New walls and demolitions put a viable two-state solution that much closer to extinction, reports Khalid Amayreh from Jerusalem Encouraged by international inaction and American acquiescence, the extremist Israeli government of Ariel Sharon is trying to snuff out any remaining possibility for establishing a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank. This week, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced plans for building yet another apartheid wall or "buffer zone" in the Jordan Valley. The new wall, a supplement to the existing wall under construction, will effectively complete the encirclement of the West Bank, rendering it the largest prison in the world. The Palestinian Authority, utterly frustrated by Israel's unbridled insolence and what is widely perceived as American connivance with the Sharon government, has condemned plans to extend the apartheid wall into the Jordan Valley. "This shows that the apartheid wall is not for security reasons. They just want to grab as much Palestinian land as possible and control the water resources," PA official Saeb Erekat said. According to Israeli peace activists, the real strategic goal lying behind the wall is even more ambitious -- to make the daily life for Palestinians so unbearable to compel many to flee their country. But to where? "He is simply caging the Palestinians as one would cage animals, and he thinks he is getting a green light for that from the Bush administration," a Peace Now official said. Bereft of any tangible Arab support, the Palestinian Authority is feeling increasingly helpless, having failed to stop, or even slow, the construction of the apartheid wall. Indeed, it seems that all PA officials and leaders can do is appeal to the United States in the delusion that it might pressure Israel to halt the wall's construction. PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei expressed disillusionment regarding the apartheid wall, saying in a television interview that Israel and the world at large will have to bid "peace and stability" farewell if Israel is allowed to maintain "this racist wall" deep inside Palestinian territory. However, as far as Israel is concerned, Qurei's words have little or no weight, as Israel is watching for reaction from Washington, not from the PA. The Bush administration, at least on current indications, is unlikely to exert -- or even appear to exert -- real pressure on Israel over Sharon's policy decisions, apart, perhaps, from an occasional rebuke by White House and State Department spokespeople. Many believe, moreover, that there is not much the PA, or for that matter the rest of the world, can do against the United States' hands-off approach to Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. Meanwhile, the Israeli government announced plans to legalise a number of Jewish settlement outposts throughout the West Bank. Slated to be dismantled under the effectively moribund American-backed roadmap, the settlements would receive generous government subsidies for a variety of services ranging from lighting and industrial infrastructure to security protection. Needless to say, the decision further underscores Israel's refusal to comply with its roadmap obligations, and its determination to thwart a future Palestinian state, or leave it as emaciated as possible. US Secretary of State Colin Powell called the Israeli measure a "provocation" but went no further than that. Harsher criticism came from the Israeli Peace Now movement, which castigated the Sharon government for generously pouring money into settlement expansion at a time when Israel's educational and welfare systems are on the verge of bankruptcy. Notwithstanding, it seems that neither Powell's consternation nor the mixed reaction from the Israeli public are going to convince Sharon to reconsider his plans to consolidate the settlements. One Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity this week underscored a significant aspect of the Israeli-American relationship, saying "there is a tacit understanding between Israel and the United States whereby the Americans may make some public criticism of our policies and behaviour while we are free to pursue our agenda as we see fit." To strengthen the Israeli policy of cornering and ghettoising the Palestinians, the Israeli army continues to disrupt Palestinian daily life on a scale unprecedented since the expulsion of the bulk of the Palestinian people from their ancestral homeland in 1948. On 26 October, the Israeli army dynamited three multi-storey apartment buildings in the central Gaza Strip, leaving more than 2,000 civilians homeless. The wanton destruction was carried out shortly before dawn as Palestinians were preparing for the holy month of Ramadan. A series of powerful blasts sent shock waves across Gaza and the three towers tumbled down, sending a billowing cloud of dust into the air. Justifying the brazen savagery, an Israeli army spokesman claimed the towers were being used to "observe" the nearby Jewish settlement of Netzarim. Besides being a woefully weak excuse, this argument seems to be untrue. The buildings were mostly inhabited by families of members of the Preventive Security Force, an organisation Israel is pressuring to crack down on Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The real reason for the most barbaric demolitions since the outbreak of the Intifada in 2000 appears to be vengeance for the killing of three Israeli soldiers by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad resistance groups. The attack on the soldiers, in which one Palestinian resistance fighter was also killed, was itself in retaliation for last week's carnage, authored by Israel, in Gaza, in which more than a dozen Palestinians, mostly civilians, were massacred in a series of air strikes on Gaza's densely populated neighbourhoods. The targeting of vulnerable Palestinian civilians and basic infrastructure is once again Israel's chief means of reprisal for Palestinian guerrilla attacks against the Israeli army. The lingering question, however, is why the US, UN and the rest of the international community refuse to call the gratuitous destruction of apartment buildings and ruthless killing of innocent civilians by its real name: terror?
