.com
July 4, 2007 - During the past half century the search for a pacific solution to the Palestine question has been no more then a fake trail laid down by the old Zionist plan of an Eretz that includes all of the West Bank.
The old plan is doing well: By this year only 22 per cent of the original Palestine remains in Palestinian hands.
So, why then are we subjected periodically to the charade of a solution?
The answer is simple: International public opinion must be primed periodically to believe Israel is seriously looking for an end to the hostilities when in fact it is not and more likely never was – unless on its own terms.
The latest offer in this public relations exercise is a debate between venerable Jewish academics and just as venerable Jewish peaceniks whether the solution to the impasse is one Israeli-Palestinian State along the lines of South Africa or a two State-two People system along the lines of the breakaway Russian republics.
These hypothetical equations conveniently forget the recent inter-Palestinian civil war has left us with the problem today of TWO Palestinian States and ONE Israel.
In fact any debate on Palestinian statehood is just another futile exercise in rhetoric and public hoodwinking to hide ‘the plan.’ For a start the Palestinians have no ambition (yet) to be second-rate citizen in a united Israel-Palestine and the Israelis are well aware in an envisaged joint democracy the fast-growing ‘Arab’ population would soon outvote the Jewish population.
The split between Hamas (Gaza) and Fatah (West Bank) has further favored the current status quo in which hardliners pursue their only viable solution to the conflict: Permanent war. After all war is the essence of survival for the give-no-quarter cliques on both sides. Each side conveniently labels the other ‘terrorist.’
Ever since the six-day war Israel has notched up one victory after another in their quest to realize the old Zionist plan known among the old ideologues as Greater Israel. The latest, a truly Machiavellian achievment, was to drive a cleft through Palestinian solidarity, managing to divide the uncompromising Hamas Islamic fundamentalists from the more pragmatic, secular and more business-orientated Fatah movement of the Palestinian Authority.
The scheme began years ago when Israel covertly funded religious Islamic schools, the madrassas which became the incubators and cradles of Hamas. At the same time the Jewish State escalated its pressure on the Palestinian population with raids, checkpoints and collective punishments, among them the demolition of homes, the bulldozing of vital orchards and olive groves and constant arrests of ‘subversive elements” the moment Palestinians retaliated with suicide attacks or sniper fire on settlers.
At the same time hawkish Jewish Prime Ministers like Ariel Sharon encouraged more Jewish settlers to claim parts of Palestinian territory. These acquisitions, known as settlements or outposts, were then protected by the Israeli military since they had obviously become targets for Palestinian outrage and retaliation.
Hamas thrived in this ‘war against occupation’ atmosphere as a resistance force able to provide weapons, social services and religious fervor thanks to donations and support from sympathizers abroad. Israeli air raids against Hamas strongholds and the assassination of Hamas leaders further raised the bellicose and religious profile of the fundamentalists and eroded the already dubious reputation of a secular Fatah, denounced as the militant wing of a ‘corrupt’ Palestinian Authority.
The final blow was the outbreak of a civil war in the Gaza Strip last month between Hamas fighters dominant in the Gaza and Fatah fighters dominant in the West Bank but determined to maintain the Palestinian Authority’s jurisdiction in the Gaza.
Israel reacted as expected: It virtually caged the Gaza population closing all doors to destinations abroad as well as to the West Bank, so cutting off Hamas territory. Gaza can not survive without humanitarian aid from outside.
Life in the Gaza Strip has become hell with acute food, medicine and shortages of all essential goods. This plight was probably one reason why Hamas orchestrated the release of BBC correspondent Alan Johnson this week. He was kidnapped four months ago by a shady Gaza clan almost certainly linked to Hamas. The release was an obvious gesture to covet international pressure for Israel to ease its vice-like grip on the Strip.
While Gaza suffers the other Palestine, the West Bank, was recovering as Israel, surprise, surprise, released aid shipments and an initial $118 million ‘frozen’ dollars to pay the 170,000 employees of the Palestinian Authority who had not seen a salary in 17 months.
The message to the Palestinian population was clear: Drop Hamas and we will make life more comfortable for you.
Of course these small gestures of benevolence did not curb old habits.
This month Israeli settlers from the West Bank outpost of Adei Ad uprooted 300 trees from the land of a Palestinian farmer and replanted some of them as decoration along the entrance to their own outpost. This prompted even Israeli commentators to the unusual admission the West Bank has become a Wild West where the Israeli military cohorts with settlers in daily transgressions of the law, a part of Palestine where bulldozers and tanks work in constant symbiosis to expand the power of the settlers and diminish the rights of the natives.
Obviously the majority of Israelis would like to see a peace accord of some kind but at the moment those calling the shots in this disputed land are a fanatic minority, people like Joel Shwartz who told an Israeli daily: “All of Eretz belongs to the Jewish people. All the olive trees. All the shrubs all the blades of grass are ours…..”
More embarrassing even was a Knesset (parliament) study that revealed Israel pays slave wages to the 18,000 Palestinian workers employed in Israeli settlements and factories on the West Bank. Their wages were found to be less then half the minimum wage stipulated by Israeli law.
The study also found the Palestinian workers had not health insurance, no accident insurance and no superannuation.
All this augurs badly for a solution that would set aside any part of old Palestine for the Palestinians or give them a fair deal in a One Nation Two People State.
