News » June 15, 2006

The U.S.-Israeli Somalia Plan

By Neve Gordon

In Gaza City, public workers draw pay on June 5, 2006, the first time in three months.

In his first visit to the White House on May 23, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told President Bush that Israel will “devote six to nine months to find a Palestinian partner” before it pursues the unilateral “Convergence Plan.” It was an empty promise. Olmert knows that given the reality in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the probability of returning to the negotiation table is close to zero.

Since the ruling Fatah party lost the democratic elections to the Islamist party Hamas, much has changed in the Occupied Territories. Following Hamas’s electoral victory, Olmert asked foreign leaders to boycott the new Palestinian Authority (PA) until it complied with three conditions: 1) disarm Izzeddin al-Qassam and other paramilitary groups; 2) annul Hamas’ charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel; and 3) accept the agreements and obligations that the Palestinian Authority took upon itself when the Fatah party was in control.

Olmert’s conditions are reasonable. And given Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Hania’s recent statement that if Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders Hamas will be willing to sign a peace agreement based on an extended hudnah (truce), the first two conditions could easily become part of future negotiations rather than a condition for negotiations. Olmert’s third demand, however, puts Israel in a thorny spot. After all, Israel, not the Palestinians, has been using the separation barrier in the past three years to execute a unilateral plan that contravenes all previous agreements. Thus, according to Olmert’s logic, the international community would also need to boycott Israel in order to remain consistent.

Nonetheless, following U.S. pressure, the three other members of the Quartet—the United Nations, the European Union and Russia—agreed to follow the general thrust of Olmert’s demands, and have cut off most of the foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Even before the foreign aid was cut, 64 percent of the Palestinian inhabitants were living under the international poverty line of $2.20 a day, while the World Bank reported that acute malnutrition affected 9 percent of Palestinian children. Since the aid amounts to almost one-third of the per capita gross national income in the West Bank and Gaza, the cuts could eventually lead to a famine.

Since February, when the foreign aid was cut, the Palestinian Authority has been unable to pay salaries to its 160,000 employees. These workers provide direct livelihood to over one million people (almost a third of the population), and if their salaries are not paid for a few more months the Palestinian economy will totally collapse. Both Israel and the United States are now thinking of ways to alleviate the dire situation—after all, no wants to be blamed for producing a famine. Together they have adopted a scheme that could be called the “Somalia Plan.”

The idea is to transfer salaries directly to the bank accounts of those 90,000 PA workers who are employed by civil institutions like the education and health ministries. The remaining 70,000 Palestinians who work for one of numerous security apparatuses in the Occupied Territories will not receive salaries. This will keep the economy just above the famine level, leaving 70,000 armed men with nothing but frustration and anger.

Under such conditions, a struggle is sure to break out among the different Palestinian warlords over the scant resources in the Occupied Territories. Already, Ha’aretz has reported that dozens of bombs have been laid near houses or cars of senior Hamas officials and officers in the last few weeks, while homes and cars of Fatah senior officials and Preventive Security officers have also been booby-trapped. In some cases the bombs went off, causing injuries and damage.

If the existing skirmishes among the different factions develop into full-blown battle, it may very well be that certain segments of the Palestinian population will go hungry. Yet, it’s the warlords or faction leaders, rather than Israel or the United States, who will be blamed for the human catastrophe. We are, in other words, witnessing Somalia in the making.

Members of the European Union have expressed “serious concern” about the deterioration in the humanitarian, economic and financial situation in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. But even though they have pledged to resume payments to the Palestinians, E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana hinted to Ha’aretz that resistance from the U.S. Congress might make it impossible to transfer the funds.

So it is not only that Israel and the United States are uninterested in abating the violent clashes among Palestinians. They do not seem to care that a civil war in the Occupied Territories will both engender immense suffering and destabilize the region for decades. In many ways, their policies are precipitating this—not coincidentally, but as part of the very logic informing the perpetual war on terror.

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• Reader Comments

  I’m sure they’ll always be enough money for C4 explosives, AK47s, Katyusha rockets and their homemade Kassams, huh?  Who needs food when one can have such joys!  Maybe, just maybe the Palis will have to change their spending habits.  Could that be the diabolical Zionist plot?!  I sure hope so!  Peace at last without further bloodshed would be nice.

  Posted by Hyjinx22 on Jun 15, 2006 at 4:53 PM

  The arrogant Zionist above is a perfect example of why I work continuously against his selfish, amoral interests. He can’t see any responsibility on Israel’s side for anything. Jews = good, Arabs = bad. And he gets very angry if we don’t all agree with this formula. Haven’t wee all seen Holocaust movies?

  The problem for him and his narcissistic ilk is that fewer and fewer of us in America (and almost no one in other, less benighted countries) buy his propaganda any longer. This does not bode well for Israel being able to continue flaunting international law, committing daily war crimes while simultaneously playing the poor-poor-me victim and sucking our government’s tit.

  Mr Israel-first also does not want to acknowledge that if US aid were to be cut off, as it should be to this criminal regime, his beloved country (which he probably doesn’t actually want to live in) would collapse over night. Maybe this would encourage the Israelis to change their spending habits. I think it would be well worth a try. And then all the amoral, racist, inhumane supporters of Eretz Israel could send their money to bail them out. I sure he would be happy to make up the missing 3 billion a year.

  Posted by opeluboy on Jun 15, 2006 at 10:41 PM

  opeluboy -

  Hey moonbat, what’s up?  First off, I’m an American by birth, non-Jewish (Catholic in fact).  Actually, the Jews have built themselves quite a sustainable economy, a little too socialistic in some respects for my liking, but not bad non-the-less.  We give Israel about $3 bil a year, but their GDP is: $129 bil (CIA fact book).  I don’t think us withdrawing our funding would exactly break the bank over there.  The Palis are far more dependent on the West (which they loathe, but provide approx. 50% of their income) then the Israelis are or will ever be.  So, you never answered my original question before ranting, why is it that the Palis can always find money for weapons even when they are below the poverty line?  Why didn’t Arafat accept the two-state solution proposed years ago (which even included half of Jerusalem)?  Oh, wait, now I remember….the Palis aren’t interest in co-existence, they’re interested in genocide!  Could you imagine a world where:

  Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah all stopped trying to infiltrate Israel with suicide bombers daily and/or firing rockets at settlements.

  Stopped and said, “Shit, this whole circle of violence pride/shame complex thing really sucks, and we need to just make peace with these people.”

  In response, Israel said, “Damn, the Palis have stopped trying to randomly kill us, isn’t that a relief.”  In follow-up, they lifted all West Bank restrictions to unfetter the Pali economy.

  The bottom line is: IF THE PALIS WOULD JUST STOP THEIR SHIT, PEACE WOULD BE THE RESULT!  Unfortunately, the rest of the Arab world has a big stake in continued violence, so they will always fan that flame.  The Arab regimes need a cause celibre to deflect blame from their own failed states at home.  Blame the Jews is always a solution in that part of the world.

  Posted by Hyjinx22 on Jun 16, 2006 at 4:57 PM

  How does one respond to such willful, racist ignorance? Like this:

  Posted by opeluboy on Jun 22, 2006 at 12:33 AM

  http://www.israellycool.com/PLO Arabs in training.jpg

  Posted by Allegro on Jun 22, 2006 at 5:26 AM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 13 posts.

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