A ROOK FOR A QUEEN:

Commenting on yesterday's Israeli cabinet decisions to approve the disengagement plan and the new route of the security barrier, Nahum Barnea wrote, in part, "If the country were a chessboard, one could say that Sharon sacrificed a rook yesterday to protect the queen. The Sharon government made a trade yesterday: Evacuation of the settlements from Gaza and northern Samaria, in return for the world's acceptance of the de facto annexation of 7% of West Bank territory. All of Israel's prime ministers in the past 30 years have been willing to give up territories in exchange for something-a peace agreement, time, quiet, U.S. support. Sharon is following in their footsteps. In several ways, he is the first: He is the first to agree to evacuate settlements within the Land of Israel; he is the first to give up territories without an agreement; but also the first to receive U.S. support for establishing facts over the Green Line.

This is the main point: Sharon believes that by his initiative he is delaying for years, perhaps permanently, the withdrawal from all of the territories. His tactics have changed, but the plan has remained the same plan: To reach a stable arrangement that will leave a large portion, up to 40% of the area of the West Bank, in Israel's hands. The closest minister to him in the cabinet is not Olmert or Peres. The closest minister to him at present is an opponent of withdrawal, Tzahi Hanegbi. Sharon has not become a dove. He has remained what he always was: A pragmatic hawk. But now he is flying high.

"The dream of a greater Israel was cracked in Begin's autonomy agreement and shattered to bits in Oslo. What Sharon broke in the two resolutions he passed yesterday was another accepted truth: That the settlements are a bargaining chip for negotiations. This falsehood was fabricated by Golda Meir and Yisrael Galili from the Labor Party, and blinded the eyes of generations of Israelis. The settlements were not a bargaining chip, neither in the eyes of the Palestinians nor in the eyes of the settlers themselves. Now that the government has decided to evacuate 26 of them with nothing in return, the lie is revealed. Sharon's life's work was the isolated settlements, those that were supposed to thwart any attempt to divide the land. The billions that were invested in this enterprise have gone down the drain. Time will tell whether the settlement blocs adjacent to the Green Line will succeed in surviving.

When Sharon announced his plan, Marwan Barghouti was the only Palestinian who viewed it favorably. He understood what a crisis it would generate in the Israeli right-wing. Today he is not the only one. Abu Mazen views it as a means of strengthening the Palestinian Authority. He does not believe in an agreement with Sharon. He believes in an agreement with his successors." (Yedioth Ahronoth, 2/21/05)

GRIP TIGHTENS ON WEST BANK:

By a vote of 20-1 with one abstention, the Israeli cabinet approved a new route for the security barrier being built in the West Bank. The new route will take some 7% of West Bank territory, compared with 16% of the West Bank that would have been taken under the original plan. The central changes begin with the inclusion of the Gush Etzion Bloc on the Israeli side, except for the settlements of Nokdim and Tekoa. A protective wall will be built along the length of Route 60, which connects Gush Etzion to Jerusalem. A number of Palestinian villages have been removed from the Israeli side of the fence in response to international pressure. The fence in the southern Hebron hills, which originally annexed a number of settlements and extensive Palestinian territories to Israel, has been moved, and it now runs adjacent to the Green Line.

The new route of the fence includes, on the Israeli side, Maale Adumim and the settlements near it, for the first time. However, the planning work on this section has not been completed. In other words, the cabinet, in practice, did not approve the route of the fence around Maale Adumim, even though Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stated clearly that he wants it included in the fence. The same course of action was taken with regard to Ariel, which was included in the original route but has had its implementation postponed. Sharon declared yesterday that Ariel, Beit Aryeh, and Ofarim had to be within the fence, and ordered that construction begin in these areas. GSS Director Avi Dichter criticized the new route because the changes, in his view, will make Route 443 "a duck shoot" since the fence would pass close to the road connecting Jerusalem to Ben Shemen. Dichter suggested moving the fence further away, and Sharon agreed, even though this involves annexing more Palestinian land. Israeli government sources said the U.S. administration accepted the new route of the fence. (Yedioth Ahronoth, 2/20/05; Israel Radio News, 2/21/05; Ma'ariv, 2/21/05; & Ha'aretz, 2/20-21/05)

MATCHING TIE & HANDKERCHIEF:

IDF officials think that if the Gaza evacuation is coordinated with the Palestinians, it will be possible to complete the operation within a month, instead of three months as planned in the case of a unilateral withdrawal. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said last week that Israel has begun discussing coordinating disengagement with the Palestinians, and this is, indeed, the case. Israel would like the Palestinians to take control of the buffer zone around the areas to be evacuated instead of IDF troops, and for them to promise that Hamas and other groups will not try to attack IDF troops and civilians being evacuated from behind, by means of terror attacks and shooting from afar. In this way, the IDF would be able to redirect its troops from the buffer zones to the task of evacuating the settlements, and thus shorten the operation.

