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February 7, 2005 - Vol. 6, Issue 27

The Basket Case, The Hashemite Helpline, Born In Sin, Democracy's Destroyers, The Majority Will Rally, Drive Time, Hypocrisy 101, Save Us From Redemption, EU-Israeli Export Arrangement Activated, Living In Fear of a Wardrobe Malfunction

In This Report: The Basket Case | The Hashemite Help line | Born In Sin | Democracy's Destroyers | The Majority Will Rally | Drive Time | Hypocrisy 101 | Save Us From Redemption | EU-Israeli Export Arrangement Activated | Living In Fear of a Wardrobe Malfunction

The Basket Case:
Writing in Yedioth Ahronoth about tomorrow's Sharm el-Sheikh summit, Alex Fishman noted that the formula that repeats itself in the basket of Israeli gestures to the Palestinians is offering a small "carrot" today, and an even larger one before disengagement, depending on the security atmosphere and the degree of coordination. He continued, "Everything begins at Sharm el-Sheikh, and therefore [Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice will be [in the region before the conference] to make certain that nothing falls apart on the way. The basket of gestures proposed to her in Washington by the prime minister's envoy, Dov Weisglass, has been accepted in the meantime. Rice spoke with him in general outlines: the release of prisoners;freedom of movement; the transfer of funds; humanitarian gestures; and recently a clause was added against harming absentee property in Jerusalem. In his meetings with Israelis, Ambassador Dan Kurtzer said that it will be easier for the Americans to obtain commitments from the Palestinians if Israel is generous in allowing laborers to go out to work, releases frozen tax funds, and establishes safe passage. The international community, through the Americans,would like to see a return to the September 28, 2000 lines at the end of the Israeli process of gestures. As important as the crossing of workers and the prisoner lists are, the most innovative and essential component in the basket of gestures, from Israel's point of view, is permission to establish a seaport in Gaza. In the past, Israel has vehemently opposed establishing a port, which is a symbol of sovereignty. This is a project rich in work and investments which will make it ease the trend toward Palestinian detachment from economic dependence on Israel. However,building a port is also a drawn-out process of three to four years, which can be stopped at any point in time if security developments require it. Navy ships will block the approaches, and that will be the end of the port. Here,then, is the second principle of the gesture basket: they are all reversible. The risks are not especially high. The second phase of the gestures, the 'large carrot' stage on the eve of disengagement, will be more problematic." (Yedioth Ahronoth, 2/4/05)

The Hashemite Help line:
All eyes will be on Egypt tomorrow for the summit between regional leaders trying to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak deserves credit for pulling the meeting together and for providing other important support for the disengagement plan. But the Jordanians have been doing their part,too. Jordan has offered to station the Bader Brigade in the part of the northern West Bank that Israel is supposed to evacuate under the disengagement initiative. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has accepted the offer, and the two parties are now awaiting Israel's reply. The Bader Brigade is a thousand strong organization comprised of soldiers who are Palestinians living in Jordan. Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Mulki clarified that, "They are not Jordanian forces. They are Palestinians who have been training in the Kingdom by Jordanian Special Forces." He added that Jordan had no authority or jurisdiction over these troops, saying that they abide by instructions of the Palestinian Authority.

The troops are said to have no record of terrorist activity. Most of them are not young, and some are over 50. Their families live in Jordan. Special Jordanian liaison officers are attached to the brigade to coordinate its activities with the army. Its troops are regarded as well trained and professional, but most of them are near retirement age and not physically fit. Although Israel turned down such an offer in the past, Israeli sources quip that the old soldiers are harmless anyway and may help Abbas created a feeling of order and security in the area. However, the Israeli security establishment and GSS are not enthusiastic about the offer. Another idea under consideration is the possibility of announcing a drive to recruit 20 to 30 year-old Palestinians who live in Jordan and have no terrorism record. They would be trained for three months by the Jordanian army, and would then be enlisted in the Palestinian security agencies, which could help Abbas upgrade those services. Further, Jordan is taking steps to address growing extremism in the ranks of the Likud, arranging an unusual public dialogue between Likud Knesset Members and Central Committee members and a delegation of Jordanian dignitaries closely associated with King Abdullah's regime. Most of the Likud participants are opposed to disengagement. (Ma'ariv, 2/3/05 & Jordan Times,2/4/05)