Ends
By Uli Schmetzer
www.uli-schmetzer.com
July 4, 2007 - During the past half century the search for a pacific solution to the Palestine question has been no more then a fake trail laid down by the old Zionist plan of an Eretz that includes all of the West Bank.
The old plan is doing well: By this year only 22 per cent of the original Palestine remains in Palestinian hands.
So, why then are we subjected periodically to the charade of a solution?
The answer is simple: International public opinion must be primed periodically to believe Israel is seriously looking for an end to the hostilities when in fact it is not and more likely never was – unless on its own terms.
The latest offer in this public relations exercise is a debate between venerable Jewish academics and just as venerable Jewish peaceniks whether the solution to the impasse is one Israeli-Palestinian State along the lines of South Africa or a two State-two People system along the lines of the breakaway Russian republics.
These hypothetical equations conveniently forget the recent inter-Palestinian civil war has left us with the problem today of TWO Palestinian States and ONE Israel.
In fact any debate on Palestinian statehood is just another futile exercise in rhetoric and public hoodwinking to hide ‘the plan.’ For a start the Palestinians have no ambition (yet) to be second-rate citizen in a united Israel-Palestine and the Israelis are well aware in an envisaged joint democracy the fast-growing ‘Arab’ population would soon outvote the Jewish population.
The split between Hamas (Gaza) and Fatah (West Bank) has further favored the current status quo in which hardliners pursue their only viable solution to the conflict: Permanent war. After all war is the essence of survival for the give-no-quarter cliques on both sides. Each side conveniently labels the other ‘terrorist.’
Ever since the six-day war Israel has notched up one victory after another in their quest to realize the old Zionist plan known among the old ideologues as Greater Israel. The latest, a truly Machiavellian achievment, was to drive a cleft through Palestinian solidarity, managing to divide the uncompromising Hamas Islamic fundamentalists from the more pragmatic, secular and more business-orientated Fatah movement of the Palestinian Authority.
The scheme began years ago when Israel covertly funded religious Islamic schools, the madrassas which became the incubators and cradles of Hamas. At the same time the Jewish State escalated its pressure on the Palestinian population with raids, checkpoints and collective punishments, among them the demolition of homes, the bulldozing of vital orchards and olive groves and constant arrests of ‘subversive elements” the moment Palestinians retaliated with suicide attacks or sniper fire on settlers.
At the same time hawkish Jewish Prime Ministers like Ariel Sharon encouraged more Jewish settlers to claim parts of Palestinian territory. These acquisitions, known as settlements or outposts, were then protected by the Israeli military since they had obviously become targets for Palestinian outrage and retaliation.
Hamas thrived in this ‘war against occupation’ atmosphere as a resistance force able to provide weapons, social services and religious fervor thanks to donations and support from sympathizers abroad. Israeli air raids against Hamas strongholds and the assassination of Hamas leaders further raised the bellicose and religious profile of the fundamentalists and eroded the already dubious reputation of a secular Fatah, denounced as the militant wing of a ‘corrupt’ Palestinian Authority.
The final blow was the outbreak of a civil war in the Gaza Strip last month between Hamas fighters dominant in the Gaza and Fatah fighters dominant in the West Bank but determined to maintain the Palestinian Authority’s jurisdiction in the Gaza.
Israel reacted as expected: It virtually caged the Gaza population closing all doors to destinations abroad as well as to the West Bank, so cutting off Hamas territory. Gaza can not survive without humanitarian aid from outside.
Life in the Gaza Strip has become hell with acute food, medicine and shortages of all essential goods. This plight was probably one reason why Hamas orchestrated the release of BBC correspondent Alan Johnson this week. He was kidnapped four months ago by a shady Gaza clan almost certainly linked to Hamas. The release was an obvious gesture to covet international pressure for Israel to ease its vice-like grip on the Strip.
While Gaza suffers the other Palestine, the West Bank, was recovering as Israel, surprise, surprise, released aid shipments and an initial $118 million ‘frozen’ dollars to pay the 170,000 employees of the Palestinian Authority who had not seen a salary in 17 months.
The message to the Palestinian population was clear: Drop Hamas and we will make life more comfortable for you.
Of course these small gestures of benevolence did not curb old habits.
This month Israeli settlers from the West Bank outpost of Adei Ad uprooted 300 trees from the land of a Palestinian farmer and replanted some of them as decoration along the entrance to their own outpost. This prompted even Israeli commentators to the unusual admission the West Bank has become a Wild West where the Israeli military cohorts with settlers in daily transgressions of the law, a part of Palestine where bulldozers and tanks work in constant symbiosis to expand the power of the settlers and diminish the rights of the natives.
Obviously the majority of Israelis would like to see a peace accord of some kind but at the moment those calling the shots in this disputed land are a fanatic minority, people like Joel Shwartz who told an Israeli daily: “All of Eretz belongs to the Jewish people. All the olive trees. All the shrubs all the blades of grass are ours…..”
More embarrassing even was a Knesset (parliament) study that revealed Israel pays slave wages to the 18,000 Palestinian workers employed in Israeli settlements and factories on the West Bank. Their wages were found to be less then half the minimum wage stipulated by Israeli law.
The study also found the Palestinian workers had not health insurance, no accident insurance and no superannuation.
All this augurs badly for a solution that would set aside any part of old Palestine for the Palestinians or give them a fair deal in a One Nation Two People State.
Ends
ciof.s