Israeli ruling party says no to Palestinian state
By Richard Becker
Imagine the frenzy in the U.S. media if the leading party of
the Palestinian Authority voted overwhelmingly to oppose
forever the existence of the state of Israel. The howls and
gnashing of teeth by U.S. politicians and well-paid pundits
would have never ceased.
Yet on May 12, when Israel's ruling Likud party almost
unanimously passed a motion against a Palestinian state under
any and all conditions, it was reported as just another story
in the corporate press.
What the media focused on here, moreover, were the largely
fictional differences over the question of Palestinian
statehood between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his
main rival in the Likud party, former Prime Minister Benyamin
Netanyahu. In fact, both Sharon and Netanyahu oppose a
Palestinian state, and the vote inside the extreme right-wing
Likud was largely a reflection of the struggle between them.
When Netanyahu was prime minister from 1996-98, Sharon
maneuvered to appear as the more rightist figure.
Nevertheless, the vote had the beneficial effect of
clarifying for the whole world the real position of the Israeli
government regarding the Palestinians' fundamental right to
self-determination.
Mass protest in Tel Aviv against
occupation
The vote came one day after more than 100,000 Israelis
demonstrated in Tel Aviv on May 11, calling for an end to the
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. It was the largest such
protest since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada [Uprising]
more than 19 months ago.
The contradictions being opened up inside Israeli society by
the Palestinian struggle were further illustrated by the latest
opinion polls. At the same time as support for Sharon's
rightist government has risen, the polls also show 63 percent
of Israelis in favor of the establishment of a Palestinian
state. The continuation of the struggle will likely lead to a
sharpening of the differences and conflicts inside Israel.
There should be no doubt, however, that the Sharon
government is continuing with its policy of brutal occupation.
The unprecedented mass destruction inflicted on Palestinian
cities, towns and refugee camps in the March/April offensive
has been followed by a program of enforced hardship. Movement
of people and goods between Palestinian towns and cities
continues to be extremely difficult if not impossible.
Thousands of Palestinians remain in detention, subjected to
torture and inhuman prison conditions.
Sharon says, mainly for U.S. consumption, that he supports
the idea of a Palestinian state. At the same time, Sharon has
proclaimed a series of "conditions" that must first be met,
including the total "reforming" of the Palestinian Authority
and the replacement of Yasser Arafat as its president. Sharon
has refused to enter into any negotiations with the
Palestinians until there is a period of "complete quiet," i.e.,
until the Palestinians have surrendered.
An Israeli politician, Haim Ramon, was quoted as saying:
"Sharon's conditions for a Palestinian state are so stiff he
won't have to implement it, not a chance."
And while Sharon says that he is willing to make "painful
concessions for peace," he has for many years stood on a
platform of not yielding any land or evacuating even the most
isolated settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. "Netzarim [a
settlement] in Gaza is the same as Tel Aviv," Sharon recently
stated in an Israeli TV interview.
On May 14, an Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, issued a
report concluding that the pattern of Israeli settlements in
the West Bank was intentionally designed to make the emergence
of a Palestinian state impossible.
The report includes maps showing how the settlements and
their bypass roads have been used to surround and isolate
Palestinian towns, cities and villages. Although the settlers
live on 2 percent of the developed areas, they now control 42
percent of the West Bank's land.
Israeli group likens settlement policy to
apartheid
The B'Tselem report compared Israel's settlement policy to
that of apartheid South Africa. "Israel has created in the
occupied territories a regime of separation ... basing the
rights of individuals on their nationality. This regime is the
only one of its kind in the world, and is reminiscent of
distasteful ones of the past, such as the apartheid regime in
South Africa."
Since Sharon took office last year, at least 34 new
settlements have been established in the West Bank. There are
now, according to the B'Tselem report, 380,000 Israeli settlers
in the area. An estimated 2.1 million Palestinians live in the
West Bank.
The settler movement is spearheaded by extreme right-wing
and racist elements, many of them recently arrived from the
U.S. The settlers'Yesha Council responded to the B'Tselem
report by lamenting that "only" 42 percent of the West Bank had
been seized by settlers.
"It's regrettable that the settlement movement has not
managed to implement the Zionist vision to settle between the
sea and the Jordan at a much faster pace," said a Yesha Council
statement.
But while the number of Israeli settlers has increased in
the West Bank, the population trend in the whole of Palestine
is moving in the other direction. In addition to 2.1 million
Palestinians living in the West Bank, 1.2 million live in Gaza,
and a similar number reside inside the 1948 borders of Israel.
There are more than 4 million Palestinians living in exile
outside Palestine.
The Israeli population is today approximately 4.8 million.
Within a few years, if present trends continue, Palestinians
will outnumber Israelis inside historic Palestine for the first
time since the mass expulsions of 1948-49 that cleared the way
for the establishment of the Israeli state.
Palestinian struggle destabilizing pro-U.S.
regimes
The great concern in U.S. ruling circles is about the
potentially destabilizing effects the Palestinian struggle is
having on pro-U.S. and puppet regimes throughout the Middle
East. That is what explains President Bush's recent expressions
of "support" for a Palestinian state.
Of course the "state" that Bush has in mind for the
Palestinians is in reality a very weak and non-independent
entity, that would be completely under the thumb of the U.S.
and Israel. But the fact that he's talking about Palestinian
statehood at all when no other U.S. president ever formally
endorsed such a state is a reflection of the fear in Washington
over the deepening anger toward the U.S. in the region.
At the top of the U.S. international agenda is a new war of
re-conquest against Iraq, which includes lining up at least
superficial support in the Arab world.
Washington's problem was highlighted by Jordanian King
Abdullah's visit to the U.S. this week. Abdullah is one of the
most dependent and compliant of Middle East rulers. Jordan,
which borders both Palestine and Iraq, is more than 60 percent
Palestinian in population, and his repressive regime maintains
itself only with strong backing from the U.S.
Appearing on the NBC show "Meet the Press," on May 12,
Abdullah expressed the fears of pro-U.S. governments throughout
the region: "People are angry; the rage is on."
The king said he wanted to inform U.S. officials that
"although there seems to be a relative calm now, that is only
temporary." This was a reference to the demonstrations that
swept the Middle East last month, the largest mass protests in
the region in two decades.
"If we don't articulate a vision in the next couple of
weeks," Abdullah warned, "that rage is going to come back, and
it's going to be twice as strong."
The next day, speaking at the Brookings Institution--a
Washington think tank--Abdullah said: "If anybody has any
sensitivity to what's going on between the Israelis and
Palestinians and how it's affecting the Arab street, to add
Iraq onto the menu now, I think, would be devastating. ... With
the Israeli-Palestinian crisis going on, with the anger and
frustration throughout the Middle East really at levels that
people can't take anymore, another armed conflict in the region
will be too much for people to bear."
The wide coverage given to the Jordanian king's remarks
indicates that his comments reflect the views of influential
forces here as well.
For the anti-war and progressive movements here and around
the world, the fears in Washington, Amman and other capitals
should be a source of hope and inspiration.
The one factor that can unravel the war plans of the ruling
class is the intervention of the people on a mass scale. In the
past six weeks, millions of people have taken to the streets,
moved to action by the heroic example of the struggling
Palestinian people.
From Bahrain to Washington, from Amman to Rome, from Cairo
to San Francisco, and in many other cities, mass, militant
protests in solidarity with Palestine have begun to change the
political climate.
What is needed now is to expand and deepen this new
movement.
Reprinted from the May 23, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
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