In exchange for Palestinian help, Israel would transfer the area to Palestinian Authority hands in an orderly fashion. Under the unilateral disengagement plan, the IDF is to demolish the homes of settlers. But there are increasing calls to transfer the homes in their entirety, except for synagogues. "The final decision about the homes will certainly be examined," said senior security sources. IDF officials decided last week that if the cease-fire holds until early April, and if there is progress with the Palestinians, the present plans for a unilateral disengagement will be frozen. (Ma'ariv, 2/16/05)

HOME IMPROVEMENTS:

Even though the fate of the settler houses in Gaza has yet to be determined, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is already busy with ideas for the evacuated settlement areas. The Palestinian Housing Ministry has plans for high-rise apartment buildings in Gush Katif, apparently to house refugees from the camps, particularly the overpopulated Jabalya and Shati camps on the edge of Gaza City. Refugees from Khan Yunis have also expressed interest in moving to such new housing. But this plan has two main difficulties. First, resettling refugees could be regarded as giving up the Palestinian demand for the right of return. Second, the large clans in Khan Yunis are already claiming the settlement lands and are not interested in the PA using what they regard as their property for the benefit of refugees, especially not refugees from other areas. The clans are demanding that the Gaza refugees be resettled in the Netzarim area. PA security forces are already planning to take over the settlement areas after the IDF leaves, on the understanding that if Hamas or other groups get in first, it will be very difficult to evict them. The plan is to deploy 22 brigades of the National Security forces in the 22 settlements evacuated, with a brigade for each settlement. (Ha'aretz, 2/15/05)

NEW FENCE POSTING:

The Israeli military plans to put an electric fence in the northern West Bank after this summer's planned evacuation of four settlements there, according to the Israeli military weekly, Bamahane. The fence will extend across a section of the West Bank between the northern towns of Jenin and Nablus. The four West Bank settlements to be evacuated are near Jenin, north of the projected route of the fence, and no settlements would remain there. A string of settlements extends south of the route, around Nablus, and the object of the new fence would be to provide warnings of infiltrations to those settlements. This new electronic fence will be separate from the larger barrier Israel is building along the entire West Bank, often dipping deep into Palestinian territory to accommodate settlements. (AP, 2/13/05)

WORLD BANK OPEN TO PALESTINIAN PROJECTS IN ISRAEL:

In interviews with Globes reporter Ran Dagoni, World Bank VP Middle East & North Africa Region Christiaan J. Poortman and other senior figures at the World Bank indicated that the World Bank does not rule out financing infrastructure projects in Israel that benefit Palestinians, such as a rail link between Gaza and the Ashdod Port or water projects. However, any request for such financing, whether in whole or in part, must come from the Palestinians, since Israel is ineligible for World Bank aid.

Poortman said that Israel is ineligible for World Bank assistance because its GDP is above the aid eligibility threshold, which means that there was "no way" that the institution would participate in financing compensation for Israeli settlers in Gaza. The settlers are solely Israel's responsibility.

When asked what the World Bank would do about projects inside Israel that clearly benefit the Palestinians, such as the Gaza-Ashdod railway, Poortman replied, "I strongly doubt that the World Bank would finance such projects. You should remember that the Palestinians are the beneficiaries of World Bank aid, not Israel. But in cases of specific projects directed to improve the Palestinian people, we'd have to discuss each project on its merits." So far as Globes knows, this is the first time that a senior World Bank official has raised the possibility, even a small one, that the World Bank would channel money for so-called Palestinian projects in Israel. Another World Bank official said that aid recipients usually had a major input in decisions on how to use its aid, and that there was no reason to deny the Palestinians this right. "The Palestinians will have almost the last word, and they'll do what's good for them," he said. (Globes, 2/15/05)

IF THEIR PARENTS ONLY KNEW:

According to a new study from Professor Shifra Sagy of Ben-Gurion University, a third of secular high school students from Gush Katif think that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan is a "legitimate possibility." The study showed that a quarter of youths from Gaza's six secular settlements see the evacuation initiative as the first stage in achieving peace with the Palestinians in the future. In 1982, Prof. Sagy conducted the same study in the secular Sinai settlements evacuated under Israel's peace treaty with Egypt. "Not a single student said then that there would be peace with Egypt following the evacuation of the Sinai," Prof. Sagy said. "The Gaza students are different, and it appears that some of them have come to terms with the plan."

