It's time to cut off aid to Israel

Three and a half decades into the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israel, the Israeli military is carrying out brutal operations that Prime Minister Sharon says are aimed at rooting out terrorists. Meanwhile, he is building dozens of new settlements for Jews in the occupied territories. It is time for people in the United States to ask themselves what is Sharon's long-term plan for the occupied territories, and whether the United States should be part of his plan.

Recent high-profile suicide bombings in Israel have provided Sharon and other Israeli militant government officials with a pretext for sending its army into Palestinian towns on non-suicide missions of violence and destruction. How this is would deter suicide bombings is not clear. In fact, it should only beef up their arsenal, as hopelessness and not explosives is a suicide bombers chief weapon. For each Palestinian killed by the Israeli military (and the Israeli military has killed far more Palestinians the Palestinians have killed Israelis), it risks creating yet another desperate suicide bomber from among the surviving family and friends. And if someone is so desperate that they are willing to give up their own life, there is no way to deter them from taking a few of their perceived enemies with them.

Sharon, a general who commanded offensives against Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in the 1980's that killed thousands, certainly understands that he is not going to deter acts of violence carried out by Palestinians who have lost their will to live through even greater violence. So what is his real objective. First of all, it is long-standing Likud policy to cement the occupied territories to Israel by establishing enough settlements to make giving up the territories unthinkable to the average Israeli. With a couple hundred thousand Jews living in the territories and new settlements started each month, this goal is in sight. But Sharon seems to be going beyond even this objective. It seems obvious that what he really wants is to drive the remaining Palestinians into permanent exile to join the Palestinian diaspora that has been in Lebanon, Jordan, and elsewhere in the Middle East since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began decades ago.

Driving the Palestinians off their land would achieve two things. First of all, it would create liebenstraum, or living space, for new Jewish immigrants from the United States and former Soviet Union as well as from Israel proper. Secondly, annexing the occupied territories either de jure or de facto would greatly shorten Israel's borders even as it expands its territory. To a military man, this is an important goal.

While it seems likely that this is Sharon's design, it is less likely that he could carry it out in the face of growing international opposition. Also, whether the plan succeeds or not, it is hard to imagine it really benefiting the Israeli people, who would be condemned to live in paranoia for generations to come. It is in the Israelis' best interests (and certainly in the Palestinians' best interests as well) for the Israeli military to pull out of the occupied territories, the settlers to go back to Israel proper, and the Palestinians allowed to set up a state on the West Bank and Gaza strip with East Jerusalem as their capital. The Palestinians would be able to make their own laws concerning the return of their diaspora. The Arabs states would normalize relations with Israel, and all countries could get used to living in peace with each other.

However, Sharon has explicitly rejected this vision, and has defied American requests that he stop his military incursions and settlement activity, despite the three billion dollars in aid that Americans provide Israel each year. What the United States needs to do is immediately cut off its aid, which is financing the Israeli invasion of the Palestinian lands, until Israel completes the withdrawal of its military and settlers from the occupied territories and Palestine becomes an independent state. This would lead the Israelis to push aside Sharon and elect a leader more willing to act in the best interests of everyone concerned.

Titus North
Editor-in-chief, Wombat News Center

April 10, 2002