[Marxism] Israel's true intentions

[Paul Flewers]

David W wrote: 'The Israelis' would LOVE to have a 'stable Palestinian
state' in Gaza and the West Bank. Where is this guy coming from? "Stability"
can have many relative meanings. The Zionists actually DO want a Bantustan,
a hamstrung, but *prosperous* Palestinian state. Why in the world wouldn't
they? I elite middle-class, tied to Israeli financial capital, a week police
force, border controlled completely by the IDF...a place to drive Israeli
Arabs too when their numbers get too big. The last thing they will ever do
is try to annex these areas, despite historic plans in the bottom draw for a
"Greater Israel" and other pipe dreams of Zionists on LSD.'

Some Israelis would, but I think that the ones making the important moves
today do not. Having the Palestinians as an angry, dispossessed people just
over the border (or the Wall) lobbing the occasional rocket or sending the
odd suicide bomber across to kill a few civilians, but unable to do anything
else, is ideal in maintaining a siege mentality that will benefit the
Zionist right at the expense of the more moderate Zionists or the Israelis
who want a genuine settlement with the Palestinians. Israeli politics
currently circle around who offers the hardest line against 'the other', the
'existential threat' over the Wall; the softer Zionists are drawn rightwards
as they can't compete with the right-wingers in such an atmosphere on their
own terms.

I do not whether the elements in Israel who initially quietly sponsored
Hamas against the more secular Palestinian groups had a long-term
perspective on this basis, or whether they did it as a short-term tactic
just to split the Palestinian leadership, but the end result -- boosting
Hamas and getting it elected in Gaza -- has worked a treat for the
hard-liners. They can present the Palestinians as a 'terrorist people' and
therefore, in the atmosphere of the War on Terror, smite them in true
Biblical style. That Hamas is a hard-line Islamicist organisation whose
leaders have issued outright Jew-baiting statements, plays into the hands of
the Israeli right: they love these guys, it's as if Central Casting had sent
them along.

What is the Israeli government hoping to get out of the current assault? It
could be that it's taking advantage of the Presidential change-over in the
USA, raise the stakes in the Middle East knowing that Bush won't oppose
Israel's actions, and hoping that a poisoned chalice will be handed to
O'Bama, forcing him to back Israel uncritically, choking off any hope that
he'd change the US official line when he comes in. There's the political
scene in Israel itself, ensuring the right wing keeps the political debate
going on its terms: facing up to the 'existential threat'.

However, short of expelling the population of Gaza -- a bit difficult,
seeing that Egypt will keep the border sealed -- the problem (for the
Israeli right) of Gaza will remain. Hamas leaders and activists will
continue to be killed, but the organisation will almost certainly survive
and revive; and the anger of the Palestinians will continue to boil. I get
the feeling that this is just one in a series of episodes like this: accuse
Hamas of bilking on agreements, get a few rockets fired into Israeli
territory, stage a massive air assault on Gaza, maintain the siege mentality
in Israel and keep Israeli politics firmly on the right. This could happen
several times.

There are powerful forces in Israel who do not want a lasting settlement
with the Palestinians, not even a two-state solution based upon present
borders (let alone 1967 ones). I do not believe that the Arab rulers want a
lasting solution either: the Palestinian question is very useful in
deflecting problems at home; when things get sticky for the Arab élites they
just start mouthing off about Israel and the Palestinians, and hope that
attention will be focussed there and not at them. That the Palestinians do
not appear to have had any weaponry that could do real damage to invading
tanks (armour-piercing rockets, mines), as opposed to glorified fireworks
that merely play into the Israeli state's hands, confirms me in that view.

Paul F