The Sinai youth, as opposed to the Gaza youth, Prof. Sagy said, "were much angrier and scared of their planned evacuation." The secular Gaza students, in comparison, are much more moderate. Prof. Sagy said, "Today, there is more certainty regarding the plan. It is becoming a law, there is an authority which deals with compensation, and things are clearer overall. As a result there is more openness and the students find they are able to say that the plan may lead to peace." Haniel Gross, 16, from the settlement of Elei Sinai, participated in Sagy's study and was one of the students who said she believed that disengagement would lead to peace. "I see the disengagement plan as an opening to peace in the future," Gross said. "The Palestinians really want this and I say that if I am already going through this as a youth then I want to believe this plan will be an opening to peace." (Jerusalem Post, 2/15/05)

HERZOG ON THE HOT SEAT:

The new Israeli Housing Minister, Yitzhak Herzog, found himself on the hot seat last week when word got out that Israel intends to build a new West Bank settlement that could take in settlers uprooted from Gaza.

Gush Etzion Council Chief Shaul Goldstein claimed that when Herzog toured Gush Etzion last Tuesday, they discussed plans for a new settlement that might be built there. "Though it's more in thought than in deed at present," Goldstein said, "we're talking about 3,000-5,000 housing units. [The area of] Gvaot has the largest land potential in Gush Etzion." Gvaot, located in the northwestern corner of the Etzion bloc, is currently the site of a yeshiva and a handful of families associated with it. News of the new settlement spread quickly in the Israeli media, drawing condemnation from the Palestinians and prompting a U.S. official to suggest the plan would not be helpful for fresh efforts to revive the Road Map stimulated by Mahmoud Abbas' recent election as president of the Palestinian Authority. "We are concerned about any building of new or additional settlements in the West Bank, basically because the Road Map calls for a cessation of settlement activity, and we will be looking into this," the official said.

By the end of the day, Herzog's bureau felt compelled to issue a statement saying that his visit to Gush Etzion was mainly designed to hold a discussion with the Settlers Council leadership about the severe tension over disengagement. "The meeting with the [Settlers] Council leadership did not-in any way-deal with issues regarding the development or promotion of communities in Judea and Samaria and the relocation of settlers who will be evacuated from the Gaza Strip," the statement said. ".The issue of establishing a new community in Gush Etzion was not discussed at all during the visit." Nu, and what about later? The statement concluded, "The Housing and Construction Ministry is not promoting such a plan even though Minister Herzog notes that Gush Etzion is considered a settlement bloc that is recognized as part of the State of Israel according to the December 2000 Clinton outline." (Arutz-7, Reuters, & Ministry of Housing Statement, 2/15/05)

DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP:

Israeli police arrested three people recently, including a member of the Likud Central Committee, on suspicion of planning to use forged documents to sell land belonging to absentee Palestinian owners to an American millionaire. The three allegedly planned to sell about 23 acres of land between Jerusalem and the West Bank town of Beit Shahur for $10 million. Two weeks ago, police arrested Issa Safouri, a member of the Likud Central Committee who is thought to have used forged documents and located the American buyer. Another suspect, Yusuf Zuabi, was arrested for allegedly agreeing to pose as the landowner in front of the buyer and to complete the transaction without exposing his partners.

