Does US aid to Israel help or hurt peace prospects?

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by Eliot Chandler

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Does US aid to Israel help or hurt peace prospects?

The US support of Israel is the most corrosive element in the Middle East, and is the primary cause of the unrest and violence there. Tony Blair, the former British prime minister and now the envoy for Palestinian development, said on a visit to the West Bank on Dec. 13, "I think there's nothing of greater importance in the world than to try to resolve this issue;" the "issue" being the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Israel is far from being a benevolent overseer of the million and a half Palestinians living in occupied Gaza. They manage the occupied territories like a giant internment camp, and whenever the Palestinians 'misbehave' the Israelis punish them, either by shutting off their electricity, their water or food supplies, their access to the outside world to sell their product, or by guided missile attacks and military incursions. The entire population of Gaza is punished for the actions of a few.

John Holmes, the United Nation's undersecretary for humanitarian affairs, on 2/15/08, described the Israeli's eight-month closure and confinement of the Palestinians in Gaza as producing "grim and miserable" conditions.

Israel's Defense Minister, Ehud Barak said, "There is no chance of effectively fighting terror without practical daily control in the field." He claims that they must occupy Palestine in order to put down the rebellion. The Palestinians, on the other hand, say that they are rebelling against Israel's harsh occupation of their land. It's an endless loop.

The Israelis point out the Hamas rocket attacks into Israel as the reason for their retaliation. Israel has the right to defend itself' they say. But when one compares the homemade and ineffective Hamas rockets with Israel's smart bombs and guided missiles this argument becomes silly. It's like shooting a neighbor for spitting at you.

For instance, on 1/18/08, in response to a surge of Hamas rockets, Israel not only shut off what few meager shipments were entering Gaza, they sent the air force in to attack the Palestinian Interior Ministry building, flattening one wing and killing a woman next door who was attending a wedding party. They wounded over forty others including children playing soccer in the street. This, they said, was in retaliation for fifteen Hamas rockets falling harmlessly in southern Israel. A sixteenth rocket did slightly damage a day care center but none of the children inside were hurt.

There have been 13 Israeli civilians killed by the rocket attacks from Gaza since the year 2000. There have been over 4000 Palestinian civilians killed by the Israeli incursions during that same period of time.

On 1/23/08 the Hamas militants blew a hole in the prison wall separating Gaza from Egypt in order to relieve the deplorable conditions eight months of deprivation and constraint had wrought on the inhabitants of Gaza. Tens of thousands of beleaguered Gazans poured through the opening into Rafa, Egypt, and went shopping for the necessities they had been denied for so long.

There are two things of note during this event, one, that there was no looting or violence reported, and two, the United States complained to the Egyptians for not stopping the influx. Egypt apologized, but said that there was not much they could do. They did manage to keep the Palestinians from moving deeper into Egypt, and eventually encouraged them to return to their families in Gaza with their purchases, thus allowing the Egyptians to re-close the wall.

Why was the US administration so concerned about this break in the prison wall? Probably because Israel requested help, believing that the opening might allow Hamas to move weaponry into Gaza. The Palestinians are not supposed to have weapons of any kind in the occupied territories. Hamas then told the Egyptians that they are going to take control of the passage between Gaza And Egypt. So we find the residents of Gaza not only held hostage by Israel but also by Hamas.

The Jerusalem Post, on Feb. 11, recommended that Israel "publicly demand that Egypt do what it takes to shut down the weapons flow into Gaza." This threat and accusation could potentially wreck the 29 year-old peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, since the Egyptians are certainly not allowing arms shipments to Hamas.
The 2/11 Jerusalem Post article also portrays Gaza, not as a prison camp, but as an enemy, and as long as this self-delusion continues there will be no progress in achieving Bush's "two state solution."

President Bush did call for peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis. They were held in Annapolis Maryland, last November, a move he hoped would mend relations, restart the Middle East Road Map and add to his legacy. But the animosity that has grown over the decades between these two peoples will take generations, if ever, to resolve itself. Especially if the Israelis continue to illegally confiscate Palestinian lands.

For instance, while the Israelis were preparing to attend the peace talks in Annapolis they announced that they were planning on building over 300 new homes in Har Homa in east Jerusalem, the section that the Palestinians had planned to make their capital should the peace process be successful. Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian negotiator, said, "If you want to restore the credibility of the peace process, the Israeli government must revoke this order."

But, instead of revoking the plan, the Israeli government announced on 2/12/08, that they will increase the plan's number to over one thousand new homes. This usurpation of Palestinian land has been going on for decades, practically since 1967. United Nation's Mideast envoy, Robert Serry, diplomatically called Israel's planned construction "unhelpful and contrary to international law."

Up through 1992 the Israelis had ignored 66 United Nations resolutions critical of Israel. This doesn't include the 29 resolutions that the US vetoed to protect Israel during that time. Our present administration was very critical of Saddam Hussein's ignoring the UN resolutions against Iraq, but that number doesn't begin to equal Israel's record.

This situation could be resolved through diplomacy. Hamas has on more than one occasion offered a cease-fire, requesting that Israel would also stop the attacks and assassinations. But the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, continuing to throw out little scraps in order to placate the public, both here and in Israel, refuses to talk with Hamas. His actions belie his words.
For many years Israel has paid lip service to seeking a peaceful settlement, all the while delaying any meaningful negotiation while aggrandizing and aggregating the property of its inmates.

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