Born In Sin:
According to the first official report on the illegal settlements in theoccupied territories, which was prepared at the request of the state, Israeligovernments have for years allowed illegal settlements to be established by turninga blind eye and using a plethora of "under the table" methods to aid them. Thereport was prepared by attorney Talia Sasson of the State Attorney'sOffice and is due to be published soon. Sasson was asked by Prime Minister ArielSharon to give her professional opinion concerning the illegal outposts,and to check the location of the outposts, their size, their date of establishment,and the actions of the authorities during their establishment. Her report lays out the long-standing method by which ongoing services and maintenance weresupplied to outposts whose establishment the state never approved. This process has many participants: the Defense Ministry, the IDF, the Civil Administration,the police, and the Ministries of Infrastructure, Education, Industry and Trade,Finance, Housing, and Religious Affairs. According to the report, which examined what has been happening for the past ten years, every echelon, from ministers to low-level clerks, ignored the settlers' violations of the law as they took over private and state-owned land. In this period more than 120illegal outposts were established, bypassing the zoning laws and master plans and ignoringthe Israel Lands Administration as existing settlements were expanded illegally.

In the past, attorneys general ordered government ministries to stop transferring budgets to illegal settlements. But even after these orders were issued, the system continued to operate as usual. Budgets continued to be transferred for putting up mobile homes, connection to the water and electricity infrastructure, establishing kindergartens, and more. The report determines that despite repeated calls of law enforcement authorities, most government ministries continued to disregard the orders and allowed the professional employees under their supervision to budget illegal decisions while using legal and administrative loopholes. The report exposes a method of funding the construction of illegal outposts by means of double support. According to the report, officials in the local authorities of various settlements turned a blind eye to the requirements of the law when they budgeted illegal neighborhoods and outposts and did not examine the legality of the budgeted projects. They did not check the master plans, the legal status of the land or building permits. Neither did they check whether the budgets were given only to legally approved projects. (Yedioth Ahronoth,1/30/05)

Democracy's Destroyers:
Commenting on anti-disengagement arguments, Gadi Taub wrote, "Yoel Bin Nun is the one man who had the courage after the Rabin assassination to call on the settlers to make a reckoning. It cost him dearly. Very dearly. He was ostracized, more or less, from the community in which he lives. Therefore, it is all the more discouraging to hear the comment she made to Ari Shavit in an interview in the Ha'aretz magazine. Yoel Bin Nun cried out in the name of the settlers' human rights, in the name of democracy,which the prime minister, in his opinion, had circumvented, against the expulsion of Jews from their homes, which is now referred to as a 'transfer.' The Left, of course, is to blame. The Left's hatred for the settlers has caused them to go out of their minds. Bin Nun's heart is bleeding, his biblical beard is in an uproar, his prophetic conscience is warning the nation against a 'Massada' and a 'civil war.' Rabbi Bin Nun, do your ears hear what your lips say? Your boot has been laid for close to 40 years on someone else's neck, and you whine about your right to keep it there? Those are the human rights in the name of which you preach morality to us? For nearly forty years you have been party to pulling fast ones that have dragged an entire country,by means of deceit and theft, in the dark of night, to taking political steps the Israeli public never debated, steps the Israeli public never knew about,except after you had already established 'facts on the ground,' and you now come and preachto us about a referendum?

"Do you remember how you established [the settlement of] Ofra? Do you remember that you demanded to be permitted to sleep out in the field, on the argument that it was a work camp and not a settlement? Do you remember how many times you established the settlement you now live in, against the government's decision, and how many times the army removed you from there until you succeeded in staying?...As such an active partner to the establishment of Jewish apartheid and as a resident of a disputed land, in which one law applies to the ruling race and another law applies to the subjects' race, you cry out in the name of democracy? When you ride on roads for Jews only that intersect and cut off the roads for Arabs, when you pass in your car on this thin lid covering this human keg of explosives, which you created by means of brute force, you shed a tear about your human rights as asettler?

