[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [GushShalom] Finger After Finger - Avnery
looks at Sharon's map
Al Kagan
akagan at uiuc.edu
Sun Feb 27 12:44:30 CST 2005
Here is a reality check on Israel/Palestine.
Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Gush Shalom " <otherisr at actcom.co.il>
> Date: February 27, 2005 1:22:39 PM CST
> To: intl at mailman.gush-shalom.org
> Subject: [GushShalom] Finger After Finger - Avnery looks at Sharon's
> map
>
> GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 www.gush-shalom.org/
>
> More about the continuously growing Landgrabbing Wall - Uri Avnery is
> explaining here more in-depth what we already warned about in the
> weekly
> ad. We hope soon to be able to illustrate it also with updated maps.
> This article was written before the Tel-Aviv suicide bombing which
> was
> not only very near and frightening, killing and maiming at random, but
> also a reminder how badly we all need a solution which will put an and
> to
> hatred.
>
>
> Hebrew/òáøéú
> http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/article345_heb.html
>
>
> Finger After Finger
>
> Uri Avnery
> 26.2.05
>
> Seven words uttered by President Bush in Brussels have not been
> paid
> the attention they deserve.
> He called for the establishment of "a democratic Palestinian state
> with territorial contiguity" in the West Bank, and then added: "A state
> on scattered territories will not work."
> It is worthwhile to ponder these words. Who did he point the
> finger
> at? Why did he say this in Brussels, of all places?
> Nobody warns of a danger without a reason. If Bush said what he
> said, it means that he believes that someone is causing this danger.
> Just who might that be?
> For years now I have been warning that this is the intention of
> Ariel Sharon, the basis of the whole settlement enterprise planned and
> set up by him. The lay-out of the settlements on the West Bank map is
> designed to cut the territory up from North to South and from West to
> East, in order to forestall any possibility of establishing a really
> viable and contiguous Palestinian state, a state like any other.
> If the settlement blocs that have been created are annexed to
> Israel, the Palestinian territory will be sliced up into a number of
> enclaves - perhaps four, perhaps six. The Gaza Strip, an isolated
> ghetto
> by itself, will be another enclave. Each enclave will be surrounded by
> settlements and military installations, and all of them will be cut off
> from the world outside.
> The American intelligence agencies are familiar with this
> picture, of course. They can see it
> with their satellites. But that did not deter President Bush from
> promising Sharon last year that I
> sraeli "population cent
> ers" in the West Bank will be annexed to Israel. These "population
> centers" are the very same settl
> ement blocs that were defined by the US in the past as "illegal" and
> "an obstacle to peace". During
> the presidency of the
> first President Bush, the American administration even decided to
> deduct the costs of new settlemen
> t projects from the financial benefits accorded to Israel.
> So why did the second Bush suddenly make a declaration whose
> practical meaning is that some of
> these settlement blocs must be dismantled? And why did he make it in
> Brussels?
> It is clear that he wanted to gain favor with his European hosts.
> The European Union opposes t
> he annexation of West Bank territory to Israel. Bush said what he said
> in order to reduce his diffe
> rences with Europe.
>
> So he said it. And what is happening on the ground in the
> meantime?
> Last Sunday the Israeli government decided for the second time to
> implement the disengagement
> plan, a decision that was hailed by the media as "historic". With all
> the hullabaloo, hardly any at
> tention was paid to a s
> econd resolution adopted at the same meeting: to continue building the
> wall in the West Bank.
> At first sight, that is a routine decision. After all, the
> government argues that this is noth
> ing but a "security fence". It does indeed have a certain security
> function, and Israeli public opi
> nion accepts it as such
> . But by now, informed people must know that this wall is intended as
> the future border of Israel.
> Therefore, this week all government spokespersons took pains to stress
> that the new path of the wal
> l cuts off only 7-8% of
> the West Bank.
> The word "only" deserves attention. President Bill Clinton's last
> peace plan spoke about the a
> nnexation of 3-4% of the West Bank to Israel, in return for the
> transfer of 1% of Israeli territory
> to the Palestinian sta
> te. Seven percent of the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany
> is much more than the whole s
> tate of Saxony. Seven percent of the territory of the United States of
> America is more than the who
> le giant state of Texas
> . (Imagine: Mexico conquers Texas, builds a wall between it and the
> rest of the US and fills it wit
> h Mexican settlements.)
> But the percentage game is misleading. It is not only the size of
> the territory that is import
> ant, but also its location.
> In this respect, the controversy between Israel and the US
> remains. It concerns mainly two pla
> ces, where the path of the wall causes the dismemberment of the West
> Bank. If the wall is to includ
> e the settlement town o
> f Ariel, it will send a finger deep into the West Bank. This finger
> will connect with a second one,
> coming from the opposite direction - the two fingers together will
> cut through the whole width of
> the West Bank south of
> Nablus. Another finger will extend from Jerusalem to the enlarged
> Ma'aleh Adumim settlement bloc, a
> lso cutting practically the full width of the West Bank.
