Israelische Terreur

Uit Business Week Online van vandaag: 'Per capita gross domestic product among Palestinians is down 50% since the intifada began in 2000, to $950 a year. Workers need to be able to travel, too. Some 50,000 Palestinians cross from the West Bank into Israel, down from 140,000 five years ago. Gazan workers have been barred from entering Israel since the disengagement.For Abbas, there are two dangers. One is that he'll have little to show for his year as President. Then, the militant Hamas movement, which provides social services, could make big election gains. "Right now Hamas is doing more for the people of Gaza than the Palestinian Authority," says Edward S. Walker Jr., president of the Middle East Institute and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel. A bigger danger, adds Henry Siegman, a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, is that "the intifada will return and be more violent than in the past." Steps to revive the Palestinian economy are urgently needed.'

Het opnieuw uitbreken van de Palestijnse volksopstand is nu juist datgene wat de regering Sharon wil. Op die manier hoopt zijn kabinet een rechtvaardiging te krijgen voor de Israelische militaire terreur in de Westbank en een verdere uitbreiding van de nederzettingen op bezet gebied. Tot nu toe heeft deze extremistische politiek uitstekend gewerkt, zo heb ik van nabij kunnen zien.