|
|
| You are not authorized to post a reply. |
|
| Author |
| |
Messages |
Sort: |
|
Nada
Posts:387
|
|
Posted:11/29/2007 10:43 AM |
|
Israel's Strategy for
Permanent Occupation
When the Roadmap is a
One Way Street
Jeff Halper
CounterPunch
November 28, 2007
One may well think that the struggle inside the Jewish community of Israel
is between those of the political right, who want to maintain the settlements
in East Jerusalem and the West Bank so as to "redeem" the Greater Land
of Israel as a Jewish country, and those of the left who seek a two-state
solution with the Palestinians and are thus willing to relinquish enough of the
"territories", if not all, in order that a viable Palestinian state may emerge.
This is not really the case. Polls and the make-up of the Israeli government
suggest that perhaps a quarter of Israeli Jews fall into the first group,
the die-hards, while not more than 10 per cent support a full withdrawal from
the occupied territories. (Virtually no Israeli Jews use the term "occupation,"
which Israel denies it has.) The vast majority of Israeli Jews, stretching
from the liberal Meretz party through Labour, Kadima and into the "liberal"
wing of the Likud, excepting only the religious parties and the extreme
right-wing led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
the current minister of strategic affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, share a broad
consensus: for both security reasons and because of Israel's "facts on
the ground", the Arabs (as we [Israelis] call the Palestinians) will have to
settle for a truncated mini-state on no more than 15-20 per cent of the country
between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.
What's more, it's agreed that the decision whether to relinquish any
territory and how much is an exclusively Israeli decision. We may proffer to
the Palestinians some kind of a "generous offer" if they behave themselves
and it suits our purpose, but any initiative in the direction of "peace" must be
unilateral. The Palestinians may indicate a preference, but the decision is
ours and ours alone. Our power, our all-encompassing concern for security
and the plain fact that the Arabs just don't count (except as a nuisance
factor) limit any peace process to, at best, a willingness to grant them a tiny
Bantustan on four or five cantons, all encircled by Israeli settlements
and the military. Israeli control of the entire Land of Israel, whether for
religious, national or security reasons, is a given, never to be compromised.
This is, of course, completely unacceptable to the Palestinians. That by
itself doesn't matter, but it does raise a fundamental problem. In any genuine
negotiations leading to just, sustainable and mutually agreed-upon
agreement, Israel would have to give up much more than it is willing to do.
Negotiations must take place once in a while, if only to project an image of
Israel as a country seeking peace--Annapolis being merely the latest charade--
but they can never lead to any real breakthrough because two-thirds
of the Jewish public support a permanent Israeli presence in the occupied
territories, civilian and military, that forecloses a viable Palestinian state.
How, then, does Israel retain its major settlements, a "greater" Jerusalem and
control over territory and borders without appearing intransigent?
How can it maintain its image as the only seeker of peace and the victim
of Arab terrorism, effectively concealing its own violence and, indeed, the
very fact of occupation in order to shift the blame to the Palestinians?
The answer for the past 40 years of occupation is the status quo, delay,
while quietly expanding the settlements and strengthening its grip on Judea
and Samaria (again, we do not use the terms "occupation" or "occupied
territories" in Israel, not to mention "Palestinian"). Just look at the run-up to
Annapolis and the negotiations Israel is promising. Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert said recently that "Annapolis is a landmark on the path
to negotiations and of the genuine effort to achieve the realization of the
vision of two nations: the State of Israel--the nation of the Jewish people; and
the Palestinian state--the nation of the Palestinian people". Sounds good,
doesn't it? Now look at the pre-conditions Israel has imposed just in the two
weeks before Annapolis:
Redefining Phase 1 of the Road Map
The first phase of the Road Map, the very basis of negotiations, calls for Israel
to freeze its settlement construction. That is something Israel will obviously
not do. So, on the basis of a letter former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
received from President Bush in 2004--a fundamental change in American
policy that nevertheless does not commit the other members of the Road Map
"Quartet", Europe, Russia and the UN--Israel announced that it defines
the areas considered "occupied" by the Quartet as only those areas falling
outside its major settlement blocs and "greater" Jerusalem. Thus, unilaterally,
Israel (and the US apparently) reduced the territory to be negotiated with
the Palestinians from 22 per cent to a mere 15 per cent, and that truncated
into fragmented cantons.
Requiring recognition of Israel as a "Jewish state." The Palestinians are
required to formally recognize the state of Israel. They did so already in 1988
when they accepted the two-state solution, at the outset of the Oslo process
and repeatedly over the past two decades. Now comes a fresh demand:
that before any negotiations they recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Not only
does that introduce an entirely new element that Israel knows the
Palestinians will not accept, but it prejudices the equal status of Palestinian
citizens of Israel, a full 20 per cent of the Israeli population. This leads
the way to transfer, to ethnic cleansing. Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister,
recently told a press conference that the future of Israel's Arab citizens
is in a future Palestinian state, not in Israel itself.