"So what if all this seems to you to be settler hatred and left-wing wickedness. I am familiar with all that talk about the Leftists. But now, with Sharon leading the disengagement process, is he too a Leftist in your opinion? No, the venerable Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun, this is not a Leftist act, it is not an anti-democratic act, and it is not an anti-Zionist act. It is a democratic and Zionist act, this disengagement. Because what you and your comrades forced on us undermined not only democracy, but Zionism itself. What has risen up against the nightmare that you forced on all of us this time is not [Israel's] conscience but its interest; not the 'Left,' but the majority; not Peace Now, but the government. The Israelis do not want to be dragged into a bi-national state with a huge, hostile population that is destined to become the majority here. And if we don't leave the territories, the dream of having a single territory in the world where Jews are the majority, which is the heart of Zionism, will be dashed. And, for dessert, after all your talk about democracy, you threaten us with Massada and a civil war? Is that your democracy? That a minority that specialized in imposing its will on the majority will take uparms against the majority if it doesn't capitulate to it this time as well?

"No, Rabbi Bin Nun. That doesn't sound very convincing. You didn't go to Judea, Samaria, and Gaza in the name of democracy. You went there, contrary to democracy, to hasten the Messianic end of time. Now it has become apparent that you are pushing us to the end of the Zionist enterprise. Therefore, it is neither a coincidence nor is it for irrational reasons that Israel is asking you to leave. These are difficult days of dashed dreams for you and your friends. We know. But now is the time for the soul searching you once demanded. Now is the time to ask why you did not succeed, to quote you from the past, in 'settling in the hearts.' Now is not the time for sanctimonious demagoguery or for empty threats of civil war. You would be better served if, instead of trying to delegitimize a legitimate government you would, like your former neighbor, Rabbi Avi Gisser, sit down and begin to think about the day after. Once upon a time you had thecourage to do that. Do you remember?" (Ma'ariv, 1/31/05)

The Majority Will Rally:
The Israeli Majority Coalition announced that it will sponsor a large rally on February 19th in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square in support of the plan to evacuate settlements from Gaza and the West Bank. The Israeli Peace Now movement, the Labor Party, the Yahad Party, and the National Kibbutz Movement comprise the coalition. Peace Now director general Yariv Oppenheimer said, "The majority has already decided, Israel is leaving Gaza." The coalition had been planning to hold such an event in response to "the threats of the right-wing and the refusal to take part in settlement evacuation." But a large rally held recently by right-wing opponents of disengagement prompted the coalition to firm up its plans. Speaking of which, Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz announced that he will investigate the funding sources of the right-wing demonstration in Jerusalem last week against the pullout plan. "The settlers are behaving as if they are above the law, and they are grossly violating the law that forbids local authorities that are not part of the disengagement plan from financing the political activity against it," Pines-Paz said. "In the coming days, and in keeping with a directive from the High Court of Justice, accountants will be appointed to review the money transfers from the local authorities in the territories to the political activities of the Settlers Council." Under a directive that came in the wake of a Peace Now petition on the funding of anti-disengagement activities, the Interior Ministry is required to inform the High Court of the results of its accounting review of regional settlement authoritieswithin a month.

Pines-Paz has also asked Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to "employ all legal means against the cynical use made by radical settlers of the memory of the Holocaust." He said such acts are worse than those wretched people who deny the Holocaust and that Israel must not display tolerance toward the despicable phenomena of demeaning the Holocaust and comparing the Israeli government and its leaders to Nazis. Radical right-wingers said they intend to make more extreme use of the Holocaust in their battle against disengagement. "We are going to set up a concentration camp compared to which the orange star will be nothing," sources said. "We will build a structure that looks like a concentration camp and we will show the Jews as they were then-this will shock the country." (Jerusalem Post,1/31/05; Ha'aretz, 1/31/05 & 2/1/05; & Yedioth Ahronoth, 2/1/05)

