Bush, accessory after the facts - Haaretz

Subscribe to Print Edition

Thu., January 10, 2008 Shvat 3, 5768

Israel Time: 10:43 (EST+7)

web haaretz.com

Back to Homepage

Rosner's Domain

Diplomacy

Defense

Jewish World

Opinion

National

Print Edition

Advertising

Books

Arts & Leisure

Business

Real Estate

Easy Start

Travel

Week's End

Anglo File

Last update - 13:18 09/01/2008

Bush, accessory after the facts

By Haaretz Editorial

Tags: Israel, Outposts, George Bush

The Migron outpost, which was established on privately owned Palestinian land, and whose dismantlement the United States has been demanding with fake determination, is already an established locale: It is seven years old, with well-tended gardens, swings, a nursery, a kindergarten, infrastructure in which NIS 4 million of state funds have been invested and inhabitants who look not like "hilltop youth" but like ordinary citizens, the sort who work for their living in Jerusalem and come home every night and never even dream that anyone might dare to evacuate them some day.

And the Migron outpost is just one example. There are outposts that already have more than 500 residents, and outposts that are in effect expansions of veteran settlements in which thousands of people live. The term "outpost," with its implication of "temporary," is a meaningless one. The falsity of the distinction between a legal settlement and an illegal settlement − as if anyone recognized the legality of the veteran settlements, and as if the outposts had been established in violation of government decisions and not with the government's active help - has by now become obvious.

The Israelis think they are fooling the world, but they are only fooling themselves. The outposts are the essence of the Israeli bluff. For 40 years now, Israel has been settling in the occupied territories while pretending that it is prepared to withdraw at any moment if only a chance for peace develops. With its own hands, Israel has been rendering the two-state solution irrelevant, while declaring to all and sundry that this is the only possible solution. When Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Monday, on her first (!) visit to the West Bank, that "there must be no winking" in the handling of the outposts, Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai explained to her that there are already 89 outposts in the West Bank, as though Livni were a visitor from another planet, and not a partner in this national disaster.

	Advertisement

The president of the United States is also complicit. Therefore, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's declaration that he will work to take down the outposts, as he has promised President George W. Bush, is tantamount to empty words. The United States is not seriously demanding that the outposts be taken down - because if it ever had made such a demand unequivocally, the outposts would have been eliminated long ago.

The term "outposts" embodied a change in the settlers' perception of their struggle for the greater land of Israel. Whereas in the past, they sought to move as many people as possible into the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in order to defeat the Palestinians demographically, at some point, they decided that it was easier to gain control of the territory physically, one hill after the other. Wineries, farms, orchards, pastures, industrial zones, pre-military academies, yeshivas and outposts together encapsulate the idea of taking over territory while totally ignoring the demographic factor. Ariel Sharon and Ze'ev Hever (Zambish)urged the settlers to seize the hilltops during the period of the Wye Agreement, and former chiefs of staff Shaul Mofaz and Moshe Ya'alon, along with former GOCs Central Command Moshe Kaplinsky and Yitzhak Eitan, abetted the outposts' establishment and fought their evacuation. All of these officials, and many others, will not escape history's commission of inquiry when someone tries to document how Israel lost its Jewish majority, and how it was forced by international pressure to change from the state of the Jews into a state of all its citizens, stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Bush's visit to Israel and Olmert's talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are meaningless as long as the facts on the ground - the outposts that keep expanding - clearly show just how unserious the Israeli government's declarations are, and to what extent the U.S. administration is collaborating with it.

Bookmark to del.icio.us


	'Bush go home'
	Israeli Arab parties join leftist protests against the Bush visit.


	Peace overture
	Syria says it isn't seeking a military solution with Israel.




1.	Morons of "Haaretz" meekly accept Qassams,Katuyshas and terror	14:14	\|	Absolute Sweden	09/01/08

2.	editorial staff at haaretz will be on the 1rst plane out	14:32	\|	josef cohen	09/01/08

3.	fake US determination	14:36	\|	Boris	09/01/08

4.	You sound hollow, Haaretz	14:44	\|	Yahsra Ohion	09/01/08

5.	More HaAretz BS	14:48	\|	Frank	09/01/08

6.	Wonderful Editorial	14:50	\|	Moshe	09/01/08

7.	You know you`re onto a good thing	15:19	\|	Murray	09/01/08

8.	Perplexed..	15:20	\|	The Northern Wind	09/01/08

9.	Olmert is Publicly Breaking Israeli Law	15:52	\|	Mike	09/01/08

10.	hilarious scare mongering	15:54	\|	aryeh	09/01/08

11.	#1	16:51	\|	Defenestrator	09/01/08

12.	Why should Bush care?	16:57	\|	Mark Marshall	09/01/08

13.	Bush, accessory	17:16	\|	George Morgenstern	09/01/08

14.	Migron is central Israel,how can it be OUTpost???	18:00	\|	trumpeldor	09/01/08

15.	Good homes for refugees returning to the Palestine State	18:23	\|	Chanalau, Tova	09/01/08

16.	Two questions	18:47	\|	The Naturalist	09/01/08

17.	11 You want proof?	18:55	\|	Steven	09/01/08

18.	absolute sweden	19:08	\|	johnj	09/01/08

19.	re: Naturalist	19:36	\|	josef cohen	09/01/08

20.	Heads we win, tails you lose	20:44	\|	David	09/01/08

21.	Hypocrisy or longterm memory impairment	20:56	\|	Yossi	09/01/08

22.	One state or two?	21:35	\|	The Naturalist	09/01/08

23.	Haaretz - The Standard Bearer of Moral Equivalency	21:43	\|	Tod Zuckerman	09/01/08

24.	Bush will bring pain and suffering, not peace	23:25	\|	BIG	09/01/08

25.	Haaretz would like the US to be the hammer used to destroy Israel	00:01	\|	smarter then haaretz	10/01/08

26.	Hey landau maybe they`re here to take your adrice	00:32	\|	dreem wett	10/01/08

27.	Excellent Editorial Haaretz	03:24	\|	betz55	10/01/08

28.	#22 naturalist One State is code for elimination of Jews	10:20	\|	josef cohen	10/01/08

Today Online


	Bush set to tell Abbas: Choose between statehood or chaos
	Responses: 59


	Libya thwarts Security Council censure of Shlomi missile strike
	Responses: 18


	Shavit: Palestinians must undergo ideology change before statehood
	Responses: 6


	W. Bank Palestinians brace for visit by 'that criminal' Bush
	Responses: 19

More Headlines
10:26 Bush arrives in West Bank to a red carpet welcome


10:14 ANALYSIS: Bush visit gives PM a welcome pre-Winograd respite


10:15 Palestinians in Ramallah brace for visit by 'that criminal' Bush


10:17 Poll: Labor voters want Barak to remain in gov't after Winograd


10:17 Inquiry into Holocaust survivor benefits lacks clear mandate


09:47 Libya thwarts Security Council censure of Shlomi missile strike


10:02 From Amsterdam to Tel Aviv: Israel's 2nd city promotes bicycling


04:02 Environment Ministry opposes plans to protect Herzliya archaeological site


09:00 Father, two children hurt in criminal car blast in Beit Semesh