For Sale: Parcels Of The Jewish State
This little column by Hebrew University law professor, Daphna Golan, is not to be missed. While Prime Minister Netanyahu prattles on about Iranian nukes, or the need for Palestinian leaders to recognize Israel as a "Jewish state," the government continues to remake realities on the the ground, utterly confounding the question of what Jewish state is to be recognized. Golan writes:
Israel has long promised there would be no new construction in West Bank settlements...Yet this week, a Jerusalem daily promised that any Israeli factory willing to move to the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim would benefit in three ways. First is the community's "Ideal location," ten minutes from Jerusalem. The map featured in the ad shows only Israeli communities as recommended sites for factory owners to build in - no Palestinian communities, even those next door to the settlements. The second advantage is accessibility. In case the Americans do not understand,...Israel has built roads for Israelis alone to use, so they can live and work in the occupied territories without having to come across Palestinians. Route 443 was paved for the sake of accessibility to Ma'aleh Adumim...Third, the advertisement promises the same tax deductions as in "National Priority Area A," adding: "Ma'aleh Adumim's industrial park has the largest land reserves in the Jerusalem area.
In 1974 the U.S. Congress adopted the Jackson-Vanik provision, widely credited with eventually helping Jews escape the horrors and deprivations of oppression in the Soviet Union by emigrating to Israel, the U.S. and elsewhere. The provision, a trade law amendment, tied preferential tariffs on trade with the U.S. to emigration rights.
Perhaps it is now time for Congress to similarly help Jews in Israel escape the horrors being committed in their name in the occupied West Bank. New legislation a quarter century hence could reduce U.S. aid and credits to Israel in direct proportion to the spending on settlements and associated infrastructure such as Israeli-only roads. I have a feeling that this would have the effect of reducing such spending that benefits only a small number of fanatics and politicians beholden to them while prolonging the agony of the region that afflicts both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples as a whole.
May 5, 2009 10:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
(1) Uncle Sam is not quite so much a Master of the Universe today as thirty years ago. Paying witless foreigners to behave themselves may cost too much nowadays.
(2) The foreigners chiefly in question here do not, I think, really need Sam's money all that much just at the moment.
(3) Even if both those points are wrong, the general proposition that all foreigners are always up for sale might be questioned.
Happy days.
May 6, 2009 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
The amount of money that would be WITHDRAWN, NOT OFFERED, and the direct motivational effect thereof are very secondary if not trivial parts of this proposal. The key point would be the demonstration value, what our worst-ever yet intelligent late and much unlamented ex-president might have called "sending a signal".
May 6, 2009 7:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jim Baker tried something like this in 1991 with loan guarantees. AIPAC mobilized against him. Perhaps we will get something quite like this again, if the Israeli government refuses to follow Obama's lead in bilateral talks with the PA.
May 5, 2009 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bernard: how do you feel, as an American citizen, knowing that the United States democratic institutions of government are influenced to such an extent by AIPAC, that a case can be made that substantially agrees with the contentious submission of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt?
Whereas in Europe there is an increasing animosity against Israeli (not Jewish) brutality and thuggery, here in the US there is, unquestionably, a Jewish problem in that apparently 90% of American applaud and support Israeli actions whatever they may be - and that includes the gratuitous killing of 300 Palestinian unarmed women and children - just a few weeks ago. Being as you have a foot in both camps - how do you remain so restrained? You know the truth, just as I do - and you must be aware how deeply unpleasant and dangerous it is.
May 5, 2009 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for this, Professor Avashai. It really brings into sharp focus the fact that Israel has not honored it's own pledges over the years, even as it's demanded that the Palestinians do so before any progress toward peace can be made. Since the original article was written and after you wrote this, Biden's remarks at AIPAC, saying that Israel must support a two-state solution and cease further settlement activity have gotten a lot of press. The speech represents a sea-change in our approach to the middle east. Kudos to Biden, and of course to Obama. Let's hope that the words are backed up with action, and that there will be no new Israeli factories built in Ma'aleh Adumim.
As a bit of an aside, I actually once saw an advertisement in the online version of a Florida newspaper for the sale of property in an illegal Israeli settlement in the OTs. Amazing, eh?
May 5, 2009 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
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