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Go Home Gaza Prepares to Declare Independence (From Palestine)

PLANK SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

Gaza Prepares to Declare Independence (From Palestine)

BY JONATHAN SCHANZER

It’s no secret that Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist faction that controls Gaza, has long considered exchanging its underground smuggling tunnels to Egypt for a policy of above-board trade. What has only recently begun to register is that Hamas may be contemplating a bolder political gambit still: Cutting its financial ties to both Israel and the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank, in preparations for declaring full independence on behalf of Gaza.

Al-Hayat first reported the story on July 22. The London-based Arabic daily noted that Hamas was poised to sever its limited economic ties with Israel, open a free trade zone with Egypt at the Rafah border crossing, and declare itself liberated. Before the story could gain traction, however, senior Hamas leaders Mahmoud al-Zahhar and Salah al-Bardawil quickly disavowed the reports.

But senior Gazan officials quietly acknowledged to me in recent meetings that Hamas, a Muslim Brotherhood splinter group, and President Mohamed Morsi’s new Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt, are actively discussing this controversial idea. Hamas has approached the question patiently since conquering the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Now, after a half decade of economic hardship resulting from the Gaza embargo, the Hamas government appears to believe that 1.7 million Gazans would welcome the free flow of goods above nearly all else.

The international community may be another story. Hamas is still a designated terrorist group in the United States and elsewhere. In hopes of avoiding sanctions or other roadblocks, unaffiliated businessmen in Gaza are now working to create an independent corporation to manage the Rafah crossing. According to a Gaza entrepreneur who wishes to remain anonymous, it is slated to be called the “Palestine Company for Free Trade Zone Area.”

But even if Hamas can satisfy the concerns of the international community, other Arabs might stand opposed. Egyptians are particularly ambivalent. In April, Palestine Press quoted an Egyptian official who opposed the move because it would “cause great harm to the Palestinian cause.” It was the Egyptians, after all, who had labored to bring about the Hamas-Fatah unity agreement of May 2011. Those who have benefited from the smuggling tunnels will also be unhappy. If the Sinai Bedouin population is cut off from the lucrative black market that brings everything from Iranian rockets to groceries into the Gaza Strip, the recent violence in the Sinai could be only a small sign of things to come.

Egypt is also deeply reluctant to let Israel off the hook. As long as Israel controls Gaza’s borders, airspace and coastal waters, it is seen as the occupying power. If Hamas declares independence and opens a free border with Egypt, one could argue that Israel would no longer be saddled with responsibility for the Gazans, and managing the flow of goods that enter and exit the territory—a task that drains Israel of resources and manpower. “Why would Egypt want to help out Israel in this way?” asked one Egyptian academic.

But for Cairo, there are upsides. For one, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood enjoys a long-standing relationship with the Gaza Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas’ antecedent).  Integrating Hamas with other Middle Eastern economies through Rafah would unquestionably boost the movement’s legitimacy. Moreover, it would finally ease the hardships Gazans have endured under the Israeli trade embargo.

Perhaps more importantly, by taking Hamas’ tunnel economy and bringing it out into the light of day, the Egyptian government stands to cash in. Through taxes or fees, Rafah could generate new revenues at a time when a moribund economy has officials tightening their belts. Some entrepreneurs are even looking to build businesses in Sinai, just to make it easier to ship their goods to the Gaza border.

But this would be no consolation to the Palestinian Authority. The Ramallah-based government in the West Bank is hardly thrilled at the prospect of a breakaway Hamas republic. PA President Mahmoud Abbas would be identified as the Palestinian leader who allowed Hamas to tear Gaza away from the already diminished territories Palestinians claim for their national project. It is no great secret that the two factions have failed to agree on terms of reconciliation since the Palestinian civil war of 2007, but this could mark the end of an attempt to paper over their differences.

Moreover, as it stands now, both Palestinian governments depend largely on foreign aid and trade with Israel for their economic survival. If Gaza breaks off, the PA would be seen as clinging to the Israeli economy, while Hamas joins the Arab Spring economies. Not exactly the best way to show frustrated West Bankers that their leaders are working for the “liberation of Palestine,” especially amidst the recent unrest over economic conditions.

