The spin

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

Fear the fear still life painting by Silvia Rosenberg, 35x50 cm on canvas

Everyone was spinning today. The Palestinians, sensing the Hezbollah and Israel are growing close to a prisoner exchange deal, were spinning that the deal is coming soon, and would include high ranking political prisoners from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fateh, including Marwan Barghouti.

But the Israelis were spinning that the Palestinians were jumping the gun – first of all, Barghouti is on trial, and only after a judge decides on his fate will it even be possible to consider what to do with him.

And at least as far as Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi is concerned, a guilty verdict against Barghouti as an orchestrator of terror would keep the popular West Bank Fateh leader behind bars. And, said Hanegbi, as of today, the Prison Service has not received any requests from the Missing in Action committee handling the negotiations, to prepare prisoners for release. Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said that even if the executive branch decides to free Barghouti, it would require a lengthy legal process 'that would have to go through me' and he is against freeing Barghouti.

It was possible the Palestinian spin, as it appeared in the Palestinian press, was aimed more at Hezbollah than Israel, trying to step up the pressure at the last minute for some more prisoners to be freed. Currently, the reports cum rumors are referring to 400 prisoners, 200 of whom would be Palestinian. And according to the Palestinian press, the deal will be done right after the Jewish New Year holiday this weekend.

But there were also other spins at work.

The prime minister's bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, and Defense Ministry Director General Amos Yaron came out of a meeting with Condoleezza Rice telling the Israeli press in Washington that the U.S. was not planning going to deduct the cost of the fence from the loan guarantees.

An hour later, Rice was telling the American press that the U.S. was vehemently opposed to the fence, and the U.S. was waiting to see what Israel does about the fence before deciding whether to discount the dollar for dollar expenditure from the loan guarantees, a clear hint it wasn't ruling out a costly dollar for dollar discount.

And still the spin wasn't over.

Possibly because Rice was so forthright against the fence, Secretary of State Colin Powell told a TV audience that while the roadmap calls for simultaneous Palestinian moves against terror and Israeli freezes in settlements, the U.S. nonetheless understands how difficult it would be for an Israeli prime minister to appear to be bowing to American pressure when the Palestinians still haven't taken firm action against terror.

Other spins today included a Haaretz scoop saying that in addition to the military spending to protect the settlements, the state spends an extra NIS 2.5 billion a year on the settlements, for an average NIS 10,000 per settler – far more than what it spends on anyone inside the Green Line; Vicki Knafu, the single mom who tried to spark a revolution this summer by walking to Jerusalem from Mitzpe Ramon, finally decided to go home to the Negev town, where she'll run for city council; the country's chief statistician claimed that treasury officials don't always reveal all the data to the politicians, which can have an impact on policymaking; the state attorney meanwhile has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, asking that it force Gilad Sharon to hand over documents to the police necessary for the investigation into alleged bribery of the Sharon family. According to the reports about the appeal, the state prosecution needs the documents to prove the prime minister took a bribe.

Indeed, just about the only item today in the news that didn't seem to be about spin was that Simha Dinitz, the former ambassador to Washington and advisor to Golda Meir, passed away jn Jerusalem at the age of 74.

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The Other Israel edited by Tom Segev, and published in September 2002, is a selection of essays, articles, and other jouranlist writings by a range of Israeli voices articulating practical, legal, and moral dissent to the Israeli government. The book questions popular assumptions about Israel's true supporters: are they those who support occupation, settlement and reprisal, or those calling for reconciliation and a just settlement? The book challenges the narrow perception that Zionism means taking over 'Judea, Samaria and the Gaza dsitrict.' Contributing writers include: David Grossman * Amira Hass * Avi Shlaim * Ilan Pappe * Gideon Levy * Meron Benvenisti * Neve Gordon * Shulamit Aloni * Baruch Kimmerling * Ami Ayalon * Ze'ev Sternhell * Gila Svirsky * Uri Avnery

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