Israel's greed for land
A Palestinian State is wishful thinking as long as Israeli's greed for land-grabbing and illegal settlements continues. Only a serious lack of sense of moral imperative drives Israel to justify illegal occupation on security and Biblical claims.
Figures provided by "Peace Now" show that 80 of the 100 outposts in the West Bank were built wholly or partly on private Palestinian land. Sixteen outposts are located entirely on private land, and more than half of the other outposts are on private land. Seven thousand of the 16,000 dunams occupied by the 100 outposts are privately owned. Jewish settlers in the West Bank grew from about 211,000 to almost 290,000 while settlers in East Jerusalem have grown to more than 190,000.
This inexorable settlement expansion is the major thorny issue blocking the negotiations for the implementation of the roadmap to the two-state solution (TSS) -- a viable Palestinian state and a secured Israel, with Jerusalem as the capital for both states.
Every American president after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war opposed Israeli "settlements" in occupied land. But the opposition has almost always come with wink-and-nod approval of continued settlement activity.
To break the status-quo -- and unlike his predecessor -- President Obama is demanding of Israel that it lives up to the requirement of the 2003 roadmap toward a TSS and freeze all construction in all the settlements. However, In a July 17 Washington Post article, former P.M. Ehud Olmert resented the US demand for freezing of all settlements.
In a June speech -- for the first time -- Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu grudgingly accepted the possibility of a Palestinian state in parts of the West Bank and Gaza -- one that was hailed by some as a milestone while others dubbed it wishful thinking.
Wishful it is, since another P.M., Ariel Sharon, had also embraced the roadmap but only after the disarming of Hamas, eliminating any residual resistance in Fatah, and then building civic institutions for the Palestinians.
Sharon placed as many roadblocks as he could conceive, because he never truly subscribed to the roadmap. With Netanyahu, only the player has changed -- it's déjà vu. His father, Ben-Zion Netanyahu -- a 100-year-old historian and a stalwart of Zionism -- reinforced it by quoting his son on an Israel TV interview in early July.
When asked about the genuineness of his son's acceptance of the creation of a Palestinian state, Ben-zion said: "He doesn't support it. He supports such conditions that they [the Palestinians] will never accept it. That's what I heard from him. I didn't propose these conditions, he did. They will never accept these conditions. Not one of them." That is gratingly insincere -- to say the least.
Israel has spurned the complete freeze on settlements outright; instead agreed to a temporary freeze provided construction in occupied East Jerusalem and the 2,500 housing units underway in the West Bank continues unimpeded. That's not all; a "temporary and limited" settlement freeze is also conditional on Arab countries conceding new concessions to Israel.
The US is now working with Arab governments to secure civilian over-flights for Israel and the opening of Israeli interest sections in these countries as an inducement for implementing the "temporary and limited" settlement freeze. This is so laughable -- rewarding Israel for stopping land grabbing and building illegitimate settlements on Palestinian lands.
A complete settlement freeze offers the prospect of facilitating conditions for the two states negotiations. But Olmert insists that such a freeze will only harden the Palestinian's and Arab countries' positions at the negotiating table on many outstanding disputed issues.
Olmert possibly thinks that continuation of expanding settlements would work as a stick for engaging the Arab governments and the Palestinians in endless dialogues with the false promise of giving carrots -- as in the past -- while letting illegitimate expansion continue.
Tough negotiations on the settlement freeze issue between Israel and the US continue. This is an Israeli ploy to divert the focus from the ultimate TSS and fits Netanyahu's game plan. Hopefully, the Obama administration sees this Israeli design and acts decisively and fast before time runs out.
Israel can be persuaded by the US to accept most of what the US wants it to do. Olmert admits that the US [the tax payers] extends crucial security and economic aid and important political backing to Israel in the internationl arena (example: Security Council vetoes in favour Israel's of wrongdoings). But the US politicians are afraid to displease Israel by pushing hard because of the overpowering Jewish lobby and the Jewish voting blocks in the US.
Besides, what would the US gain by establishing a state for the impoverished Palestinians except some scores on moral callings? All the Arab governments are already American lackeys and some are already friends with Israel.
Olmert claims that Israel's partnership with the US is one of its greatest strategic assets. I wonder what Israel offers to the US in return except being always ready to bomb a Muslim country if it builds nuclear power plants for generating electricity. It's now threatening to destroy Iran's nuclear installations -- something that will happen once the US gives the green light with the tacit backing of the Arab governments.
Isn't Israel's security greatly enhanced with the removal of Saddam Hussain from Iraq? Over 3,000 Americans soldiers and over 100,000 Iraqis have so far lost their lives, and tens of thousands American soldiers and Iraqis have been wounded and maimed.
Instead of being a little gracious to America's wishes for freezing illegal settlements, Israel displayed egotism. Olmert argues against including settlement expansions in the public agenda and instead favours a dialogue, as in the past. He insists on strengthening US-Israel bilateral relations to deal with Iran's nuclear threat, and normalising relations between Israel and the Arab states. He cautioned -- probably referring to Iran -- that the time for dealing with such important matters is running out.
There is an antidote to Israel's intransigence to the implementation of the roadmap to the two state solution -- the US privately threatening a moratorium on all economic and military aid to Israel and telling Israel that Iran is a sovereign state that is free to develop its peaceful nuclear program unverified. I believe that will do it -- however wishful the thinking may be.
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