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By Bruce S. Ticker
May 30, 2005
His offer of US$50 million in direct aid to the Palestinian leader capped a busy week of Israel-related news that was as substantial as a Seinfeld episode about nothing. Nothing happened, or so it seemed. Except that the week's events exposed the collection of contradictions and complications which threaten the peace process.
For those who had trouble keeping track of this ongoing abyss in the past week, First Lady Laura Bush was mobbed by Muslim worshippers; disengagement opponents booed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Manhattan; the lobby group AIPAC exposed its vulnerability by flexing its muscles; Sharon repeatedly urged elimination of the Palestinian terror network; Bush tried to bolster Abbas' standing in the Arab world; and a boycott measure against Israel was reversed. These events produced nothing much, as the only genuine news is waiting to materialize this August when the Israeli government is scheduled to withdraw from all 17 settlements in Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank.
The disengagement plan has been dubbed "historic." It is nothing of the sort. Israel will be the only immediate beneficiary because its military will not be compelled to protect isolated communities too difficult to defend. Any historic progression will depend on whether the Palestinians take full advantage of the opportunity. Will Abbas' Palestinian Authority even be able to control the land that Israel leaves behind?
Abbas, who is president of the authority, persists in blaming Israel's "occupation" of the territories for his people's troubles, but he could face a civil war with Hamas and other groups competing for the support of his people. He calls Israel's security barrier "illegitimate" and wants freedom of movement for his people, yet he cannot or will not neutralize Hamas' armed military force which is ready to pounce on Israel.
The very existence of Hamas' strong military force is evident of the shaky support that Abbas enjoys from his people who live in the territories, while his brethren in the surrounding Arab countries have always been visibly absent in resettling the Palestinians and spending a sufficient amount of their oil money to build the economy in Gaza and the West Bank.
Had the Arab nations, which ignited the 57-year war with Israel in 1948, literally put their money where their mouths were all these years, then Bush would not have needed to make a public promise to give Abbas $50 million of tax money which could be spent here on education, health care, transportation and other petty luxuries of this sort.
Can the Palestinians be trusted with this money, which is part of a $350 million package that Bush wants to contribute to empower the Palestinian Authority? The late Yasser Arafat diverted billions of dollars in aid to his own uses, and much of that money is yet to be accounted for. The territories are under new management, but Abbas was part of the Arafat machine. Abbas appears to be serious in building a viable society, but Israel and its supporters cannot know for certain.
To account for the $50 million, the US is placing the money in a special account managed by Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, who has developed a transparent financing operation, The Washington Post reported. The money is targeted for housing, schools, roads, water facilities and clinics in Gaza once Israel withdraws.
America's role is questionable, too. As Bush insists on Palestinian accountability, this is the same American president who has been blowing money on war and corporate friends like a drunken National Guardsman. How can the Palestinians take him seriously?
The Arabs already dismissed the First Lady's charm offensive last Sunday when she attempted to convince them that Americans are good people who respect Islam -- after her husband's own attorney general once signed off on authorizing low-level forms of torture and inmates were abused at military prisons. While the president insists on establishing democracies in the Middle East, he has done everything possible to return America to the English King George's style of aristocratic rule.
Opponents of the Gaza pullout plan who heckled Sharon in New York last Sunday repeated their claims that elimination of the settlements translates into expulsion of Jews and a reward for terrorism. One cannot argue with that. Jews would be expelled and terrorism would be rewarded. However, they need to explain what happened to Israel's military protection when a woman and her four young daughters were shot by terrorists at point-blank range on a Gaza highway. They can also explain how terrorists broke into a military barracks adjacent to a settlement in Gaza and murdered three soldiers, all just a few years out of high school, while they were sleeping.
In Washington, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee boasted during its annual meeting that it maintains its clout in spite of an FBI investigation which threatens to result in prosecution of two former high-level AIPAC employees for possibly passing classified US information to Israel.
As The Washington Post reported, AIPAC executive director Howard Kohr told delegates early in the week, "This is a test, a test of our collective resolve -- your presence here today sends a message to every adversary of Israel, AIPAC and the Jewish community that we are here, and here to stay."
Anyone who must talk that way is probably terrified that they will be in no position to carry water for Israel in the future. Then again, maybe they won't be needed.
On Thursday, as Bush praised Abbas at the White House, Britain's Association of University Teachers wisely reversed its motion to boycott Haifa University and Tel Aviv's Bar-Ilan University for their supposed complicity with Israel's alleged oppression of the Palestinians. The instigators took advantage of a tiny fraction of the membership's appearance at a conference last month while they ignored abuses in other countries, including Arab nations. They even got their facts wrong. And they call themselves educators.
Compounding this cycle are the series of public pronouncements from Sharon and Abbas dictating the terms they'll accept or reject for a final peace deal. While Abbas' demands are the more untenable, all their rhetoric accomplishes is to antagonize both Israelis and Palestinians.
Until Sharon and Abbas meet at the negotiating table, I offer this sage advice: Shut up.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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