Gideon Levy may be gloomy about the prospects for change, but not so the Guardian, which takes a glass-half-full approach in proclaiming that "Israeli concessions boost peace hopes". The article fails to specify exactly whose hopes have been boosted, though; the closest we come is the British foreign secretary saying, "It's the sort of announcement that injects momentum into the process at an important time." Here are some of the blinding beams of sunshine:
Olmert pledged that Israel would not build any new settlements in the West Bank, but stopped short of American demands to freeze construction at existing communities, as demanded in the US-backed "road map" for regional peace.
"Let's be straight, we committed ourselves in the road map not to build new settlements and we will not build any," Olmert was quoted as saying by his spokeswoman.
The prime minister also asked ministers to approve the release of the prisoners, although the numbers involved were smaller than the Palestinian leadership had sought.
The only words that really matter in that selection are "stopped short" and "although"; the rest is boilerplate. Israel has frozen settlement construction so often that it must be reaching absolute zero by now, and yet somehow new homes and new settlements just keep popping up.
There's one more statement in the article that clarifies exactly where things stand ahead of Annapolis, in this description of Tony Blair's announcement of an economic revival program for the occupied territories:
The projects are expected to include an industrial park in the West Bank town of Jericho that is linked to the Jordanian border by a trade corridor, potentially bypassing the Israeli checkpoints that make conducting business in the occupied territories close to impossible.
Here's an article from 2004 that explains what announcements like this really mean:
In January 2004 Olmert was a guest at a conference organised by the renowned Israeli industrialist Stef Wertheimer, who is behind a programme for the construction of 100 industrial estates in the region. Wertheimer said: "It is better to occupy people with work rather than let them turn to terrorism." Yet Israeli businesses are motivated neither by philanthropy nor by the promise of peace. "Why do you think the Erez industrial estate is still attractive for 200 factories that have stayed put despite all the terrorist attacks?" asked Gabi Bar. "The most important motive is the low wages paid to the workers: around 1,500 shekels ($332) as against 4,500 shekels ($995), which is the minimum wage in Israel. What is more, the employers don’t have to abide by Israeli labour laws."
A sovereign Palestinian state would have full control over its own borders and its own economic policy--so the very fact that this project is being announced with such fanfare makes it clear that there are no serious plans to allow the establishment of such a state. This is just one more reason you can be sure that nothing of any significance is going to occur at the Annapolis summit.
(For more on Erez, see this posting.)
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