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October 13 2007
The New York Times just reported that I$rael attacked an incomplete Syrian building, thus vindicating the Syrian account of events on September 6.(1) If the New York Times is correct, the attack fits into a pattern of how in the name of security, the I$raelis cripple the surrounding Arab economies, and then pretend to wonder why none of their neighbors act like contented couch potatoes. The last bombing of Lebanon fit the same pattern: the I$raelis faced unhappy Arabs, so unhappy that the Hezbollah defeated the I$raelis in land battle, and so the I$raelis did billions of damage to Lebanon's roads and other infrastructure by air bombing.
It is not for MIM to tell the Palestinians what deal if any to accept in connection to the upcoming November meeting called by the Bush administration in Maryland. We hope the Palestinians won't give their enemies a photo op in Maryland, unless they get an overall solution, not the usual about "giving up terrorism before X." We can say, however, what role we would like to see the United $tates play. The United $tates has no land for Palestine, but it does have money.
It was the German Holocaust of the Jews that caused I$rael to form, and so it is Germany that owes reparations to Palestinians. Amerikans also owe Palestine reparations for egging on the I$raelis. I$raelis should pay, but realistically, I$raelis would not be able to pay enough money fast enough to make a difference. The Zionists too often turn around and use the situation of unhappy Palestinians as a reason to kill more Palestinians and back out of peace deals.
Presuming that I$rael agrees to the pre-1967 borders or their equivalent and the division of Jerusalem in exchange for Arab diplomatic recognition, citizenship and economic problems remain. The eugenicists of I$rael may be happy with a two-state solution that guarantees a state of a Jewish character, but there will remain the issue of "right of return" and I$raeli security. Perhaps if that problem were solved, Kadima, Labor and various other crazy right-wing eugenics-inclined Jewish parties would support a peace plan.
The settler/U.S.-military-contractor alliance turns the screws ever tighter on the Palestinians, ruining their economy. Then this same alliance points to the Palestinians at war with them to say "see they are crazy." Drive them crazy, and use that as a justification for further war. Some I$raelis are beginning to see there is not an infinite supply of soldiers and settlers for that expansion strategy. It's important that no one accept an I$raeli peace plan built to fail, because it allows the I$raelis to strangle the Palestinian economy.
The right of return and I$raeli security in a two-state solution require a deus ex machina. The I$raelis are essentially demanding to live next to contented middle-class neighbors like themselves. The trouble is, I$rael by itself can never improve the Palestinian economy quickly enough to produce contented Palestinians. The class gap is too great. Pulling out of the Gaza Strip does not end its worse-than- ghetto-like nature. Nor does the Gaza pull-out fulfill Palestinian political aspirations.
The U.$. contribution to the solution to the problem has to emphasize speed and money. Palestinians should all receive deeds that cannot be sold, instantly. Where I$raelis are yet to leave, there have to be lease payments to Palestinians in the meantime, instantly. If there are not middle class digs to live in, green cards should be offered instantly until the housing can be prepared. To produce contented citizens, Palestinians will have to go on Amerikan or German-style welfare for a couple years. It will work, because it does in the united $tates and Europe-- buying off the proletariat.
As for the right to return, that can be phased in with the use of money as well. Amerikans should also offer citizenship to Palestinians willing to give up their right to return.
Tony Blair is visiting with Palestinians in the details and he sees the economic problems.(2) Palestinians should not accept "no" for an answer from the Amerikans and EU when it comes to temporary welfare programs. We do not want the cheap kind of charity hand-outs, but full-scale European welfare state services--and watch the Palestinians calm down in a hurry. They will become as oblivious to revolution as Amerikan Blacks or Irish people. Then as the Palestinian state is built, the West can also pay for the right of return for people not already on Palestinian territory. MIM would say the money should come out of the Pentagon.
MIM is not being sarcastic. The Palestinians are only 10 or 11 million people, less than three times the population of Puerto Rico,(3) which the united $tates has managed to pacify with a permanent welfare program and citizenship for Puerto Ricans who move to the mainland United $tates. Coincidentally, the population of Puerto Rico is approximately equal to the combined population of Palestinians already living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.(4)
The I$raelis like to paint the Palestinians as a people with nothing better to do than build Qassam rockets in the backyard, but they are people like any other. They can be turned into petty- bourgeois pacified people to live next to I$rael and it can be done for a lot less money than the cost of the Iraq invasion. That's not to mention the economic meltdown the West is headed toward if it does not solve the Mideast problem. Hopefully the imperialists will not be penniwise and pound-foolish.
MIM might be wrong, but we would guess that the two-state solution requires a welfare-state intervention in the short-run in order to work. The Palestinians have to be bought off entirely.
If not, the Arab world plus the Iranians have shown that they are willing to continue on the path of revolution. The joint dictatorship of the proletariat of the oppressed nations is another solution if the two-state idea cannot be managed by short-sighted imperialists. At this time, we are showing our friends in the Arab world and Iran that we at MIM are working for the "moderate" bourgeois solution for now. If we fail, by 2009 at the latest, it is likely the West will take a turn toward economic turmoil and decline. We would also predict an economically-induced demographic catastrophe for I$rael without Palestinians firing a shot. At that time, we hope our "moderate" friends will remember MIM's warnings and turn to Maoism. Also, even if the "moderates" succeed, we would remind them that their success was only possible because of the small size of the Palestinian nation. Imperialism cannot buy off the whole world that way without giving up its class character.
Alternatively, if the West buys out the Palestinians, we predict that the Iran nuclear question can be solved. This in turn will mean there will be no face-off with the Russians in Czechoslovakia and Poland. It will also enable the U.$. troops to withdraw from Iraq much more peacefully than otherwise. So U.$. lives are not just on the line in the long run from all the terrorism and wars I$rael causes. U.$. lives are already on the line in Iraq, depending on what I$rael does and what happens in Maryland.
Note:
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/washington/14weapons.html?hp
2. "Blair admits he is shocked by discrimination on the West Bank," http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article3055788.ece ;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2190320,00.html
3. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/rq.html
4. www.wikipedia.org