March 14, 2008
False Hopes in Palestine
2008 has been billed as the year in which major progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was going to be made. Israeli leaders have made statements that a peace deal, or at least a framework of the final agreement, could be achieved this year. President Bush committed himself, in his final year in office, to becoming more involved in the process, and insists that he really wants the Palestinians to have a state. The summit in Annapolis was supposed to be the jumping off point for a resumption of real negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians for the first time since Clinton was still president. And among Israelis there is somewhat of a sense that accepting a Palestinian state is in their own best interest.
Prime Minister Olmert even publicly stated that unless a Palestinian state is established, “Israel is finished.” What he meant was that Israel would become an apartheid state, and this would result in American Jews abandoning Israel in disgust.
So it would seem that for the first time since 2000, there is a real chance of a negotiated solution that creates a real settlement between the two parties, as Israel’s top leadership has finally accepted that allowing the Palestinians to have a state is vital to their own survival. But the truth is that this glimmer of hope is just a mirage. The reality is that the Israelis are quite comfortable with the present situation, and see no compelling need to really end the occupation.
It is odd that Israelis are concerned that Israel would be seen as apartheid if it is occupying Palestinians when they become the majority population west of the Jordan River, but not when they are merely a very large minority. This is deeply illogical. What makes Israeli policy apartheid is not determined by the size of the Palestinian population but by how it is treated, which is why many observers believe that the Palestinians are already subjected to an apartheid regime. The recent Palestinian census found that there are 2.5 million living in the West Bank and 1.2 million in Gaza. Add in another 1.2 million in Israel, and the Palestinian total of 4.9 million is very close to the Jewish total of 5.2 million. But more significantly, when looking at the numbers under the age of 20, the Palestinians have a 3:2 preponderance. Where the net balance of the two groups is headed is obvious.
The very nature of the occupation is that no Palestinian has a right to life, liberty, or property that cannot be taken by the Israeli government whenever it so chooses without any recourse. Just recently, an Israeli investigation into the artillery fire into Gaza last summer that killed 21 Palestinians sleeping in their homes concluded that no one was at fault. Does that mean that the cannons just fired themselves? Whose decision was it to use artillery against the most densely inhabited spot on the planet? In legal terms, the Palestinians under Israeli occupation have no more rights than slaves did in the past. The Palestinians are the only people on the planet living under occupation, and they are now in their 41st year of it.
Israel has built a wall that has enclosed large portions of the most desirable land on the West Bank, and cut off thousands of Palestinians from their lands, farms, and each other. This naked land grab is Israel’s hope for forcing the Palestinians to accept a statelet, while Israel’s settlers keep the land they took illegally and in violation of the Geneva Convention.
For there to be real peace, the Israelis would have to realize that the settlement project has to be dismantled in its entirety. 450,000 settlers, almost 10% of Israel’s Jewish population (and for those who doubt the racist nature of Israeli policy, ponder why is it that no Israeli Muslim or Christian has ever been given the opportunity to live in a settlement), would have to be forcibly evicted and moved back into Israel. The fact is that a government that cannot bring itself to dismantle even a single “illegal” settlement of a few mobile homes will never do what needs to be done to settle this conflict. And the Bush administration will not force Israel to do this either.
In fact, the Israelis are quite comfortable with the present status quo. The Palestinians have been defeated by the wall. One Israeli border town has to put up with homemade rocket fire, but otherwise Gaza is being treated as a giant open air prison. And the idea that American Jews will be “disgusted” by how Israel treats the Palestinians is silly. If they haven’t been disgusted yet, it is hard to imagine what new act would make them so.
The Israelis are perfectly willing to accept Palestine as long as Israel keeps its settlements. But the two are incompatible. If it wants the latter the former cannot happen. And even if Olmert were to resign and there were new elections, all polls suggest that Israelis would bring back Netanyahu, who not only doesn’t share Olmert’s views, but has always considered Oslo a mistake, and that there is no reason for Israel to help create Palestine. The hope in the headlines is just a mirage. Comments can reach me at Nali@socal.rr.com.