However, all would not be lost for Abbas and the PA if Gaza were to secede. Hamas has saddled the PA with a number of expenses. The financially strapped PA spends nearly 50 percent of its annual budget on Gaza, even though it no longer controls the territory. Additionally, the PA has continued to pay salaries for some 70,000 PA workers in Gaza, even as Hamas created a new public sector comprised of Hamas loyalists. The PA has kept the funds flowing to maintain its claim on Gaza, while also ensuring that their people don’t go hungry. A breakaway Gaza might allow the PA to wash its hands of this redundant obligation.

Another possible plus is that the PA can disavow Hamas when it resurrects its attempt to achieve non-state member status at the United Nations. Until now, the Palestinian leaders have been dogged by questions surrounding the impact of the territorial split and the potential for Hamas’ terrorist ideology to undermine the UN initiative.

Finally, there is Israel. Some Israelis would lament the breakaway on immediate financial grounds; the parties that stand to lose the most in the short-term are those who run “chop shops” that send stolen cars through tunnels from Gaza to Egypt, where they are disassembled and sold for parts. Other Israelis may harbor legitimate longer-term fears—that Egypt would allow Hamas to obtain an even deadlier arsenal. But the Gaza breakaway would also likely prompt a collective sigh of relief in Israel. When the Israelis withdrew from Gaza in 2005, they hoped to disengage completely. Here’s their chance. Israelis will still undoubtedly face the threat of rocket fire and terrorist infiltration, but they’re already familiar with these challenges.

In the meantime, Morsi and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh are reportedly still far from an agreement. According to political scientist Mkhaimar Abusada of the al-Azhar University in Gaza, the two parties may require anywhere from six months to another two years to iron out a deal whereby “Hamas goes its own way,” given all the legal issues and potential opposition involved.

In the meantime, Haniyeh is bending over backwards to demonstrate that Hamas can keep the border with Egypt terror-free. The Egyptians remember when, in 2008, Hamas breached their border barriers with explosives, creating a chaotic scene in which hundreds of thousands of Gazans flooded into Egypt over almost two weeks. Interestingly, shortly after that incident, Egypt’s parliament began to examine “a proposal to set up a free trade zone at [the] Rafah crossing along the Egypt-Gaza border,” but the deal apparently went nowhere.

Clearly, Hamas has revived the idea, but the security concerns haven’t gone away. After several acts of violence against the Egyptian military involving Palestinian assailants in Sinai, Hamas has undertaken security efforts on the border to build confidence that it can be a trustworthy partner. The recent delegation of 11 Egyptians to Gaza can be viewed as latest installment in a series of discussions on the security challenges that need to be resolved before an economic union can materialize.

Will the Rafah deal happen? Some Gazans seem to think so. They’re further encouraged by press reports that Hamas is standing up a diplomatic corps, which would ostensibly exist to help carry out the needs of an independent political entity.

Still, some observers appear unconvinced. Hugh Naylor of The National quipped on Twitter that the “Likelihood Egypt obliges Hamas and fully opens Rafah [is] seemingly as likely as Hamas allowing me to down a Gaza City beer in broad daylight.” Of course, if there’s one thing to be learned from Gaza’s recent turbulent history, it’s to never discount the unthinkable.

Jonathan Schanzer, a former counterterrorism intelligence analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He tweets at @JSchanzer. 

 

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38 comments

I'm not sure that letting Gaza go independent is a bad thing. Gaza and West Bank are from two different countries and will never be a unified government. Splitting them up simplifies the task for Israel. It sounds kind of funny but they could negotiate two separate deals. It's a shame that Hamas has to keep lobbing rockets into Israel. No way Israel can allow this to happen when the dummies are trying to bomb them on a regular basis. Nice to see Egypt stepping up to the problem finally after 20-30 years, but they need to understand Gaza a little bit better.

- CRS9TNR

September 10, 2012 at 6:46pm

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hell, I have been advocating this for years, let the Republic of Gaza go their own way and there will be no need for any kind of expressway between the West Bank and Gaza, an independent Gaza (which I am sure would have a figurehead non Hamas President, at least initially) would also spur the Palestinians and Israelis to get their collective asses together and go about creating a Palestine on the West Bank.

