“Israel’s” grim design

Source: The Jordan Times, 15-12-2005.
By Rima Merriman
Turning a blind eye to "Israel's" rapacious design, the international community continues to doctor the patient`s arteries, in the matter of the Palestinians vs. "Israel", when it is the heart that`s diseased.
The World Bank now firmly believes that by "providing an environment for the Palestinian private sector to flourish", it will bring peace and prosperity to the West Bank and Gaza.
A Palestinian-"Israeli" Private Sector Working Group consisting of representatives from Palestinian and "Israeli" business sectors is finalising a "joint declaration and action plan" for the revival of the Palestinian economy. The declaration, which will be unveiled at an upcoming conference, deals with "priorities" such as "the movement of people and goods, protection of the activities of investors, good governance, transparency and accountability".
As far as "Israel" is concerned, this simply means making the "corridors" (better called constrictions) "Israel" continues to erect within the West Bank work more efficiently. It basically means continuing its land grab design through the erection of the wall under the guise of its security needs. It means benefits for the "Israeli" economy and "Israeli" ports.
The Palestinians, who understand how the "Israelis" have long exploited them economically, ought to get their own priorities straight and not trust their enemies before real provisions for peace are made.
Cynical, materialistic, band-aid treatments to the situation are destined to be short lived when "Israel's" blatant and evil designs on Palestinian territory and resources continue to manifest themselves on a daily basis.
In spite of their prolonged economic hardship, legitimacy and identity are fundamental for the Palestinians. For a long time now the Europeans, the original instigators of this drama, followed by the Americans, have had little wisdom in dealing with the problem. The land of Palestine has morphed partly into a Jewish state with a large imported Jewish majority (today, 37 per cent of the "Israeli" population is made up of immigrants mostly from the West), and partly into a territory occupied by this Jewish state. In addition to "Israel's" priority goals of increasing the Galilee`s Jewish population and disrupting the contiguity of Palestinian towns within "Israel" itself (see "Israel's" 1996 Master Plan for the Northern Area of "Israel"), in addition to erasing hundreds of Palestinian villages and building Jewish settlements on their ruins, "Israel" has controlled and drastically changed the demographics of the occupied territory since 1967, as well as raped its economy and resources.
The West is today slowly but surely imposing "Israel's" manufactured legitimacy on the Arab world. As for the "legitimate rights of the Palestinian people", they are, if anything, a second thought.
When Iran`s president expressed the idea of the West`s culpability by saying, "if the West wants to make up for the Holocaust, the Jewish state should be moved to Europe", all hell broke loose. To Western ears, Iran`s president`s words are the ranting of an evil provocateur with delusions of grandeur and nuclear power -- another Muslim extremist. Playing on these sentiments, an "Israeli" spokesman immediately railed back: "Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the president has made outrageous and even racist remarks concerning Jews and "Israel"."
"Israel's" extreme ideology, on the other hand, appears mainstream to the West. According to a Haifa University survey, over 63 per cent of (Zionist-) Jews believe that the "Israeli" government should "encourage" "Israeli" Palestinians to emigrate.
As a result of "Israel's" grim design, we now have separate Jewish and Arab population blocs trussed up by "Israel" for "swapping", as though the forcible creation of the "Israeli" localities (West Bank settlements, Jerusalem (al-Quds)) is a mere geographer`s "fact on the ground", not living, bleeding wounds. All one has to do to get the full picture of the situation is to study the map of Palestine. The original is shaped like a sharp dagger, like one of those arrowheads one finds on ancient sites. It cuts deep into the heart.
What is needed for the Palestinians are close economic ties with their friends, not with their enemies. Let "Israel" release the thousands of young Palestinian men and women from its prisons first. That would increase the labour force in the occupied territories and inject wage earners into many families. Before improving "border management functions", let the Palestinians and "Israelis" first agree on borders.
The World Bank sponsored working group is emphasising "the benefits of joint "Israeli"-Palestinian cooperation across a number of sectors, including industry, infrastructure, agriculture, tourism, information and communications technology and logistics services". Palestinians will be much better served if such market access and competitiveness are strengthened between them and other Arab states, such as Jordan and Egypt, not between them and "Israel".
Whatever happened to the ESCWA-sponsored initiative called the Arab-International Forum on Rehabilitation and Development in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that was held in September of 2004 in Beirut? The benefits of joint Arab-Palestinian cooperation that were touted then make much more sense than what is now being proposed, but that would mean that "Israel" must open the prison gates.