Drive Time:
Disengagement opponents added some new tactics to their arsenal last week. First,they announced plans to set up an array of volunteers who will drive cars and pick up hitch-hiking soldiers in order to drive them to their homes. During the course of the rides, the drivers will play for their captive audiences CDs with recordings of speeches made by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon against dismantling settlements and in favor of disobeying orders. The driver swill also spend the time trying to persuade the troops to disobey orders to remove people from settlements. The volunteers will be dispersed among the various hitch-hiking stations in order to maximize the plan's effectiveness. Second,anti-disengagement activists are also now trying to persuade Border Police troops to declare they will disobey orders. These activists see the Border Police combatants who will evacuate settlers from their homes as the hard core of the evacuating force. They plan to stand outside Border Police bases around Israel and approach the policemen in order to have them sign a petition stating that they refuse to take part in disengagement. The police view this persuasion campaign with severity. "A policeman who signs a petition to disobey orders will be immediately dismissed," a top police officer at National Police Headquarters said.(Ma'ariv,1/30/05 & Yedioth Ahronoth, 1/31/05)

Hypocrisy 101:
The Settlers Council-the nerve center of Israel's largest anti-disengagement juggernaut-is quietly supporting a legal forum that is lobbying the government for land inside Israel to relocate several Gaza settlements. The council's stance has elicited cries of hypocrisy from groups across the political spectrum, and even sparked speculation that the settlements' governing body has secretly forsaken the Gaza Strip. Zvi Hendel, the only Knesset member living in Gush Katif and a key opponent of disengagement, appointed the forum to investigate the feasibility of moving several settlements, including his own community, Ganei Tal, to land inside Israel. "I am for Gush Katif," he said, "But if we lose this struggle, we need to do something to ensure that we stay a community." While the legal forum is hunting for ways to secure the Nitzanim coast as a new beachhead for the Gaza settlements,over the past several months many individual Gush Katif settlers were practically branded traitors for expressing their willingness to move. The Nitzanim Plan calls for as many settlers as are willing to move into an area about 5,000acres in size along the beach, between Ashdod and Ashkelon. Several communities would arise along that beach, which would include farms and greenhouses. The Disengagement Authority and the government have balked at handing Nitzanim over to the settlers because it is home to a nature preserve, a key birthing spot for sea turtles,and an IDF base. (Jerusalem Post, 2/3/05)

Save Us From Redemption:
The Land Redemption Fund (LRF) has been working for over 20 years in the occupied territories, doing covert work, maintaining a low profile, with an intricate network of intelligence, focusing mainly on blurring the Green Line and linking settlements on both its sides in order to prevent evacuation. If it were to act openly, most likely the Palestinians would prevent their land being sold to settlers, and on the Israeli side, too, there would be opposition to its activities, as happened every time its work was revealed. The fund was established by Gush Emunim, and no political changes have affected its zeal for purchasing land. The LRF has bought in its own name approximately 5,000 acres in the West Bank, most of it funded by money from right-wing Jewish millionaires. About half of the lands were "redeemed" by the fund, and the rest are registered with the fund as the trustee after being bought by private developers. Zvi Slonim, chair of the fund, says that the secrecy of LRF's work is necessary because of the danger in trading in land in the occupied territories. The Jordanian law that applies to the territories decrees a death sentence to those who sell land to Jews throughout the Hashemite Kingdom or who broker such deals. It is unlikely most of these lands would have been sold, he admits, had their original owners known who the buyers were. G., an Israeli Palestinian, sells land in the occupied territories and is in touch with the fund, getting 10% on every deal. G. relates, "The owner will never know who he is selling to. As far as we are concerned, the sale is to Arabs. In fact, this way we protect him. Often I use Palestinian acquaintances to persuade the owner to make the sale to people representing Jordanian real estate people. Most of the lands belong to simple farmers who need the money. In the economic situation today in the Palestinian Authority, it is not so easy to persuade them to sell at an average of $1,000 per [quarter acre]. When the land is closeto a settlement, they demand a lot more."

The LRF's intelligence network is made up of former collaborators who were burned and returned to their villages, retired GSS operatives who are information contractors for pay (they can find out, for example, who owns the land in practice and who works it), and former military governors. The ground work includes patrols and observations by LRF members, as well as initiatives by straw men on behalf of the land owners. Why would a land owner risk a sale? "Because he's fed up with what's going on," said Slonim. "He is not a terrorist, his life is hard, and on the other hand, he receives a great deal of money and can get out with all his extended family.From our ideological standpoint, the fund not only helps bring in more Jews, it also gets rid of moreArabs."