- blackton

September 10, 2012 at 10:08pm

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Hamas wants their cut of the offshore natural gas. And, I still think the Saudis want an oil pipeline along/through the Sinai to Gaza. Far more promising economic development than reliance on foreign aid. Gaza as mini-Qatar. And maybe the western left will decide to send their flotillas somewhere else. Of course, this rational deal would really screw up the palestinian narrative.

- K2K

September 11, 2012 at 12:30am

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I think it's a rational idea also.

- Sophia

September 11, 2012 at 2:19am

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"Of course, this rational deal would really screw up the palestinian narrative." K2K has a point. This would further expose the flimsiness of the Palestinian narrative. Gaza has often been an Egyptian satrapy or garrison since Pharaonic times. Much of the population is of Egyptian origin. The new Muslim Brotherhood government of Egypt (created with help from the Obama/Clinton administration) will not hesitate to use Gaza to open another front with Israel. There will be no respite for the weary.

- amidut

September 11, 2012 at 8:19am

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"Israelis will still undoubtedly face the threat of rocket fire and terrorist infiltration, but they’re already familiar with these challenges." How shall I say this? When Gazans currently launch rockets and terrorists into Israel NOW, it's incursion from a territory, I suppose. But if Gaza was an independent nation, launching a rocket into a neighboring country is an act of war. To simply write off "acts of war" because "it happens all the time" is to forgive Hamas for acts of war most other nations wouldn't put up with. And to insist Israel put up with acts of war -- why? Why should they? If Mexico was launching the occasional rocket into Texas, I don't think you'd say America should just "shrug it off".

- AllanL5

September 11, 2012 at 8:42am

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If the Gazans want to be independent of the West Bank Palestinians, they have as much justification as the Kosovars, the Croats, or the Bosnians vis a vis the Serbs. Any independent Palestinian state, even if still blockaded by Israel but constrained to behave as a state or suffer the consequences, would be an improvement over the current situation. And if the Gazans, with an open border to Egypt, managed to make a go of it and, with state responsibilities, gave up their pointless rocket attacks, that would point the way toward a broader final settlement. Israelis who want peace should welcome this development. Israelis who want perpetual war so that they can hang on to the illegal West Bank settlements will deplore it, giving whatever excuse is convenient.

- roidubouloi

September 11, 2012 at 11:43am

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Sure, if Hamas really wants this development so they can create a modern trading economy with Egypt and stop rocketing Israel. That would be wonderful. If instead Hamas wants this development so they can import bigger and better missles to shoot at Israel, it won't serve the purpose of peace very much. You'll have to decide from their rhetoric which goal they really have in mind.

- AllanL5

September 11, 2012 at 12:27pm

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I think deeds rather than rhetoric will tell. On all sides in this dispute, there are huge disconnects between rhetoric and actions.

- roidubouloi

September 11, 2012 at 12:52pm

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Roid, I agree. I would add one more piece to the equation. Other regional actors who have an interest in perpetuating the conflict will attempt to scuttle any prospects for peace created by Gaza statehood and/or attempt to exploit the fledgling state for nefarious purposes. For peace to prevail, such interference must be successfully thwarted.

- Nicomachus

September 11, 2012 at 1:42pm

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Allan, being an independent nation, having embassies and a chief of state, having money flow into there area by the Gulf states I firmly believe greed, corruption, and an improving life for the citizens will restrain most of the Hamas thugocracy. And how much stomach will the Gazans themselves have for unrelenting war and misery for their children when a large part of their self respect will be validated.

- blackton

September 11, 2012 at 2:12pm

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malahat, I think the comments of Nicomachus and blackton following yours largely answer your question. More directly, the ability of Israel to hold onto the settlements depends on being able to claim that Israel's security is too threatened by the Arabs for a peace settlement to be possible. Perpetual war (hopefully at not too high a level from Israel's point of view) therefore serves to postpone the inevitability of trading full Palestinian sovereignty in the West Bank (whether with or without the settlements remaining in place). Thus, those, the Israeli right and settler fanatics, who are far more interested in the settlements than in peace want to keep the war going. An independent, unoccupied Gaza may not in fact lead to a calm southern border and a responsible Palestinian polity, but it also might. And if it does, it becomes obvious that peace with the Palestinians really is possible on the basis of bona fide sovereignty for them in territory to which Israel has no legitimate claim -- and territory to which Israel has no legitimate claim most certainly includes the West Bank, both under the 1948 Partition and a host of UNSC resolutions following the Six Day War the preclude Israel from claiming it as the spoils of war. One should expect therefore that the Israeli right will oppose any independent Gaza because it opens up an avenue to the peace that the Israeli right does not want. ______________________ Nichomachus, I did respond to your numbers on the Noah thread about Obama's speech.