A source close to the investigation stated that the American buyer was not aware of the planned forgery, and that he agreed to purchase the land in order to transfer it to an organization active in the Jerusalem area providing housing to Jews. The investigation is ongoing. (Ha'aretz, 2/13/05)

CEMENTING BETTER RELATIONS:

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz approved a plan for a cement manufacturing and packing plant at the Sufa crossing between Israel and the West Bank. His go-ahead for planning construction of the facility in southern Israel is subject to security considerations. Construction of the plant is slated for land to be allocated by the Palestinian Authority (PA) for this purpose. The plant is expected to employ 150 Palestinians. Mofaz also recently approved a modern facility for unloading cement at the Almuntar/Karny crossing between Israel and Gaza, as an alternative to unloading sacks of cement from trucks. His office said that the facility would promote a rapid flow of large quantities of cement into Gaza for reconstructing infrastructure and buildings there.

On a similar note, the kibbutz movement has said it is willing to help Palestinians farm the areas of Gaza marked for evacuation. An agreement provides for United Kibbutz Industries to supply its PA counterpart with agricultural equipment and the know-how for establishing production lines for produce and farm products. In turn, Palestinian Cooperative Industries will prepare a work plan to delineate the specific needs of cooperative business in the PA. Prior to the Intifada, the kibbutz movement had extensive business ties with the PA. Finally, for the first time in four and a half years, Israel and Jordan will jointly market tourism packages for both countries, according to managers of the Israeli and Jordanian tourism bureaus in the UK. A series of joint seminars for religious leaders and travel agents will be held during the coming summer, and joint regional packages will be marketed at the seminars. (Globes, 2/16/05 & Arutz-7, 2/14/05)

ISRAELI & PALESTINIAN LOCAL AUTHORITY CHIEFS MEET IN ITALY:

The Israeli Union of Local Authorities chair, Adi Eldar, and four deputies visited Italy last week for a secret meeting with the heads of Palestinian local authorities in order to promote peace and cooperation. The delegation met five Palestinian local authority leaders, headed by Nablus Mayor Dr. Hussein Al-Araj, who also serves as Palestinian Authority Deputy Minister of Local Government. The meeting was held under the auspices of the EU program for Israeli-Palestinian peace, and was financed by the EU and Italian government. The purpose of the meeting was to establish a dialogue between local authority leaders, which will promote cooperation and joint programs in economics, culture, education, tourism, and other fields. (Globes, 2/17/05)

RED LINE DRAWN ON KAHANIST FUNDING:

U.S. Undersecretary of Treasury Stuart Levey visited Israel last week and, among other things, discussed with Israeli officials the matter of funding outlawed Jewish terrorist organizations. He said the U.S. Treasury was not lax on cutting off funding to all groups branded terrorist, such as Kahane Chai. Also banned are Voice of Judea, Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea, and some 50 others, most affiliated with Kahane Chai. "They have changed their names a few times," Levey said. "Those organizations that we have designated as terrorist organizations in our legal system, it becomes a crime to donate money to them." Levey's remarks took on extra significance given the level of hyper-activity that Kahanists in Israel are putting into the anti-disengagement campaign.

A new shadowy quasi-organization has sprung up, aiming to usurp the mainstream settlement lobby by launching a series of controversial demonstrations. Unofficial spokespeople for the mysterious group, affiliated with the right-wing Kach and Jewish Leadership organizations, claimed that the group is so secret it does not have a name, although some have dubbed it the "Jewish Tanzim." Whatever it's called, last Monday night, the group surprised the police when it deployed several hundred protesters to some of Israel's busiest intersections during rush hour, bringing large swaths of the country to a halt as they scuffled with police and burned tired to protest the disengagement plan.

Kach activist Noam Federman said, "Those people (i.e., the Settlers Council) cannot handle such a struggle because they receive their funding from the establishment. We expect them to clear the way for good Jews who can handle a real struggle against these tyrannical laws." Baruch Marzel, head of the far-right National Jewish Front, called the launch of the new movement the "start of the new war against the uprooting (i.e., disengagement). This is just the beginning."

Police in Jerusalem were amazed to see how destructive these Kahanist protesters were after some of them were arrested. When the arrestees, mostly women, arrived at the police station, they refused to be interrogated by non-Jewish police, shouting "stinking Arabs" at them. They continued to be disruptive as they called out to each other to keep quiet and not identify themselves. After the 33 rioters were put in cells, they chanted slogans against disengagement and called on police to refuse orders. The next morning, it was discovered that the girls had broken a faucet, shattered bulbs, ripped blankets, and scratched the walls with abusive slogans like, "Rabin is waiting for Arik, death sentence to the traitors!," "Death to the Arabs," "Revenge," etc. Even on their way to the courthouse, they broke lights in the police car, pulled out the roof covering, and broke the air conditioner. (Jerusalem Post, 2/15-16/05 & Yedioth Ahronoth, 2/16/05)