Today the LRF buys land from Palestinians mainly that is near settlements, in order to expand existing settlements. Its main project is to blur the Green Line by linking the settlements to communities inside the Green Line and expanding communities inside the Green Line in the direction of the occupied territories. The goal is to create facts on the ground that make it difficult to decide on a border and on evacuation. "The fund has no interest in just blurring the Green Line, but wants all of Judea and Samaria to move toward the State of Israel," explained attorney Moshe Glick. "Naturally, developers and investors try to be as close as possible to the Green Line for economic reasons. There are councils in Judea and Samaria which themselves are quite close to the Green Line, such as Alfei Menashe, and obviously they will expand in this direction." Not every community inside the Green Line dreams of having a settlement in their back yard, or having fingers of the settlement creep in from outside the Green Line. Nirit is a secular community located totally within the Green Line, and many of its residents are left-wing. Suddenly a neighborhood called Nof Hasharon has attached itself to them, while actually belonging to Alfei Menashe. LRF bought the land with funding from overseas millionaires. It is adjacent to Nirit on the other side of the Green Line and relies on its infrastructure. Nirit residents say that in practice, it has change their community from beinga regular rural community into a quasi-settlement.

In addition, LRF has helped private developers build approximately 13,000 housing units in eight communities inside the Green Line, in order to link settlements to inside the Green Line, or the reverse-it created extensions of Israeli settlements to inside the Green Line. Security officials confirm that the fund's activity does indeed affect the determination of the future border. "In deciding the fence route, there is definitely consideration of the areasthat are owned by Israelis beyond the Green Line," they said.

The fund's activity has changed over the years. In 1979, Israel made a decision allowing Israelis to purchase land from Palestinians in the West Bank. The military governor took over authority from the Jordanian government, and issued an order allowing Israelis to buy land, with the reservation that the land not be registered in their name but in the name of a Jordanian company. Such a Jordanian company was indeed established in Ramallah, El-Sandok Lemidrasat Arrd el-Israel el-Mahduda. Glick said, "When the Intifada broke out, when it was no longer possible to get to Ramallah, the Jordanian companies were moved to the Civil Administration. They know us there, and sometimes they also recommend to developers to approach us to have their land registered through us." (Yedioth Ahronoth,1/31/05)

EU-Israeli Export Arrangement Activated:
The arrangement between Israel and the EU for marking the origin of exports to the EU, indicating whether goods are produced within Israel or the occupied territories, took effect at the start of this month. The deal ended a five-year dispute, during which customs authorities in EU states imposed quotas and deposits on Israeli exports originating from both inside and outside the Green Line. Industry and Trade Minister Ehud Olmert promised that Israel would compensate exporters of goods from the occupied territories for customs duties imposed on their products. The customs duties are estimated at $7-8 million on $120 million worth of exports a year. As a result of the agreement,the EU has already promised to include Israel in the Pan-European accumulation system, involving the EU, EFTA countries, Eastern European states, and Turkey. This means that Israeli firms, especially textiles, will be able to jointly manufacture goods in Israel and in factories in Eastern Europe or Jordan, and still be exempt from customs duties in EU member states. The Industry and Trade Ministrypredicts that the deal will substantially boost Israeli trade with Jordan and Romania. (Globes,1/31/05)

Living In Fear Of A Wardrobe Malfunction: Israel's Second Authority for Television and Radio pulled the plug on commercials produced on behalf of the Geneva Initiative campaign, which portray Palestinian public figures calling on the Israeli public to realize there is a Palestinian peace partner. The decision not to air the commercials on Channels 2 and 10 was reached because the commercials were controversial and meant to influence public opinion. Geneva Initiative chairman Gadi Baltiansky said that the act of addressing the Israeli public with messages of dialogue, reconciliation and peace is not part of the political argument in Israel, and that it is puzzling that in the mean time, Palestinian state television is airing similar ads portraying Israeli officials addressing the Palestinian public. You can view the Geneva advertisements at www.geneva-accord.org (Ha'aretz, 2/2/05)