- roidubouloi

September 11, 2012 at 3:26pm

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All your peregrinations about Israeli settlements mean nothing to Hamas and its parent, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. They are interested in JIHAD and the elimination of Israel in whatever shape or form it is found is part of that JIHAD. Economic development is only a tool for furthering JIHAD and is not an end in itself. There can be no peace with a non-Muslim state. Only truce.

- amidut

September 11, 2012 at 3:47pm

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Peregrinations? In any case, the same would have been said of Egypt before the peace treaty. What is surely the case is that there cannot be peace unless some things change. Hence, one can expect the settler right to oppose any change in Gaza lest it lead over time to the prospect of peace. Even truce without occupation would be better than the current situation. We had a long, hostile truce of sorts with the Soviet Union, punctuated by proxy wars. We are still here.

- roidubouloi

September 11, 2012 at 4:17pm

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I'm no expert, but it seems to me that the PA and Egypt would see enough downsides to this, and they (especially the Egyptians) have the capacity to prevent it coming about. I think it's entirely an open question as to whether it would benefit Israel or not.

- ironyroad

September 11, 2012 at 5:26pm

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It is indeed an open question, which is why the Israeli right would be opposed. No openings allowed.

- roidubouloi

September 11, 2012 at 5:39pm

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http://www.nobleenergyinc.com/operations/international/eastern-mediterranean-128.html has a map of known offshore natural gas fields under development. I suppose Mari-B field would be worth fighting for, except Israel is now working with Gazprom in addition to Noble Energy. Maybe even Hamas and Egypt realize they can NOT fight the Russians, Texans, AND Israelis over Mari-B :) Hello amidut - what I meant was that being rational has never been part of the palestinian narrative! and, malahat, some tnr.comers just can not look through any other lens than that of "the settlers", or politics. I assume that even Hamas knows they can not rely on charity indefinitely, and the Saudis really do want a pipeline directly to the Eastern Med, bypassing the Suez Canal.

- K2K

September 11, 2012 at 8:44pm

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Pipeline to Gaza to bypass the Suez Canal, but without the consent and participation of Egypt? Where does that go? From Saudi Arabia, through Jordan and Israel to Gaza? The grip of the settlers and their ideology on the politics and diplomacy of Israel is the most important lens for understanding why Israel will not make peace. Leaving aside fantasy pipelines of course.

- roidubouloi

September 11, 2012 at 9:00pm

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Roid, I advocate the immediate disbandment of all Israeli settlements outside of Israel's current borders. I do not believe them to be necessary for Israel's security. I see a nuclear Iran, which has vowed to annihilate Israel, and its Hezbollah surrogates as the primary existential threat to Israel. Resurgent radical Islamism in Egypt is a another potential threat (I see today they redecorated the US embassy in Cairo). The Syrians are currently occupied with other matters, but they remain a long term security threat as well. If the Hashemite Kingdom is overthrown by radicals there may be a significant threat to Israel's eastern border with the West Bank being the only buffer. These geopolitical threats are not imaginary; however, if true peace with the Palestinians became a reality, these threats would diminish. Several challenges arises when considering whether it is wise to allow Hamas, classified by US and Europe as a terrorist organization, to have unconditional sovereignty. For example.. sovereign states are allowed to man armed forces. Would the Hamas state be allowed to arm? There is a lot of complexity here that goes far beyond settlements.

- Nicomachus

September 11, 2012 at 9:45pm

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roid: "Pipeline to Gaza to bypass the Suez Canal, but without the consent and participation of Egypt? Where does that go? From Saudi Arabia, through Jordan and Israel to Gaza? " sorry - stopped following that project,, but it was sort of through Jordan and/or Sinai, of course with Egypt's participation. Saudi's western oil fields are in Saudi's Shi'a neighborhood. Also, a pipeline to the Med bypasses Straits of Hormuz. Now that the Canadians have agreements with Israelis to develop Israel's shale oil, and what with the unsettled Sinai, maybe the Saudis are dallying over that pipeline. Hey, this is the second most read link from RealClearWorld today. I do hope Schanzer comes back on Gaza.

