Gaza Turmoil: Ground Rules for a State by Bruce S. Ticker Jul 25, '04
When Richard Nixon was in his political prime, pundits asked: Would you buy a used car from this man?
Israelis must now be asking: Would you trust these idiots to run an independent Palestinian state? We should all be posing questions about the Palestinians' ability to govern when they cannot run what they now have. Some Palestinians are wondering same.
The past week in Gaza was punctuated by the prime minister's resignation, kidnappings of police officials and French aid workers, riots and demonstrations, a shootout at an intelligence service facility and denunciations of Palestinian governing failures. These events reflect centuries-old traditions in the Arab and Muslim worlds, which should make anyone wonder if they are capable of governing a state that will neither threaten Israel nor subjugate factions of their own people.
Advocates for the Palestinians demand an independent state, but they do not explain how it can become a reality. Ardent supporters of Israel staunchly oppose a state, yet they offer no alternative that will avoid bloodshed. These are legitimate concerns, among many others, which must be addressed before anyone can talk seriously about a state for the Palestinians.
Arabs do not even justify the need for a state from their perspective except to say that they want "self-determination." If history is a guide, self-determination will only apply to those who control the state. Many Jews who are disgusted with the deaths of nearly 1,000 Israelis probably do not want to hear about a state.
If a Palestinian state should ever emerge, nobody is going to hand it to them on a silver platter this time, as ex-Prime Minister Ehud Barak tried to do four years ago. They must earn it. The world needs to hold their feet to the fire on every relevant issue. The first step must be to establish criteria for a viable Palestinian state. Here are a few suggestions:
1) The government cannot use the state as a staging ground for attacks on Israel or any other country, must aggressively pursue and prosecute all individuals or groups attempting such attacks, and must avoid association with nations that sponsor terrorism;
2) The government must aggressively maintain law and order, while respecting the civil rights of all its citizens;
3) Basic services are provided to all citizens on an equitable basis and a tight system must be created to account for all spending;
4) A criminal justice system will be established that aggressively prosecutes all serious crimes, including murder, domestic abuse, child abuse and vigilantism;
5) Government leaders will be elected through the democratic process;
6) The international community must help the Palestinians develop an economy and governmental system, and the Palestinian leadership must fully cooperate;
7) A Palestinian government must establish diplomatic and economic ties with Israel, Egypt and Jordan, and those countries must cooperate with the Palestinian government to make it a viable state.
Some reasons for these ground rules are obvious, while some are not so obvious. On a collective level, Palestinians will fail every test on this list if they do not get serious. Consider recent events and other recurring problems:
* Tuesday night (July 20), Palestinian lawmaker Nabil Amir, a longtime critic of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, was shot in the leg twice while heading home in Ramallah, the West Bank. He was not seriously hurt;
* Monday (July 19), Gazans were reported by The New York Post to celebrate when Tel Aviv Judge Adi Azar was murdered under mysterious circumstances;
* Friday (July 16), opponents of Arafat kidnapped two leading security officials and four French nationals, and released them. Militants later sacked and burned government offices, engaged in shootouts with Palestinian police and issued threats of assassination and armed revolt. Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia resigned in the midst of this turmoil, partly out of frustration with Arafat's stubborn hold on power. Qureia subsequently agreed to remain in his post for the time being;
* Monday, June 28, terrorists fired rockets from northeast Gaza and killed two Israelis across the border in Sderot - Afik Zahavi, 4, and Mordechai Yosopov, 49;
* Arafat was reported long ago to have diverted nearly $1 billion to business ventures, his non-Arabic wife's lavish Paris lifestyle and other purposes, while ordinary Palestinians continued to go hungry and remain without gainful employment. Many Arafat loyalists have been accused of corruption and brutality.
Add to this the traditions of clan loyalty trumping national cohesion, honor killings of women by their own relatives and Hatfield-and-McCoy style blood feuds, along with the blanket failure among Arab nations to implement a democratic system of government. How will Palestinians be able to meet any of the aforementioned criteria?
My deep skepticism about a viable Palestinian state - this from an American Jew who has harshly criticized the Israeli government - is shared by serious Palestinians who, unfortunately, lack sufficient power, such as legislator Ziad Abu Amr of Gaza City, whose words were quoted in The Washington Post: "The whole Palestinian situation requires major surgery."
Or local government minister Jamal Shobaki (in The Philadelphia Inquirer): "In order to convince the international community to help, we have to live up to our commitment."
Eerily enough, The New York Times published a two-part series by James Bennet that depicted the frustrations of responsible Palestinians just when the latest crisis erupted.
During a symposium in Gaza City, Rida Awadallah of the Working Women's Union demanded of the panel, which included Ziad Abu Amr: "I've heard all this before. What's the preparation for the next stage?" Abu Amr grudgingly replied, "You know who is determining everything. Arafat hasn't proposed a vision for the Palestinian people."
Salahaldin Mousa, who is Jenin's city manager, offered Bennet this sober advice: "The Palestinian Authority should stand in front of the people and say, 'We are defeated.'
"'But this is not the end of the world. This is a new stage of our life.' And then you say to the world, 'Please help us.'"
The likes of Rida Awadallah and Salahaldin Mousa leaves me with some measure of confidence in the future there.
