EGAD

Don't Punish the Palestinians

A heavily damaged factory building near where the Separation Fence slices through Bethlehem. My guide indicated that it has been hit by an Israeli shell or missile several months back. Between restrictions on movement and the tendency for things to get blown up, it's no wonder the PA is nearly the only economic game in town. 2005:06:06 14:44:59

Taking the day-to-day of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a familiar point of departure, let's talk about Hamas. As everyone on the planet has heard by now, Hamas won an absolute majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council in last month's elections, somewhat to the dismay of essentially everyone involved. There followed a bit of debate in the international community about the appropriate response, the choices being to either engage with the PLO via Abbas and bypass Hamas until it can be prodded into moderating its positions, or else to squeeze and isolate the Palestinian government so Hamas cannot govern and thus force new elections. That new legislature has now been sworn in, and most of the world has opted for engagement. Israel, and to a lesser extent the USA, have decided to basically push for a do-over of the elections by bankrupting the Palestinian Authority. Unless replacement funds can be found in Europe and the Muslim world, the Territories will lose their single largest employer and a good deal of infrastructure.

Jimmy Carter has issued another of his absurdly sensible editorials, Don't Punish the Palestinians, pointing out that dramatically damaging (further) the Palestinians' quality of life is probably not the best strategy. Forcing them to rely heavily on Iran the the Arab League for financial support is probably also counterproductive. And all in all, encouraging democracy and then punishing peoples for their choices is not much better than previous administrations' support of friendly autocrats. Given the history of the region, it's a bit rich all in all to expect Arabs to elect secular pro-Western liberals when given the choice.

Even in Israel, some commenters get this, but especially as elections are impending the political classes are falling over themselves to look aggressive. Which, come to think of it, probably explains the USA's stance as well.

The view south from west Jerusalem, near the Knesset. As far as the eye can see, Jerusalem suburbs cover the hilltops. Many of which are on the Palestinian side of the Green Line and are thus, technically, illegal "settlements." 2004:10:22 16:34:51