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Keeping the Palestinians out of sight
By Aluf Benn

Buried between the lines of U.S. President George W. Bush's speech on the Middle East on Monday was a significant point regarding the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Bush called Jordan and Egypt "natural gateways for Palestinian exports" and urged them to be open to trade with their neighbors in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Officials in the Prime Minister's Bureau were pleased to hear this, noting that it was Ariel Sharon who first made this point in his Herzliya speech on the disengagement plan at the end of 2003.

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A superficial reading of Bush's speech makes his statement about the economic opportunities that would open up for the Palestinians seem part of Shimon Peres' view of the region: open borders, movement and prosperity. But it has a much deeper meaning: Bush has effectively exonerated Israel from another chunk of its responsibility for the territories.

The economic model of the disengagement assumed that the Gaza Strip's economy would depend on Ashdod's port and the Karni crossing, and endeavored to increase the quantity of merchandise trucked from Gaza's fields to Israel's vegetable stalls and Europe's flower markets. Sharon was forced to accept the movement-and-access agreement, which ensured the expansion of activity at the Karni crossing and enabled trucks to transport goods.

The agreement was broken almost from the very first day. Closing the passageways was part of the pressure Israel exerted on the Palestinians, which was presented as punishment for the Qassam rocket fire and a means of isolating Hamas. The Americans insisted on upholding the agreement, until Hamas took over the Gaza Strip.

Now Bush has accepted Israel's position, that the Arabs must look after their kinfolk, and the trade in the territories must go through the Rafah crossing and Allenby Bridge. This is a message to Tony Blair not to delude himself with the fantasies of his predecessor, James Wolfensohn, about economic cooperation on both sides of the Green Line. Israel no longer needs to worry about Palestinian exports, after successfully driving away the workers from the territories.

If there's any consistency among the Israeli governments, it's the effort to keep the Palestinians out of sight. Since Yitzhak Rabin called to "get Gaza out of Tel Aviv" during his 1992 campaign, all the governments have strived to achieve this goal. They took various measures: a general closure of the territories, the Oslo agreement and setting up the Palestinian Authority, building bypass roads in the West Bank, preventing access from Gaza to the West Bank, fencing off the Gaza Strip, putting up the separation fence in the West Bank, erecting roadblocks, the disengagement and finally the new citizenship law.

The Palestinians, who persisted in terror acts, always provided the reason for the next action against them.

The cumulative effect of all these measures is that most Israelis see Palestinians only on television. Only the settlers who live beyond the fence, soldiers serving in the territories and the few who visit East Jerusalem come into contact with the neighboring nation. Even those who travel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Road 443 and look at the houses and olive trees along the way could imagine they're in Tuscany or Greece, rather than occupied territory inhabited by a hostile population.

The Israeli media mostly ignores the events in the territories. More important, Israel has surrounded itself by a bubble that is connected to the developed world and cut off from the territories.

The economy no longer leans on the traditional industries, which in the past were based on Palestinian labor. Thus Israel can celebrate an economic boom a few kilometers away from a poverty-stricken, threatening third world.