- K2K

September 11, 2012 at 10:11pm

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinion/seven-lean-years-of-peacemaking.html?hp Of course, Nichomachus, there is a great deal that matters beyond the settlements. The question rather is whether Israel is maneuvering to keep them, which means perpetual war, or seeking to get rid of them as part of a strategy to achieve peace. That does not mean that every problem would be solved thereby. If there were a bona fide security justification for the settlements, it would be a different matter. But there is not. They are not only an obstacle to peace and a violation of international law, they are a security threat to Israel, both requiring and producing perpetual war and rendering Israel's international standing precarious. A quadrifecta of messianic stupidity.

- roidubouloi

September 11, 2012 at 10:19pm

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Given that Israel claims not to be occupying Gaza, I cannot think of an international obstacle to a declaration of Gazan statehood. There isn't even the figleaf that the US relies on in the West Bank that Palestinian statehood must be negotiated with Israel. The only objector, really, would be the PA on the basis of "territorial integrity." But since it is not fully recognized as a state, thanks to the US, its objections don't carry any weight unless powers generally are looking not to recognize Gaza. For that, they don't need PA objections. The real question is whether Egypt will go along in order to give Gaza an open border even while Israel continues its blockade. Otherwise, it wouldn't mean much in practice. Egypt would have no interest in seeing the Gazans well-armed. Thus, the situation surely could not be nearly as bad as Lebanon, armed by the Iranians without any practical ability on the part of Israel to prevent it. Operation Cast Lead suggests that Hamas can be deterred as is Hezbollah for the time being.

- roidubouloi

September 11, 2012 at 10:28pm

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"The real question is whether Egypt will go along in order to give Gaza an open border even while Israel continues its blockade." Yes, and I'm inclined to bet that the answer is 'not.'

- ironyroad

September 11, 2012 at 11:39pm

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I certainly wouldn't bet against you.

- roidubouloi

September 12, 2012 at 7:35am

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Judea and Samaria has developed brilliantly by the modern day pioneers, they are full of positive karma. The failed left wingers are grinding their teeth watching such success. On the other hand Gaza is all full of hatred, fanaticism and ravishing violence. Gazans are despised by their fellow Muslims, excepting the Iranian islamo fascists that used them as terrorist tools.

- JAIMECHUCH

September 12, 2012 at 9:03pm

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Jonathan Schanzer articles are strange and weird. This Gaza going independent, previously Syrias fate in the hands of the Palestinians. And to think he was a counterterrorism expert, makes you wonder how mediocrity is the rule in USA counterintelligence in the middle east. No wonder Obama consults with Erdogan the Turkish islamo fascist prime minister. TNR has to clean their act and stop publishing idiotic opinions.

- JAIMECHUCH

September 12, 2012 at 9:21pm

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Jonathan Schanzer articles are strange and weird. This Gaza going independent, previously Syrias fate in the hands of the Palestinians. And to think he was a counterterrorism expert, makes you wonder how mediocrity is the rule in USA counterintelligence in the middle east. No wonder Obama consults with Erdogan the Turkish islamo fascist prime minister. TNR has to clean their act and stop publishing idiotic opinions.

- JAIMECHUCH

September 12, 2012 at 9:21pm

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Of course this gives an opportunity for the king of the stinky baloney to write something about the 4th amendment to the Geneva convention on the legality of the liberated territories. And his admiration of pioneers achievements in the successes of Judea and Samaria. A meshugener left winger, with emphasis on meshugener.

- JAIMECHUCH

September 12, 2012 at 9:26pm

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinion/seven-lean-years-of-peacemakin... And see the very good point on the thread about Romney and the tragedy in Libya concerning the general threat from religious nuts, specifically including Jewish religious settler nuts in the West Bank. People who think they talk to god (quite literally for some apparently) are a plague, no matter what the flavor.

- roidubouloi

September 13, 2012 at 11:51am

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Never fear. According to the "king of the stinky baloney" you get the info from NYT, their logo is " all the biased news and opinions fit to print". And so it goes. Marvelous accomplishments by the modern pioneers in Judea and Samaria. And the left wingers eat their guts out.

