Southwest Asia News Digest
Bush Backs Sharon's Massive Settlement Expansion
The announcement on Aug. 17 by Israel of the approval of 1,000 new housing units to be built on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank merely exposes once more the sham of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's so-called "disengagement plan." More important is the fact that Sharon is acting with the full support of the Bush Administration.
The New York Times quotes a Bush Administration official saying the weak statements made by the Administration following Sharon's announcement, reflect "a covert policy decision toward accepting natural growth" of some settlements. Both U.S. and Israeli officials admit that this policy was worked out with Sharon during the recent visit to Israel of Elliot Abrams, the National Security Council's top neo-con in charge of Middle East policy. The move makes a mockery of the Administration's own declared policy, the so-called Road Map for a Middle East peace, which calls for ending all expansion of settlements and removal all outposts.
It is becoming more and more obvious that Sharon's "disengagement plan," and the Bush Administration's continued support, is just Sharon's latest scheme, under which he can continue the relentless expansion of the settlement enterprise, and crush the Palestinian resistance. At the same time, Sharon's phony disengagement plan provides his war cabinet time for preparation for a new regional war, with Iran as the first target.
However, it is Sharon's own population which is exposing his lies. For the past several weeks, a group of homeless Israelis have been living in tents just across the street from Sharon's Jerusalem office. They are protesting the fact that Sharon's brutal economic austerity policies have left them, and many thousands of others, homeless. The pitiful sight of these "Hoovervilles" in Israel, did not stop Sharon from announcing the constructions of yet another 1,000 housing units, built at the expense the Israeli taxpayer. The cost of the occupation comes directly out of the pockets of Israel's poorest Jewish and Arab citizens.
And, the only reason the Israeli economy has not yet collapsed under the burden of this unbridled expansion and ongoing war against the Palestinians, is the fact that the Bush Administration has given Israel $10 billion in loan guarantees, at the expense of the American taxpayer.
Following the 1967 Six-Day War, and the capture of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, when Sharon started the settlements policy, the first settlements were called "security settlements" whose alleged purpose was to be the "eyes" of Israel's advance defense line. In the 1990s, as international pressure against the settlements grew, including from the United States, the new term created for expansion was "natural growth" of existing settlements.
Far from being "natural," the settlement population doubled during the 1990s. Sharon's latest euphemism is building homes in what are called "consensus" settlements which Sharon alleges are among the settlements that are within the "political consensus" in Israel!
This new term has only been in vogue for a few weeks, and has been used to justify thousands of housing tenders approved by the government. The numbers are impressive. On Aug. 2, the government announced the approval of 600 housing units for the largest settlement on the West Bank, Ma'aleh Adumin. The announcement was still in the headlines when Elliot Abrams was in Israel on Aug. 4. In the meeting with Abrams, Sharon openly lied that "no such plan exists," and the American neo-con envoy covered up Sharon's lie. The very same day as the Abrams meeting, the Israeli Defense Ministry, which is responsible for approving new housing in the Occupied Territories, revealed that the 600 new units where personally approved by Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz last June.
Then, on Aug. 17, tenders for another 1,000 units were announced. On the same day, the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported that tenders for yet another 600 units would be released shortly. Thus, in a matter of weeks, Sharon expanded the settlements by no less than 2,200 housing units, enough to expand the settlement population by up to 20,000 people.
But all of this is the only the tip of the settlement iceberg. The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported Aug. 24 that in the one settlement of Upper Modi'in, every year 1,200 new housing units go on sale. No fewer than 6,000 new housing units are under construction. The plan is to expand this settlement of 27,000 inhabitants, to 150,000!
The Israeli Peace Now group has condemned these latest announcements of new housing, saying in a statement, "The boss has gone mad. Sharon has decided to scoff at his government's promise to freeze construction in settlements. Rather than disengagement, he is carrying out massive occupation in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]."
Meanwhile, despite the so-called disengagement plan, calling for the evacuation of the settlements in the Gaza Strip, settlers are busy building new and expensive hot-houses on their farms.
Settlement council member Eran Sternberg, when asked why they were constructing new buildings, said, "No one can plan his future on the basis of vague declarations by Sharon. What if nothing happens in the end?... We generally believe there will be no evacuation, and if we stop building it will make our stand weaker."
Jewish Peace Leader Denounces Minister for Nazi Policies
In an Aug. 26 commentary that is being published internationally, Israeli peace camp leader Uri Avnery portrayed Israel's Internal Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi as a Nazi.
Hanegbi, wrote Avnery, was in character when he said the Palestinian hunger strikers could die, as far as he was concernedAvnery had published a picture of Hanegbi, years ago, "hunting Arab students with bicycle chains," like Nazi youth in the 1930s, "with a small difference: in the '30s the Jews were the pursued, now they were the pursuers." As Director of Prisons, Hanegbi has done everything possible "to create intolerable conditions for the Palestinian prisoners," writes Avnery. He ridicules the justification of this and other atrocities by the excuse that "we are at war," or that they are not soldiers, but "terrorists who kill civilians," asking if there were a difference between those who dropped nuclear bombs on Japan, or on a Baghdad market, and those who deploy car-bombs. And, unfortunately, he writes, "the Americans have learned from us," as shown in Guantanamo.
Top Sharon Minister Investigated for Corruption
Israel's Police and Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, was condemned by Israeli Comptroller General Eliezer Goldberg for massive cronyism in placing political supporters into government positions.
Goldman described Hanegbi's actions as "gross trampling underfoot of the law and of rules of proper administration, politicization of the civil service, and exploitation of public resources to advance personal-political affairs." The report said Hanegbi was so systematic about it, that he asked "to be told of every job opening in the ministry so he could present a candidate of his own." In some cases, if jobs didn't exist he would create them.
A leading member of the right-wing Likud party, Hanegbi is one of the most extreme members of the party. He is the son of Geula Cohen, former member of the right-wing Irgun and member of the fanatical Temple Mount Faithful. The investigation covered the period when Hanegbi was Environmental Minister in Ariel Sharon's first government. Goldberg opened the investigation after Hanegbi distributed a report in the run-up to the previous elections among the Likud central committee members who select Likud candidates for the Knesset, bragging of having placed no fewer than 80 central committee members into choice jobs in his ministry. Goldman called the practice "cronyism," which is supposed to be illegal in "properly run states," even in Israel.
Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz met with senior Justice Ministry officials to decide whether to open a criminal investigation.
Meanwhile, Shmuel Hollander, the Civil Service Commissioner, announced that the dismissals of those appointed by Hanegbi could soon follow this report. "I don't remember an instance of so many appointments in one ministry," he said. "There will be disciplinary measures against job holders."
Assassination Attempt on Arafat's Intelligence Chief
On Aug. 26, Tareq Abu Rajab, the chief of intelligence for Palestinian National Authority President Yasser Arafat, was the target of an unsuccessful assassination attempt. Although he survived, Abu Rajab, who resides in Ramallah, where he has been in close proximity to Arafat, is in serious condition, while two of his body guards were killed. The assassination attempt was well organized, with gunmen firing from two cars.
Abu Rajab is close to Arafat, but has remained neutral during the ongoing internal dispute between Arafat loyalists and opposition factions.
The timing of the attempted assassination coincides with recent efforts for a reconciliation among Palestinian factions. Arafat just met with Mohammad Dhalan, the former security chief in Gaza, who has made himself the top critic of Arafat. A well-placed Israeli source said the meeting was supposed to effect a reconciliation. Sharon, of course, is not interested in seeing such a reconciliation among Palestinian factions, since his goal is to destroy the Palestinian national movement.
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