Creating insurmountable political obstacles. Two weeks before Annapolis was
to convene, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, passed a law that a majority
of two-thirds would be required to approve any change in the status of
Jerusalem, an impossible threshold.
Delayed implementation
OK, the Israeli government says, we'll negotiate. But the implementation
of any agreement will wait on the complete cessation of any resistance
on the part of the Palestinians. Given the fact that Israel views any resistance,
armed or non-violent, as a form of terrorism, this erects yet another
insurmountable obstacle before any peace process.
Declaring a "transitional" Palestinian state
If all else fails--actually negotiating with the Palestinians or relinquishing
the occupation not being an option--the US, at Israel's behest, can manage to
skip Phase 1 of the Road Map and go directly to Phase 2, which calls
for a "transitional" Palestinian state before, in Phase 3, its actual borders,
territory and sovereignty are agreed upon. This is the Palestinians' nightmare:
being locked indefinitely in the limbo of a "transitional" state. For Israel
it is ideal, since it offers the possibility of imposing borders and expanding
into the Palestinian areas unilaterally yet, since its fait accompli is only
"transitional," seeming to conform to the Road Map's requirement to decide
the final issues through negotiations.
The end result, towards which Israel has been progressing deliberately and
systematically since 1967, can only be called apartheid, which means
"separation" in Afrikaner, precisely the term Israel uses to describe its policy
(hafrada in Hebrew). And it is apartheid in the strict sense of the term:
one population separating itself from the rest, then dominating them
permanently and institutionally through a political regime like an expanded
Israel locking the Palestinians into dependent and impoverished cantons.
The overriding question for the Israeli government, then, is not how to reach
peace. If peace and security were truly the issue, Israel could have had
that 20 years ago if it would have conceded the 22 per cent of the country
required for a viable Palestinian state. Today, when Israel's control is
infinitely stronger, why, ask the Israeli Jewish public and the government
it elects, should we concede anything significant? We enjoy peace with Egypt
and Jordan, and Syria is dying to negotiate. We have relations with most
Arab and Muslim states. We enjoy the absolute and uncritical support of the
world's only superpower, supported by a compliant Europe. Terrorism
is under control, the conflict has been made manageable, Israel's economy is
booming. What, ask Israelis, is wrong with this picture?
No, the issue for Israel is rather how to transform its Occupation from
what the world considers a temporary situation to a permanent political fact
accepted by the international community, de facto if need be or, if apartheid
can be finessed in the form of a two-state solution, then formally. And
here's the dilemma, and the source of debate within the Israeli government:
does Israel continue with the strategy that has served it so well these
past 40 years, delaying or prolonging negotiations so as to maintain the
status quo, all the while strengthening its hold over the Palestinian territories
or, at this unique but fleeting moment in history when George Bush is
still in office, does it try to nail it all down, forcing upon the Palestinians a
transitional state within the framework of the Road Map?
Olmert, following Sharon, is pushing for the former. Netanyahu, Lieberman,
the right-wing (including many in Olmert's own party) and, significantly,
Labour Chairman and Defence Minister Ehud Barak, always a military hawk,
are resisting out of fear that even a process of pretend negotiations might
get out of hand, creating expectations on Israel. Better, they say, to stay with
the tried-and-true policy of status quo which can, if cleverly managed,
extend indefinitely. Besides, Bush is a lame duck, and no pressure will be put
on Israel until June 2009, at least six months after the next American
president is inaugurated, Democrat or Republican. We're just fine until then;
why rock the boat? The only tricky time for Israel is the two years in
the midst of a presidential term. We can weather that. Annapolis? We'll try
cautiously for apartheid, hoping that Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas],
prodded by Quartet envoy Tony Blair, will play the role of collaborator. If
that doesn't work, well, status quo is always a reliable default.
In the meantime, as long as the Israeli public enjoys peace-and-quiet and
a good economy, and as long as it remains convinced that security requires
Israel to retain control of the territories, no pressure will come from the home
front for any meaningful change of policy. Given this political landscape
in Israel, in the territories and abroad, it's hard for Israeli leaders to conceal
their ebullient feeling that, whether formally or not, "we've won".
Jeff Halper is the Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions (ICAHD) and a candidate, with the Palestinian peace activist
Ghassan Andoni, for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. He can be reached at
jeff@icahd.org.
http://www.counterpunch.org/halper11272007.html
_____________________________________________________________________
* It's also hard to imagine such a state of affairs continuing for long before
it erupts into the Third Intifada, which, because of the recent Knesset actions
designed to oppress its own Arab citizens, will likely not be limited to
Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. And with the lessons learned from
Hizballah in Lebanon, and the insurgents in Iraq, Israel's celebration may
be rudely interrupted.
jh
|
|
|
| You are not authorized to post a reply. |
|
ActiveForums 3.0
|
 |
|
|
|