- JAIMECHUCH

September 13, 2012 at 12:33pm

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Yes, slaveholders had many marvelous accomplishments too, with the aid of the people they held as property. I am sure you approve. After all, there is no morality, no obligation to respect the dignity of other people. It is what you can do with them, your accomplishments, that matter. I don't think the fact that you are evidently insane excuses your moral debasement, Jaime. You are insane and debased.

- roidubouloi

September 13, 2012 at 2:33pm

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Crazy king of the roten baloney as a typical failed mediocrity left winger gets more meshugener as he hears of the accomplishments of pioneers in Judea and Samaria. Life is hard for left wingers , specially when their lies devastate them. In the meantime the Pals just live from the successes of Judea and Samaria, all that construction done by Pals construction workers.

- JAIMECHUCH

September 13, 2012 at 10:08pm

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Crazy king of the roten baloney. Boo .

- JAIMECHUCH

September 13, 2012 at 10:10pm

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Morality is a word Arabs do not know. Morality is a word left wingers do not practice. And certainly the crazy king never practiced morality with all the lies he always promulgates. Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem were liberated in 1967 by Israel from the hands of the Arabs. Progress in the liberated Judea and Samaria has been enormous since then, and law and order and compassion has been a priority. However Arabs and left wingers denie the truth. For no surprise they are joined by the bunch of haters. They have lost and can not stand it. And that is the narrative. Better put by the following. EMAIL FRIEND | PRINT ARTICLE | | SHARE May 29, 2011 Judea and Samaria Will Outlive Us All By Dov Fischer In approximately eighteen months, Barack Obama may well be a lame duck limping to January. During the same period, more thousands of Jews will continue being added to the population of Judea and Samaria.  Since 1967, several powerful world leaders who worked to oust Israel from Judea and Samaria have passed away.  During that same period, the Jewish population of Judea and Samaria, including the areas of East Jerusalem liberated in June 1967, has grown to 558,000 -- 230,000 in Greater East Jerusalem and 328,000 throughout the rest of Yesha. Yitzchak Rabin had an Oslo plan to withdraw from Judea and Samaria, but he was tragically assassinated before it could be advanced.  Shimon Peres, Rabin's Labor Party successor, thereupon entered as Israeli prime minister with a higher than 90% poll rating and assured everyone that he would complete the vision of withdrawing.  Yet an outbreak of Arab bus bombings wiped out Peres's support, whereupon he lost office to Binyamin Netanyahu.  After Bibi compromised on Hebron at the Wye Conference, his stellar polls suddenly plummeted, and he was ousted by Ehud Barak. Barak proceeded to withdraw unilaterally from South Lebanon, creating a vacuum soon filled by Hezbollah, and then to work with Bill Clinton to prepare a complete withdrawal from virtually all of Judea and Samaria.  Inexplicably, Arafat turned him down, started an Intifada, and Barak lost the government to Ariel Sharon in a landslide.  Sharon soon shifted course ideologically; formed the new Kadimah party; unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, creating a vacuum soon filled by Hamas; and then turned his attention to withdrawing from Judea and Samaria.  Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, he sustained a massive stroke that has left him comatose for years.  Ehud Olmert followed Barak with the promise to withdraw from Judea and Samaria.  Then Hezbollah terrorists started a war, and Olmert's miscalculations and failures, augmented by the incompetence of a defense minister with no qualifications other than being a socialist union organizer who rose to head the Labor Party, obliterated his authority.  Stymied by the scandal of war, Olmert was consumed and further driven from office by financial scandals.  Tzipi Livni, the last Kadimah prime minister, was voted out rapidly.  And now Netanyahu again. During that same period since 1967, Richard Nixon presented the Rogers Plan.  Nixon has passed on, and Rogers has passed.  Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger tried imposing the "Reassessment Plan."  Ford is gone, Kissinger irrelevant.  Jimmy Carter has done everything imaginable through a lifetime to advance the cause of Hamas and Fatah sovereignty.  Yet, as president, he pushed Israel until he unexpectedly was overwhelmed by 19% inflation, Iranian hostages, a botched rescue mission, and Soviet progression on three continents. Israel enjoyed some respite during the Reagan years, with her concerns sympathetically grasped by Secretaries of State Alexander Haig and George Shultz.  