As far as the Palestinians are concerned, the price of the Israeli isolationist policy has been economic devastation, unemployment and extreme distress. We could argue over who's to blame and who started it, but that's not important. Looking ahead, Bush sees Israel as part of the Western economy and Palestine as part of the intra-Arab economy. Both states may exist side by side, in peace and security, in the spirit of Bush's eschatological vision, but behind high walls of seclusion and estrangement.
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  1.   Free Press 10:07  |  Hannah 19/07/07
  2.   Separating the fighters is fundamental for peace 10:57  |  Bo 19/07/07
  3.   Ben brings good news! Glad to hear it. I`ll never buy "From Gaza" 11:11  |  Pavel 19/07/07
  4.   FALSE HANNAH ALERT! #1 11:51  |  Hannah 19/07/07
  5.   Tell the truth, Mr. Benn 12:05  |  nina 19/07/07
  6.   Good article - Just more of the same banality of Evil 12:07  |  dana 19/07/07
  7.   Yes, Israel there is hope 12:59  |  El-Birawi 19/07/07
  8.   One particalar paragraph says it ALL 13:10  |  daysofourlives 19/07/07
  9.   Why? 13:15  |  Johnny Weintraub 19/07/07
  10.   Life is tronger than all else, and life dictates, based on past 13:27  |  Yafah 19/07/07
  11.   wrong, wrong, wrong 13:28  |  ScotGuy 19/07/07
  12.   Why Arabs, antisemites or delusional leftists get married? 13:31  |  Uzi 19/07/07
  13.   #7 El-Birawi - Wrong order 13:37  |  Bo 19/07/07
  14.   #6 dana - You are right 13:53  |  Bo 19/07/07
  15.   #8 daysofourlives - A minor correction 14:02  |  Bo 19/07/07
  16.   Gaza have open border with Egypt and get highest aid per capita. 14:11  |  Uzi 19/07/07
  17.   The West does not need to teach us about value system 14:12  |  El-Birawi 19/07/07
  18.   Where are the Oil Rich Nations that supposed to Care? 14:21  |  Ronnie Wolman 19/07/07
  19.   #15 14:26  |  I WANT PEACE 19/07/07
  20.   It is only a matter of time 14:27  |  Buber 19/07/07
  21.   Dana 14:33  |  ka 19/07/07
  22.   Dana #6 More of the same banality of arrogance 14:36  |  Tzfonit 19/07/07
  23.   Bo, El-Birawi - Either order 14:45  |  Tzfonit 19/07/07
  24.   #17 14:45  |  ka 19/07/07
  25.   reconciliation - el birawi 14:49  |  ka 19/07/07
  26.   20...matter of time... 14:53  |  ravi 19/07/07
  27.   # 1 Bo 14:54  |  Jim 19/07/07
  28.   There is another possibility to fortress Israel 15:15  |  David Hoffman 19/07/07
  29.   I find it to be only natural for the Arabs of the West Bank 15:36  |  Yehudit 19/07/07
  30.   To El-Birawi - YES! 15:55  |  Simone 19/07/07
  31.   #23 Tzfonit - I agree ... 16:03  |  Bo 19/07/07
  32.   Aluf Benn & the Palestinians 16:09  |  Solomon ben Oded 19/07/07
  33.   # 11 Scotguy 16:23  |  Nicholas Ferriman 19/07/07
  34.   #27 Jim - You have several points but ... 16:59  |  Bo 19/07/07
  35.   Democracy does not match with the Arab mentality 17:09  |  Alicia 19/07/07
  36.   #29 Yehudit - Absolutely right 17:09  |  Bo 19/07/07
  37.   The fearful symmetry 17:15  |  Mark Lincoln 19/07/07
  38.   Mark Lincoln 17:37  |  Danite 19/07/07
  39.   Aluf Benn & his mates, the Palestinians 17:38  |  Daniella 19/07/07
  40.   # 29 Yehudit. I also fully support your sentiments. Regards. 17:39  |  Nick Ferriman 19/07/07
  41.   Gaza should be part of Egypt and the West Bank part of 17:42  |  Svetlana 19/07/07
  42.   El Birawi and the myth of a golden past 17:47  |  Polybios 19/07/07
  43.   #32 Alicia - Right 17:51  |  Bo 19/07/07
  44.   #36 Daniella - al-Fatah equals Hamas 18:01  |  Bo 19/07/07
  45.   Palestinians are not important 18:03  |  Jonathan S 19/07/07
  46.   #38 Svetlana - Your solution has been tried 18:12  |  Bo 19/07/07
  47.   Yehudit, 29: Yours and the postion of others in this regard are 18:16  |  Gabi 19/07/07
  48.   To #42, Jonnathan S- Yes, butt... 18:47  |  Dyinglikeflies 19/07/07
  49.   Today 4 casualties in Sderot, Haaretz silent 18:49  |  Jonathan S 19/07/07
  50.   Speaking of hypocrisy, #30 Nick F. 19:09  |  Polybios 19/07/07
  51.   Why should Israel want Palestinians IN SIGHT? 19:12  |  McQueen 19/07/07
  52.   Palestinians are not important? 19:22  |  Jack 19/07/07
  53.   29,27,44. Hardly your prerogative 19:23  |  Sallahudin the Great 19/07/07
  54.   No non-Palestinian on this forum... 19:50  |  Omar 19/07/07
  55.   To McQueen in NYC 20:01  |  Omar 19/07/07
  56.   Israelis are never going to make it in the MEME 20:25  |  Dutch 19/07/07
  57.   Sallahudin, 50, the Arabs of this Land have been offered 20:27  |  Akiva 19/07/07
  58.   FANTASTIC! ISRAEL OWES NO FAVORS TO HER KILLERS 20:29  |  don 19/07/07
  59.   That`s fine, and Israel sell their milk elsewhere too 20:33  |  Ibrahim 19/07/07
  60.   Yehudit #29 - on natural and unatural alliances 20:36  |  dana 19/07/07
  61.   Omar, instead of living in dream world, try to realize that 20:41  |  Akiva 19/07/07
  62.   Israel, Ibrahim, will do just fine without the market of the 20:52  |  Yariv 19/07/07
  63.   Akiva the funny 21:31  |  Omar 19/07/07
  64.   Aluf Benn & his mates, the Palestinians 21:32  |  Daniella 19/07/07
  65.   Akiva the funny (2nd try) 21:44  |  Omar 19/07/07
  66.   Isolation of palestinians result of islamicization of intifada 21:46  |  Voice of Reason 19/07/07
  67.   Yariv in Hadera 21:49  |  Omar 19/07/07
  68.   Ibrahim surely Fatah are not using Uzis????? 21:54  |  Ronnie Wolman 19/07/07
  69.   Ibrahim #56 Inshallah 22:04  |  Danite 19/07/07
  70.   dayofourlives#8 22:06  |  ChanahS 19/07/07
  71.   #53 doris they were saying that in 1918 22:06  |  victor hardman 19/07/07
  72.   # 19 I Want Peace 22:15  |  ChanahS 19/07/07
  73.   Yariv, that is good... 22:17  |  Ibrahim 19/07/07
  74.   # 15 I want peace - please explain to me 22:17  |  ChanahS 19/07/07
  75.   #51 Omar - You have got some points 22:22  |  Bo 19/07/07
  76.   Ferriman # 30 22:27  |  ChanahS 19/07/07
  77.   OMAR YOU MADE THE MESS 22:27  |  TOBIA 19/07/07
  78.   Omar #59 22:30  |  TonyL 19/07/07
  79.   Bo in Sverige 22:50  |  Omar 19/07/07
  80.   Jordan-Palestine-Israel trade federation makes more sense 22:51  |  Don Camillo 19/07/07
  81.   Yariv in Hadera 23:12  |  Omar 19/07/07
  82.