> The Americans do not yet agree. So Sharon is using one of his
> typical methods: in those two pl
> aces he leaves a gap in the wall. He will build there in due course,
> after using a future opportuni
> ty to wrap President Bu
> sh - so to say - around his little finger.
> But the percentage account is also wrong in another respect.
> Nowadays one speaks only about th
> e wall that will separate the West Bank from Israel proper. Nobody is
> talking now of the "Eastern"
> wall.
> It is no secret that Sharon plans to build this wall in order to
> complete the encirclement of
> the West Bank and cut it off from the Jordan valley and the Dead Sea
> shore. That is a big slice of
> territory, about 20% of
> the West Bank, and would cut the West Bank off from any contact with
> the world. Sharon knows that
> he cannot build this wall at the moment, because of the opposition of
> the US and the whole world. A
> lso, there is no budget
> for it. Therefore, he is leaving it for the future.
> The government decision does formally include the southern border
> of the West Bank, where the
> planned path of the wall runs almost completely along the Green Line.
> That looks really nice. But t
> his, too, contains a tr
> ick: Sharon does not intend to build this part of the wall in the near
> future. He is postponing it
> for another time - and then he will propose a different path
> altogether, including a finger thrust
> deeply into Palestinian
> territory, so as to annex the South Hebron settlement bloc, up to
> Kiryat Arba.
> By way of deception shalt thou build settlements.
>
> In the meantime, Sharon is keeping himself occupied with building
> on the 7% of the territory t
> hat has been approved by the government decision. All this area
> between the wall and the Green Line
> - the territory alread
> y annexed in practice - is being filled with new settlements. Among
> others:
> O A new town called Gevaoth that is to be built west of
> Bethlehem,
> in what is called the "Etzion Bloc".
> That is a mendacious name: the original Etzion Bloc consisted of a
> small group of settlements near the Green Line. It was occupied by the
> Arabs in the 1948 war and re-conquered by Israel in 1967, when the
> former
> settlements were also re-built. But then a whole new town (Efrata) was
> added to the East, and beyond that a number of new settlements, until
> the
> original few settlements had expanded into a massive settlement bloc
> almost surrounding Bethlehem. Now Sharon is going to fill it with even
> more settlers.
> O A big new settlement called "North Tsufim" that is to be built
> north of Qalqilia. This, too, will reach the proportions of a town.
> 0 Giant housing projects, that will be set up in order to
> connect
> the Ma'aleh Adumim bloc to Jerusalem, and just about reach the Jordan
> river.
> Also in the Jerusalem Area, the new (Labor) Minister for Housing,
> Yitzhak Herzog, promises to build big housing projects from Har Homa to
> Ma'aleh Adumim, while another one is going to be built east of a-Ram.
> The aim is to cut Jerusalem off completely from the West Bank.
>
> All this is happening while Israel and the world are waxing
> lyrical
> about the "disengagement" plan - which, in essence, is nothing but a
> plan
> to consolidate the Gaza strip as one of the enclaves in "a state of
> scattered territories". (The Gaza Strip constitutes only 6% of the
> occupied territories.)
> The Labor party is a full partner in this scheme.
> As far as Sharon is concerned, the disengagement plan plays with
> the
> dismantling of some small settlements in a remote corner of the
> occupied
> territories for the fulfillment of his grand design to take over most
> of
> the West Bank.
> Now President Bush has declared that he does not accept this
> design.
> His European hosts smiled politely. Perhaps they believed him, and
> then,
> maybe they did not.
>
>
> #
> Truth against Truth - reconciling opposite views on the history of the
> conflict in 101 steps
>
> Hebrew / òáøéú
> http://www.gush-shalom.org/Docs/Truth_Heb.pdf
>
> English
> http://www.gush-shalom.org/Docs/Truth_Eng.pdf
>
> Russian
> http://www.gush-shalom.org/russian/book_web.pdf
>
> French
> http://www.france-palestine.org/article873.html
>
> Turkish
> http://www.aciksite.com/i/metinler/DogruyaDogru.htm
>
> An Arab translation exists and will be soon available from the Gush
> Shalom site
>
> Contacts where to obtain a translation into Spanish, Dutch, Finnish or
> German [and please tell us about more!] via <info at gush-shalom.org>
> #
>
> #
> Boycott List of Settlement Products (newly updated)
> Now also with list of settlements
>
> Hebrew / òáøéú
> http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boycheb.htm
>
> English
> http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boyceng.htm
> #
>
> #
> Palestinian olive oil, new harvest - contact Hava Keller
>
> !ùîï æéú àéëåúé
> îéåöø áàæåø çáøåï. äîçéø, ìùðé ìéèø - 50 ù÷ìéí
> (úøåîä ðåñôú úú÷áì ááøëä)
> çååä ÷ìø - 03-5227124
>
> High quality olive oil!
> Produced in the Hebron area. Two liters - 50 Sheqels
> (additional donations appreciated)
> Hava Keller - 03-5227124
> #
>
> #
> Weekly updates from the peacenewsletter The Other Israel
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Al Kagan
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61820
USA
tel. 217-333-6519
fax 217-333-2214
akagan at uiuc.edu
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