Then George H.W. Bush came in, reached 90% popularity with the Desert Storm and the war in Kuwait, turned his attention to pressing Israel with James Baker as a decidedly unfriendly secretary of state, and even condemned American Jews for lobbying in Washington for Israel.  Somehow, his poll numbers disappeared overnight as the economy upended.  Bill Clinton came in, made Arafat the most frequent invitee to the White House, and pressed Israel to cede Judea and Samaria -- and yet he saw everything fizzle as Arafat rejected the offers.  The Clinton White House soon became consumed with its own survival as repeated scandals began erupting like unquelled acne.  George W. Bush came in, supported Israel initially as no president ever had, and enjoyed stellar poll numbers, even expanding his party's leads in the first bi-elections and then winning reelection.  As he turned during his second term to pressing Israel, under his "Road Map" to cede Judea and Samaria, Hurricane Katrina hit, and the American economy, led by bursting housing and banking bubbles, subsequently collapsed overnight, eradicating his poll numbers and devastating his party. And now Barack Obama.  Obama came in with excellent poll numbers, rapidly moved towards pressing Israel to halt all construction in Judea and Samaria, and heaped the onus for Mideast problems on Israel, even traveling and genuflecting throughout the Arab world on an Apology Tour centered on a speech in Egypt.  His efforts radicalized the expectations of Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah because Abbas had to be at least as extreme as the American president.  And Obama's gigantic poll numbers flattened in the face of pressing for an Obamacare whose details we would learn only after it was passed, even as James Cameron could not help Obama solve an oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.  The GOP's victories in November set records. As pressure from the Obama administration to withdraw has intensified against Israel, signaling to Israel's foes that historic diplomatic backing from America is not reliable, the economy has failed to respond to "stimulus."  Now it's petering out again under the weight of oil at $100 a barrel, receding housing starts, joblessness stuck at 9 percent, and the Mississippi cresting.  Natural disasters already have led to rising commodities futures, and the elected leadership refuses to open ANWR to drill here and drill now, intensifying the Obama economic calamity as he tilts at green windmills. Obama's entire Mideast speech, including forgiving Egypt's billions of loan dollars, was crafted around his intent to squeeze Israel back to suicidal 1967 borders.  If Washington only will listen respectfully to the Arab world, from Hamas to Mahmoud Abbas, the message could not be more clear: there will be no negotiated peace with Israel.  First, Israel must divide her capital city.  Then she must agree to be overrun by three million aliens seeking to supplant her.  And she still will have no right to exist within the geographical Orbit of Islam.  As we saw on Sunday, "Nakba Day" (The Day of Catastrophe) in the Arab mind is not the day in June 1967 that Israel liberated Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, but instead the day in May 1948 when Israel breathed her way into existence. All the talk about demilitarizing and assuring (even guaranteeing) that weapons will not infiltrate into such an Arab Judea-Samaria is made ridiculous by the massive rearming of Hezbollah in South Lebanon (under the noses of United Nations forces that were supposed to prevent it) and the rearming of Hamas in Gaza since the Goldstone War.  The unification of Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah with Hamas solidifies an outward posture that parallels the unmistakable refusal to abide alongside a Jewish country. But in the end, it does not matter.  Sixty years after Hitler, no Israeli government is going to uproot nearly 600,000 Jews in the land where they themselves live.  It is fantasy.  If the past half-century has taught anything, it has taught that the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria will outlive all of us, including those now abiding in the White House. Dov Fischer, adjunct professor of law at Loyola Law School, is a columnist for several online magazines and is rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County.  He blogs at rabbidov.com. on "Judea and Samaria Will Outlive Us All"

- JAIMECHUCH

September 13, 2012 at 10:27pm

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What a bunch of nonsense. You're an idiot.

- roidubouloi

September 14, 2012 at 1:26am

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The crazy king lost the argument as always.

- JAIMECHUCH

September 14, 2012 at 7:15am

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There was an argument? With an incoherent lunatic like you?

- roidubouloi

September 14, 2012 at 10:32am

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The crazy king lost as usual. The left wingers lost as usual. Case completed.

- JAIMECHUCH

September 14, 2012 at 11:18am

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