Abstract

Pastrami & Champagne

The author comments on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral plan for disengagement from Gaza and the West Bank, which was endorsed by U.S. President George Bush. Bush supported Israel's retention of several large Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and said that Palestinian refugees should be resettled in a "Palestinian state"--however notional that" state" might be. In return Sharon promised to evacuate 7,500 Jewish settlers from Gaza as part of a "disengagement" plan that will leave Gaza to Israel's tender mercies, and to remove "certain military installations and settlements" from the West Bank. In hailing Sharon's "bold and courageous decision," The celebrations were capped a few days later by an Israeli missile strike killing Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi. Bush was not exactly breaking new ground. Like Bush, President Clinton argued that Israel should not be expected to withdraw to the 1967 borders and that most Palestinian refugees should eventually resettle in a Palestinian state rather than in Israel. But Palestinian and Israeli negotiators did discuss exchanging parts of the West Bank for commensurate parts of Israel proper. The effect of Bush's speech is to remove large settlement blocs from the negotiating table, thus condoning Israel's unilateral land grabs. At the same time, Sharon is trying to present himself as a man of peace, prepared to make "painful concessions." That is where the Gaza plan comes in. Far from representing a withdrawal, the "disengagement" is an extension of war by other means.