Soccer Dad

Counterproductive

Israel long has had a problem with the Palestinians. Israel cannot absorb the Palestinians. But neither can it deny them rights. In order to solve that problem, in 1993 the PLO was imported from Tunis so that it (or its successor organization) would be a government for the lands that Israel would withdraw from. In the past twelve years Israel has seen peace slip further and further away. That's because every step of the way, Israel or the world community or both made mistakes that rewarded terror. These mistakes continue until this day, but it's interesting to review this march of folly. I don't presume to include every mistake; I don't remember every one. This is meant as an overview but not a comprehensive one. In "Yasser Arafat and the Myth of Legitimacy", (free registration required) Daniel Polisar describes, in detail, how Arafat installed his dictatorship over the areas Israel handed to him subverting the numerous democratic institutions that had existed in the Palesitnian areas under Israeli rule. For example:

What made the PA security forces particularly effective in stifling dissent was their wide range of political activities. The intelligence units, especially the PSS, sought to identify opponents of Arafat and the PA, and to win their cooperation or their silence. Their officers engaged in numerous tactics that are off-limits to police in democratic states: Threatening political opponents, censoring the media, intimidating NGO leaders and human rights activists, and enforcing business monopolies given to Arafat’s allies.

But it wasn't enough that Arafat subverted freedom, the West quite happily funded Arafat's efforts. Daniel Pipes has noted that the Palestinians are one of the greatest recipients of foreign aid:

Aid-wise, residents of the West Bank and Gaza have hardly been neglected until now. They receive about $300 per person, making them, per capita, the world's greatest beneficiaries of foreign aid. Strangely, their efforts to destroy Israel have not inspired efforts to crush this hideous ambition but rather to subsidize it. Money being fungible, foreign aid effectively funds the Palestinian Arabs' bellicose propaganda machine, their arsenal, their army, and their suicide bombers.

Even forgetting about the corruption, Patrick Clawson recently wrote how poorly conceived aid hurts rather than helps the Palestinians:

Consider that after Oslo, USAID tackled the housing problem in Gaza by building 192 apartments at a cost of $35,000-$42,000 each, in a place where per capita income was around $1,200 a year. Guess who got the apartments: politically well-connected families, some of whom occupied multiple units without paying. What's more, wasted money can often beget additional wasted money. For instance, after the EU built a beautiful hospital in Gaza, the EU auditor's report noted, "The cost of maintaining and using this hospital will be well over the financial means of this country." So the hospital stayed shut. But meanwhile, the P.A. had to pay to truck in sewage to the empty facility to prevent a breakdown of its otherwise idle waste-processing equipment.

But recently we've seen mistakes multiply.
With the upcoming withdrawal from Gaza we see Israel potentially making the same mistake as it did when it withdrew from Lebanon. Jewish Current Issues examines one aspect of this:

Haaertz reports on Condoleezza Rice’s talks with Israeli officials over the weekend:

Rice said that she is very worried that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will be weakened and collapse, and that Hamas will take over the Gaza Strip after the Israeli disengagement.

Perhaps Rice and Israeli officials should consider whether it is the disengagement itself that will lead to Abbas’ collapse, because it will be a victory claimed by Hamas.

Jewish Current Issues backs up this belief by quoting Dennis Ross:

Suddenly, there was a new model for dealing with Israel: the Hizbollah model. Don’t make concessions. Don’t negotiate. Use violence. And the Israelis will grow weary and withdraw.

And then of course Jewish Current Issue notes that "Hizbollah now has 12,000 rockets capable of hitting northern Israel" that points to another consequence of the withdrawal from Lebanon. Now that Hezbollah is no longer forced to defend itself on its own territory, it has been able to expand its operations and stockpile arms. And it seems to be reported regularly that Hezbollah has increased its operations into Judea, Samaria and Gaza. There's no reason to assume that Hamas won't become more active in Judea and Samaria once it no longer has to defend itself in Gaza.
And of course, Hamas is not the only terrorist group in Gaza. Why Fatah exists there too. And the United States wants to make sure that Fatah gets more weapons. Mere Rhetoric, wonders what it is that Foggy Bottom does to smart people:

What is it about being a member of the State Department that absolutely disables a person from fairly evaluating the Israeli-Arab situation? Secretary Rice was all smiles about the fantastic job that Abbas is doing fighting terror:

After meeting with Palestinian Authority leaders in Ramallah on Saturday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's efforts to clamp down on terrorism.

Seriously, he's doing a fantastic job:

Gunmen of the Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades of Fatah killed Dov, 58, and Rachel Kol, 53, while they were driving on a road that links the Kissufim crossing to the settlement bloc in the southern Gaza Strip. Dov and Rachel Kol were laid to rest in Jerusalem on Sunday afternoon.

That's Fatah - that's a member of his own party. Those are his people doing the murdering. So you can understand why Israel would be loath to, for instance, transfer arms to Fatah the way that Secretary Rice wants them to.

There you have it. Invite a terrorist organization to your territory. Say it's legitimate. Give it money. Give it guns. Praise it even if it does nothing or even continues its evil ways. And it will get the message. As Elder of Ziyon notes:

In short, lying works for Palestinians. It is rewarded with news stories that either never get retracted or get corrected so silently that the damage can never be undone. When a behavior is rewarded, it gets repeated; this is simple behavioral psychology.

and

But now, Israel has turned a punishment into a reward. The retreat from Gaza is the biggest reward that Palestinians could have asked for - it directly gives them a piece of what they always wanted, control over land that Jews had control over. No amount of doubletalk can deny that the Palestinian terrorists perceive that they are now being rewarded for terror. And as in countless other situations, the reward ensures that the behavior that caused the reward will continue.

If terrorism isn't made too expensive it will continue. Now with Israel hellbent on withdrawal from Gaza and the United States practicing "Clintonism without Clinton" the Palestinians have once again learned that terrorism pays. And it pays mighty handsomely.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at July 26, 2005 07:24 AM | TrackBack