A fence is just a fence

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

From the Goddess paintings by Silvia Rosenberg, canvas, 35x50

The issues today ranged from the crocodile tears shed by ministers over the very budget they approved – and the process by which they approved it in a 20-hour marathon meeting; how the U.S. is dictating the route of the 'separation/security fence' by its threats to discount the costs of the fence from the loan guarantees it gave Israel and which are so critical for the Israeli economy; and the proposal by the Palestinians that an overall cease-fire deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority be declared.

The background to all of it today was the release of new data from the Central Bureau of Statistics showing a 3 percent rise in the jobless rate last month, with the economy remaining on course toward 11 or possibly 12 percent unemployment by the end of the year and Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu still insisting that growth is just around the corner.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's insistence that the government approve a NIS 10 billion cut in the budget for 2004, and cap the deficit at 4 percent had good reason. Yesterday morning in New York, Israel borrowed $1.6 billon from financial institutions that bought Israel bonds backed by the first phase of American loan guarantees.

That borrowing would not have gone so smoothly if the institutional investors heard that not only was Washington considering dollar for dollar cuts in the loan guarantees against Israeli spending in the settlements and possibly for the fence wherever it moves east of the Green Line but also that the Israeli government did not approve a budget very specifically shaped to prove to those investors that spending is under control and the deficit next year would not go over 4 percent (after this year it will probably top 6 percent).

The economic factor is now going to be part of the pressure that already has begun mounting in Israel in print and radio commentary, calling on the government to drop its objections to the Palestinian proposal for an overall cease-fire. Yesterday, when Jibril Rajoub first raised it in an interview with Israel Radio, anonymous government officials rejected it out of hand. Today there was a slightly different tone – though not from the Prime minister's Office.

Netanyahu, one of the most hawkish of the government ministers when it comes to the Palestinians, came around today, telling Israel Radio that if he were prime minister he would accelerate the fence construction 'full speed ahead' and 'at the same time examine the cease-fire proposal.' He didn't mention he has already stated that he wants the fence to encompass Ariel and Kedumim, two settlement blocs that the Americans have already warned Israel better not be included inside the fence, and Netanyahu indicated that the only people he would authorize to examine the cease-fire proposal would be the security services.

Absorption Minister Tzipi Livne, considered one of the moderates among the Likud ministers, said that while she welcomed 'even an hour of cease-fires … there is no way Israel will entertain any political discussions with the Palestinians as long as Arafat is in charge there. We can't choose the Palestinian leader,' she admitted in an interview with Israel Radio, 'but we can choose who we negotiate with, and he was and is a terrorist and one doesn't negotiate with terrorists.' She did leave open the possibility of a cease-fire deal, however, on the basis of 'a deal that is both a ceasefire and a Palestinian Authority decision to crack down on the terrorist groups ... we can only go into a room and negotiate if we know there won't be a terror state at the end of the road. Arafat doesn't meet that condition and neither do the terror organizations.'

Labor and Meretz, of course, called on the government to accept the cease-fire proposal. Meretz is proposing that for every month that goes by without terror attacks, Palestinian prisoners are released. MK Ran Cohen told Israel Radio that the current government is 'the first in Israeli history to turn down a cease-fire proposal … that is anti everything Israel stands for.'

Meanwhile, MK Ahmed Tibi, considered close to Arafat, confirmed that there are intensive talks underway between the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas, that jailed Marwan Barghouti is involved in those talks by sending envoys to Damascus for meetings with the Hamas politburo there, and that Ahmed Qurei' is working on putting together a government, which could be announced as early as next week. Tibi said that the Meretz proposal was 'serious … and a good starter … because it has the element of mutuality.'

Not that the government doesn't negotiate with 'terrorists' – Hezbollah's Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told supporters of the Palestinian cause in Lebanon today that the negotiations for a prisoner exchange with Israel were in their final stages, and that the deal would include non-Lebanese citizens – Jordanians, Syrians and Palestinians. 'He's trying to position himself as defender of the Palestinians,' said Israel Radio's correspondent. Israeli officials refuse t comment on the brewing prisoner exchange deal.

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