In writing several of these notes I have been tempted to use the term "clowns" for the Palestinian leadership. Due to my standards of political correctness, I have deleted the term before sending on my composition.
Now there is another occasion to use the term, and to apply it to American officials as well. Two recent cases justify the word, and illustrate the folly of relying on American leadership to impose peace on this corner of the Middle East.
Maybe this time the word will survive my editing.
One case illustrates the severe retardation in the development of a Palestinian community. It justifies Golda Meir's comment that the Palestinians do not exist as a people.
The episode began in Gaza, whose antipathy to the Palestinians of the West Bank is part of the problem. A week ago forces of the ruling Hamas party attacked the homes of an extended family, identified with the Fatah party. Hamas charged that members of the family had killed a number of Hamas activists.
When the battled turned dramatically in favor of Hamas, some 180 surviving fighters fled to the border with Israel. Israeli forces granted them temporary refuge, with the intention of sending them to the West Bank.
But the people in charge of the West Bank did not want them, and urged that Israel return them to Gaza. One explanation was that the Fatah leadership on the West Bank did not want to encourage Fatah people to leave Gaza, and thereby assure continued Hamas control of Gaza. Another explanation was that the family that fled Gaza belonged to the wrong faction of Fatah, and was not welcome by the Fatah leadership in the West Bank.
When the Israeli military began sending the family back to Gaza, Israeli civil rights organizations obtained a temporary injunction from the Supreme Court. They argued that the fighters would be seized, tortured, and perhaps killed by Hamas.
Some members of the family had been returned to Gaza, and were immediately arrested by Hamas. Within a day, the Fatah leadership in the West Bank capital of Ramallah relented, and agreed that Israel could transport members of the family to the West Bank city of Jericho. Israel did this, except for those held for questioning because of suspicion that they had been involved in acts of violence against Israelis.
The bizarre behavior of American officials also concerns the Palestinians of Gaza.
The Fulbright Foundation and other American sources awarded fellowships for study in the United States to several young people from Gaza. Israel would not grant them permission to transit the country in order to reach the United States, in line with a policy of not granting entry to Palestinians from the Hamas ruled area, except for cases of medical emergency. Secretary Condoleezza Rice led a campaign of pressure. Israeli officials Israel acceded to its best friend, examined the cases, and found that some of the students could pass through the country.
Then State Department officials began acting like clowns. While two Palestinians were on the way through Israel to Jordan, the American consulate personnel accompanying them found that the passport of one student had expired. After some haggling at the border between Israel and Jordan, Israeli officials granted a new travel document.
Then the Americans discovered something else that they should have known earlier, that Jordan does not open its border to transits from Israel except in cases of prior notification.
At this point, one of the American officials sat on the ground in protest against the Jordanians. Perhaps it was a case of "how dare" the Jordanians embarrass the United States Government.
Then the Jordanian border post closed for the night.
Further communication between American and Jordanian officials managed to wave the lack of prior notice and the closing of the border post, and the students entered Jordan on their way to the Amman airport.
They flew from Amman to the United States, but on arrival in America they learned that their visas to the United States had been cancelled. Immigration officials put them on the next plane back to Jordan.
The Americans are not explaining the visa cancellations other than by saying that information received after the visas were granted led to their being cancelled. Secretary Rice has ordered an investigation.
What should Israel do when pressured by the American government to accept the creation of a Palestinian state? The Palestinians are light years away from being ready to manage their own affairs in a way to serve their people and live in peace alongside Israel. The highest ranking American officials do not seem to understand Palestine, or some other places in this region. Lower ranking Americans have not shown the sense to check the validity of passports before beginning a journal, transit requirements of Jordan, or whether the visas earlier granted by their own government are still valid.
In the presence of the American empire, no matter how incompetent, Israel can never say no in a manner than is explicit and insulting. But Israel must look after its own interests. This may involve some tough negotiations and occasional military incursions when there remains intense hostility in the West Bank and Gaza. It may also involve independent action with respect to the more ominous problem of Iran.
Clowns should limit themselves to circuses and birthday parties. In positions of authority they may make us laugh, but only to hide our fear.
Ira Sharkansky (Emeritus)
Department of Political Science
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Home tel: 972-2-532-2725
Cell phone: 054-683-5325
Fax: 972-2-582-9144
msira@mscc.huji.ac.il