Middle East priorities. posted by Richard Seymour

The excellent Israeli historian Avi Shlaim notes in The Guardian this morning that:

[T]he US effected regime change in Baghdad in three weeks but has failed to dismantle a single Jewish settlement in the occupied territories in 38 years.

It isn't as if the US would be obliged to invade Israel if it were interested in anything other than a rhetorical fashion in the rights of Palestinians. They fund Israel to the tune of $3bn a year, plus perks. That's leverage.


Of course it's in the nature of states to feign impotence when there's a problem they get more benefit out of perpetuating than solving. For instance, I watched Margaret Beckett last night, answering questions about climate-change on Channel Four news. There issued a remarkable sentence, which went totally without challenge: "It is not in my power or any one else in the government's power to tell privately owned companies what they can do." Er, yes it is, that's why you're the government. You're elected because you can do such things. Companies are legal entities, guaranteed by the state, assisted by the state, relying on the social regulation and construction provided by the state. If you want to force them to clean up their act, they can't do shit. (Okay, push it too far and they may kick up a stink, do a run on the currency, hide their profits overseas, engage in even more tax avoidance than usual, threaten to withdraw investment and so on).

Anyway, Shlaim continues:

[Sharon] presented his plan for disengagement from Gaza as a contribution to the road map; in fact it is almost the exact opposite. The road map calls for negotiations between the two sides, leading to a two-state solution. Sharon refuses to negotiate and acts to redraw unilaterally the borders of Greater Israel. As he told rightwing supporters: "My plan is difficult for the Palestinians, a fatal blow. There's no Palestinian state in a unilateral move." The real purpose of the move is to derail the road map and kill the comatose peace process. For Sharon, withdrawal from Gaza is the prelude not to a permanent settlement but to the annexation of substantial sections of the West Bank.

Now, what did I tell you ? And why didn't I mention Tibet ?