Greater Israel
By
Salama A Salama
Without pretense of inside information or claims of insight or deep analysis, it is clear that the US has abandoned the roadmap and that the peace process portfolio has been closed. It has been replaced by a new American project, namely snuffing out any conspicuous opposition for the construction of the apartheid security barrier in the West Bank. Instead of peace negotiations, there will be American-Israeli negotiations about the details pertaining to the wall's route under the pretext of minimising damage for Palestinians and ensuring Israel's security at the lowest cost.
This agenda was not unpredictable to most, at least since the Bush administration let Abu Mazen fall. Washington did not exert the least effort to make Israel honour its commitments in the roadmap, but instead exerted pressure on the Palestinian Authority to liquidate resistance factions. When Abu Mazen complained about Israel's apartheid security barrier, the Bush administration considered it "a mere problem" and insinuated -- without making direct statements -- that it may punish Israelis by deducting its building cost from its estimated $9 billion in grants.
These manoeuvres and deceptions are over. That wall has become the cornerstone of US policy in the region, or its new peace plan after the collapse of the roadmap. No longer is anyone talking about reducing loans to Israel, even after the UN passed, by a large majority, a recommendation condemning the barrier and calling for its deconstruction. The US, in fact, voted against the recommendation.
This implies that the wall, which stretches across hundreds of kilometres and costs $1.5 billion to build, has now become the name of the new game in Washington. According to Patrick Clawson, who is a researcher at the Washington Institute for Middle East Policy and is close to the Zionist lobby and the US administration, the administration, one year away from presidential elections, is unable to confront Israel and the Zionist lobby. Hence, it accepts the construction of the wall, allowing it to move beyond the pre-1967 border as much as Sharon feels necessary.
The Israelis state that the Americans conducting talks in Israel on this issue have agreed to most sections of the barrier which were built in West Bank's northern parts. This barricades nearly 15 Palestinian villages housing 13,000 Palestinians in the occupied territories. According to a UN report, the completion of the wall will result in the entrapment of villages between the barrier and the Green Line, isolating 60,000 Palestinians in cantons with no routes out except through the barrier under Israeli control. Thousands of acres of fertile land, and valuable water sources, will be usurped by Israel.
It is no wonder that the UN Middle East envoy Terry Larsen submitted his resignation. The current race is to achieve the project of a Greater Israel, with Sharon making haste before Israel's next elections. The US is assisting him to achieve his goals, not only because there is a fundamental Christian and Jewish Right-wing trend within the administration, but also because even if Bush wanted to rein in Sharon's ambitions he is incapable of confronting him. This explains the unjustified Israeli military escalation, accompanied by threats not only against Syria and Egypt but extended to Iran, Jordan and the Arab region as a whole.
What is more surprising is that those in the Arab world who call for calm and claim wisdom by not being provoked by Israel's threats and violations, continue to pin their hopes on the US role in bringing peace. It is as if they are blind and deaf to its move to cancel the roadmap and demand Palestinian resistance groups to lay down their weapons and end their operations. No one is calling for new wars in the region which would burden us militarily, economically and politically. But there are several political and economic means still available to Arab countries to support the Palestinian resistance: isolate Israel politically and diplomatically, uncover American conspiratorial policies, as well as insisting on a role for the diplomatic Quartet which drafted the roadmap and later forgot about it. The Arab options are limited, but we are the ones who put ourselves in hold of the enemy. We must first find a way to rid ourselves of his grip.