ADDRESSING THE RIGHT-WING THREAT:

Some 238 people changed their address to Gush Katif and the northern West Bank in the past three months. The concern is that some of these are rightists who plan on infiltrating the areas slated for evacuation to try to thwart the disengagement plan, particularly after the IDF declares the areas closed to all but residents. Ha'aretz found that some 500 citizens changed their address to Gush Katif since last summer. Some are residents of the center of the country, and others live in the West Bank. While some may have actually moved to Gaza, a large number did not. Another 100 or so changed their address to Sanur and Homesh, both northern West Bank settlements slated for evacuation.

Elsewhere in the world of legal jujitsu, State Attorney Eran Shendar expects the courts to be clogged during disengagement as part of the war of attrition being waged by evacuation opponents against the law enforcement authorities. Hundreds of lawbreakers and rioters are expected to be arrested every day, and each will need to be presented by the Public Defender's Office. A substantial portion of the suspects who will be arrested are expected to file appeals after appeals with the courts, and thousands of appeals regarding eligibility for compensation are also expected. Finally, the West Bank District Police indicted-for the first time ever-right-wing extremists accused of harassing military officers. The indictment alleges that when Chief Military Chaplain of the Central Command, Lt. Col. Yehuda Weisner, pulled up in his car to the grocery in the settlement of Mitzpe Yeriho, two extremists screamed at him and called him a moser. (Ha'aretz, 2/16/05; Yedioth Ahronoth, 2/16/05; & Ma'ariv, 2/15/05)

MOVING FROM POLL TO POLL:

The Palestine Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) released the results of exit polls that it conducted in conjunction with the Palestinian presidential election, which was won by Mahmoud Abbas, a pragmatist from the secular Fatah party, and the municipal elections held in the West Bank and Gaza, in which Hamas did very well. These polls' findings show that the considerations of voters in the presidential elections were different from those of the voters in the local elections. According to PSR, the first and most important problem as defined by 33% of the voters in the presidential race was poverty and unemployment, while 31% defined continuation of the occupation and its daily practices as the most pressing problem, with the spread of corruption and lack of reform being chosen by 26% of the voters.

When selecting their presidential candidate, voters placed great emphasis on the ability to improve economic conditions (23% of the voters), followed by the ability to reach a peace agreement with Israel (19%), then the ability to enforce law and order (16%). The ability to protect refugee rights in negotiations with Israel came in fourth (14%), followed by the ability to maintain national unity (12%), political affiliation (10%), and the ability to keep the Intifada going (4%). An overwhelming majority of voters (77%) wants crucial decisions in the hands of the Palestinian Authority, while just 15% wants them in the hands of the PLO. 64% said they prefer to give more authority to the president, while 7% prefer to give more authority to the prime minister, and 23% prefer to give both equal powers. Further, 76% of voters said they want their president to negotiate the Israeli disengagement plan, and 61% want him to implement the Road Map. 46% wants him to end the militarization of the Intifada, but the same percentage does not.

In the local elections, PSR found that voters were not significantly different from voters in the presidential elections regarding the identification of the most important problem confronting Palestinians today. 35% identified poverty and unemployment as the biggest problem, 34.5% said the occupation and its daily practices, and 23% said corruption and the absence of reform. But voters in local elections considered candidates' integrity and incorruptibility as the most significant factor in making their choices, with 71% selecting "uncorrupt" as "very important." This factor was followed by 64% saying the candidates' level of education, 51% indicating religiosity, 41% naming positions on the peace process, 26% saying political affiliation, 18% naming family relations, and 16% indicating the voter's personal relations with the candidate.

While the polls clearly indicate that a majority of Gaza voters elected candidates affiliated with Hamas, voters' political sympathies were not necessarily identical to those of the candidates they voted for. While the exit poll showed Hamas receiving over 60% of the seats in local Gaza elections, just 27% of the Gaza voters indicated they support Hamas and 37% indicated that they support Fatah. In the West Bank, sympathy for Fatah in local elections reached 39%, compared to 20% for Hamas. In the end, the political affiliation of candidates was not important (or even known) to voters. (PSR Press Release, 2/12/05)