Here we go again. Another leading Israeli politician has made another seemingly moderate suggestion for a Palestinian settlement. This is supposed to make the outside world believe in the carefully-created myth that the Israelis, and not the hapless Palestinians, are the victims and are struggling to find a “reasonable" peace deal which will protect them. The latest stunt comes from Ehud Barak, the defense minister in Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government. Barak has proposed that if the peace talks, which have been stalled for four years, can proceed no further, then Israel should simply withdraw from the occupied West Bank and dismantle the “majority" of the settlements. There are now half a million Jews living in 118 illegal settlements in Palestinian land. This sounds like a major concession. But as ever with the Israelis, you have to read the small print. The main settlements at Ariel, Etzion and Maale Adumim would be kept, along with a few other strategic locations. And guess what! Almost 90 percent of all the illegal settlers are to be found in these three fortified settlements. Ariel even boasts its own university. And Palestinian East Jerusalem is now ringed with Israeli colonies. These are what Netanyahu describes in such a sinister fashion as “the facts on the ground". And Barak, by offering, in reality, to move some 25,000 settlers and demolish their dwellings, is in truth going a very long way toward solidifying those “facts on the ground". Commentators are saying that Barak has come up with this proposal because he wants to differentiate his Independence Party from Netanyahu's Likud in advance of elections due in just over a year's time. Barak is characterized as a “dove", yet during his time as Prime Minister, he continued the West Bank and Jerusalem expansion programs pursued by all other Israeli governments, before and since. The unspoken part of Barak's proposal is likely to be that, in return for giving the Palestinians back part of their own land, (albeit wrecked from the building and subsequent destruction of the illegal settlements), Palestinians currently living in Israel and holding Israeli citizenship, should be “encouraged" to move to the West Bank. Maybe they will be offered the chance to take over the homes that Israeli settlers will be forced to vacate. That would pose a problem for the Palestinian authorities ! International public opinion may now be increasingly seeing less take-in in Israeli maneuvers of which Barak's plan is only the latest. However foreign governments, fearful of engaging with the real issues confronting the Palestinians, can use such “reasonable" proposals, as a smokescreen, behind which they cannot be seen busily doing nothing. Why can't one world leader call it as it is ? Ehud Barak is behaving like a mugger who has stolen your wallet at gunpoint, then offered to give you back the small change, provided that you agree to let him keep the bank notes, the credit cards and promise to be suitably grateful for his generosity, and assure him that you will not subsequently go to the police.
