Tuesday, February 18, 2003

Israel and Falashas

by pv vivekanand

In the most serious and telling move yet of its intentions to retain the Palestinian territories in its control, Israel has decided to bring in some 20,000 Jewish migrants from Ethiopia who were left behind in transfers carried out in the 1980s and 90s. While it has not been announced where they would be housed, it is a foregone conclusion that they would be herded to Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in a process paid for by the Americans.
Israel's decision this week to authorise the immigration of 20,000 Jews from Ethiopia - otherwise known as Falasha -- exposes the reality that the government of Ariel Sharon has little or no intention of returning the occupied territories to the Palestinians and allowing the creation of a viable Palestinian state there.
There is little doubt that the newcomers would be sent to the occupied West Bank and live in Jewish settlements there -- meaning the construction of new settlements and expansion of existing ones -- and add to the nearly 200,000 settlers already living there.
The irony, if you will, is that the United States would pay for their transfer and resettlement in the West Bank without the American taxpayer being aware of it or being told about it.
It is naive to argue that the Falashas would be settled in "mainland Israel" that existed within the 1967 borders. "Black" Jewish migrants from Ethiopia smuggled to Israel in 1980s and 1990s have found it difficult to live alongside "white" Jews of European and Middle Eastern origin who look down upon them. They complain they are being segregated in separate neighbourhoods and are denied the same services as other Israelis. Hence, it is elementary that they be settled in dedicated communities away from the "mainstream" society, and that is where the West Bank comes in handy. Furthermore, it suits the thinking of Prime Minister Sharon, who wants to increase the number of Jews living in the occupied territories and thus consolidate the Jewish state's grip of the land where the Palestinians want to set up an independent state.
The 20,000 Falashas, who are also called Black Jews and Beta Israel and live in the Gondar and Tigray regions of northwestern Ethiopia, expected to be airlifted to Israel represent the last of their community there. Most of them have converted to Christianity and their assimilation into Israel would involve a "reconversion and purification" process.

Part of a pattern

The Israeli move to bring them to Palestine comes alongside a continuing flow of Jews from the former Soviet Union, and the Jewish Agency, the organisation which handles the "return" of Jews to their "promised land," is very active in the former Soviet republics scouting for potential migrants. Some 800,000 Jews arrived in Israel from the Soviet republics since the 1980s, and many families have been given free or subsidised accommodation in the illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Notwithstanding the ongoing controversy in Israel over the "Jewishness" of the Falashas and concerns that the new move could encourage many of non-Jewish origin to disguise their religious background and claim the right to d to immigrate to Israel under the country's "law of return," the decision to allow in 20,000 more Ethiopian Jews reflects nothing but Sharon's determination to fight off the Palestinian struggle for statehood.
The Israeli move also comes amid mounting fears that Sharon intends to use the chaos of the expected US-led war on Iraq to expel tens of thousands of Palestinians to the East Bank -- the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan -- in another step to quell Palestinian resistance and reduce the number of Palestinians living in the West Bank. While the feasibility of such a move and international reaction to it remain unpredictable, Jordanian commentators have expressed serious concern that the rules of the game of co-existence under the 1994 Jordan-Israeli peace treaty might not remain valid in the event of a war against Iraq.
The Jordanian fears have to been seen against the fact that Sharon has been an ardent proponent of the "Jordan is Palestine" theory and favours the en masse transfer of all Arabs -- including the nearly one million Arab Israelis -- to Jordan.

Funding the transfer

Indeed, the planned transfer of 20,000 Falashas from Ethiopia to Israel and onto the occupied West Bank demands hundreds of millions of dollars and reports in the Israeli press say that there is no government budget available for the purpose.
However, that is where the $8 billion in "loan guarantees" that Sharon is seeking from the US come into play. Officially, the loan guarantees would be used to give a kick-start to Israel's recession-hit economy, but there is little doubt that part of the loan facilities would be channelled into funding the transfer and resettlement of the wave of Falashas.
The sought-for $8 billion is in addition to $4 billion in additional military assistance and the just under $3 billion a year a year it receives automatically after it signed the 1979 Camp David agreement with Egypt. Another $2 billion to $3 billion reach Israel from the US every year in funds disguised as departmental, project-specific assistance and as direct contributions from major Jewish corporates and organisations.
Thomas Stauffer, a consulting economist in Washington and well-known critic of American aid to Israel, doubts the Israel bonds covered by the loan guarantees will ever be repaid. Stauffer argues that the bonds are likely to be structured so they do not pay interest until they reach maturity and the US would end up paying principal as well as interest in about 10 years.
He also argues that the US would also have to make good its guarantees of $10 billion in commercial loans to Israel and $600 million in "housing loans" granted in the early 90s when they reach maturity.

From 'illegal' to 'hurdle'

What would be the Bush administration's position on the loan guarantees being channelled, directly or indirectly, into financing Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories?
Officially, the US position has changed from calling the settlements illegal (in the 1980s) to describing them as a hurdle (in the 90s) in the path to peace with the Palestinians.
Recent US "initiatives" for Israeli-Palestinian peace called for a freeze in Israel's settlement activities in the occupied territories parallel to peace negotiations, but Israel has steadfastly rejected the calls. It has maintained a cool approach to the so-called "roadmap" for peace drafted the Quartet -- the US, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- which also calls for a suspension of Israel's building activities in the occupied lands. Obviously, the plan's objective in this context is to leave the issue of settlements to be worked out between the Palestinians and Israel -- that is, if they ever resume peace talks in the present framework. The catch there is that the US and others know only too well that Israel would not compromise on its position that it would not dismantle the settlements and the Palestinians could be eventually forced to accept that situation.
Washington officials have made no comment on the Israeli request for the loan guarantees and additional aid, but speculation is that the assistance would be given as part of a supplemental spending bill that is likely to be passed early this year, perhaps figured in and accounted along with the cost of a war with Iraq.
George Bush Senior used an Israeli request for $10 billion in housing loan guarantees to pressure the then Israeli government of Yitzhak Shamir into attending the 1991 Madrid conference where Arab-Israeli peace negotiations were launched.
Shamir said later that he had agreed to attend the conference and launch peace talks with the Arabs because of American pressure but that he had no intention of ever working out an agreement with the Palestinians. He said he wanted to stretch the negotiations for 10 or 20 years without actually yielding anything to the Palestinians.

Disguised spending

Bush Senior, coming under Arab pressure against Israel's colonialisation of the West Bank, had also attached a condition that the amount that Israel spends on its settlement activities in the occupied territories would be reduced from the guarantee amount. A few hundred million dollars were actually deducted from the loan guarantees but that were made up in other forms of American assistance to Israel.
Furthermore, the loan guarantees afforded Israel the luxury of freeing other funds to be spent on the settlements and thus reduce by more than 80 per cent the actual amount that was deducted from the credit facility guarantees by the US.
But then the loan guarantees of 1991 or that are requested now are only a flash on the pan of American aid to Israel.
Stauffer, the Washington economist, tallies that since 1973 the US has given Israel and spent $1.6 trillion to serve Israeli interests in direct and indirect forms -- more than twice the cost of the Vietnam War.
According to Stauffer, adjusting the official aid to 2001 dollars in purchasing power, Israel has been given $240 billion since 1973. In addition, the US has given Egypt $117 billion and Jordan $22 billion in foreign aid in return for signing peace treaties with Israel.
In addition are direct and indirect US losses resulting from the 1973 oil embargo, several Israeli-blocked arms sales the Arabs and directly and indirectly Israeli-linked sanctions against trade with some Arab and Middle Eastern countries.
However, these figures are not released for public knowledge in the US, although, in Stauffer's tally, every American has paid $5,700 each in aid to Israel and to protect Israeli interests since 1973.
Rather than moving to reduce its assistance to Israel, the US has been raising it over the years, and the latest loan guarantees should be seen as part of that trend, particularly when we see signs of what analysts call a "cohesive Bush-Sharon doctrine" aimed consolidating Israel's status as the dominating power in the Middle East through eliminating Iraq as a potential medium-term threat to the Jewish state.
Seen in light of that "doctrine," it does not take much imagination to reach the conclusion that the Bush administration would think nothing about American tax dollars spent for the air passage of the 20,000 Falashas from Ethiopia to Palestine, for the cost of "reconverting and purifying them" and for resettling them in Jewish colonies built on land to which Israel has no legitimate right.