{"id":308,"date":"2007-06-15T05:50:50","date_gmt":"2007-06-15T10:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=308"},"modified":"2007-06-15T06:38:40","modified_gmt":"2007-06-15T11:38:40","slug":"right-zionists-and-the-collapse-of-fatah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=308","title":{"rendered":"Right Zionists and the Collapse of Fatah"},"content":{"rendered":"
In some respects<\/title>In some respects, the American-sponsored “Dayton Plan”–named for US security coordinator Lt.-Gen Keith Dayton–to foment factional fighting within the Palestinian “unity government,” bolster the forces of Fatah, and challenge the dominance of Hamas in Gaza seemed like the work of Right Zionist hawks in the Bush administration (i.e., Elliott Abrams at the NSC and David Wurmser in the OVP).<\/p>\n<p>After all, the Hamas-Fatah “unity government” was the work of Saudi King Abdullah and it made sense to think that an <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=280\">assault on Abdullah’s mediation efforts<\/a> would bear the finger prints of the <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=267\">Cheney-Bandar-Right Zionist axis<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But as <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=307\">that plan crumbles<\/a>–with signs of White House “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/06\/15\/washington\/15diplo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin\">acquiescence<\/a>“–it becomes increasingly clear that the Dayton Plan to bolster Fatah may have simply marked the most “hawkish” and cynical last gasp of the old Oslo crowd.<\/p>\n<p>If so, then there will be some Right Zionist “rejectionists” who mourn <em> neither<\/em> the failure of the Palestinian “unity government” <em>nor<\/em> the US effort to destroy that unity by bolstering Fatah.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the strongest indication of this scenario is that the collapse of Fatah in Gaza has led to all kinds of speculation that it marks the end of a two-state solution.<\/p>\n<p>Consider, for example, the <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em> article by Ken Ellingwood, “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/nationworld\/world\/la-fg-palsplit15jun15,1,4086573.story?track=rss\">Palestinian Statehood Hopes in Peril<\/a>.”<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The deadly factional fighting in the Gaza Strip between the militant \tHamas movement and Fatah could doom the long-held Palestinian vision of \tuniting Gaza and the West Bank into a single independent state….<\/p>\n<p>The violence has dimmed hopes that Palestinians and Israelis might someday \treach an agreement for side-by-side nations…<\/p>\n<p>The political crisis has propelled a debate among Palestinian intellectuals \tover whether Palestinians might be better served by dumping the trappings of \tthe 1993 Oslo peace agreement, which created the enfeebled Palestinian \tAuthority….<\/p>\n<p>“One cannot exclude such a possibility: that this is the end of the \ttwo-state solution,” said Yitzhak Reiter, a fellow at Hebrew University’s \tHarry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace in Jerusalem.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So, for Right Zionist “rejectionists,” what comes <em>after<\/em> Oslo?<\/p>\n<p>Right Zionist rejectionists <em>do<\/em> have a post-Oslo vision for the West Bank.\u00c2\u00a0 The cornerstone of that vision is the idea of Palestinian <em> confederation with Jordan<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The Israeli Labor Party-Oslo crowd and their American allies are aware of this vision and reject it.<\/p>\n<p>The great defender of the failed “Dayton Plan” was an Oslo figure, Dennis Ross.\u00c2\u00a0 In a June 4, 2007\u00c2\u00a0 <em>Washington Post<\/em> Op-Ed–“<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/06\/03\/AR2007060300953.html\">The Specter of Hamastan<\/a>“–Ross championed the Dayton Plan <em>and <\/em>took aim at the idea of West Bank confederation with Jordan.<\/p>\n<p>The defense of the Dayton Plan is quite clear:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If Fatah does have a plan for bolstering its forces in Gaza, it is worth \tsupporting it by coordinating with the Israelis and Egyptians — not to \tproduce a bloodbath in Gaza but to deter Hamas from seeking to impose itself \tthere.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ross also offers a more cryptic attack on a rival proposal:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Among some I heard an interesting proposal: Let’s make the West Bank \twork…<\/p>\n<p>Let’s create understandings with Jordan and Israel for at least economic \tconfederation and security…<\/p>\n<p>Sounds good in theory, but I doubt it would work. No matter how sensible \tconfederation between the Palestinian state and Jordan might be, at least \teconomically, a failed state in Gaza would be a constant source of \tinstability…<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, while West Bank and Gaza Palestinians have much that divides them, \tthey still have a common identity as Palestinians; the creation of a \tPalestinian state without Gaza would be an endless source of grievance and \tirredentism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ross doesn’t name any names, but this idea of “confederation with Jordan” belongs to the very same Right Zionist rejectionists who will now quietly celebrate the death of Oslo.<\/p>\n<p>Meyrav Wurmser–who just happens to be <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=212\">married to Cheney’s top Middle East advisor, David Wurmser<\/a>–is one key proponent of this position, as articulated in her July 2006<em> New York Sun <\/em>Op-Ed, “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nysun.com\/pf.php?id=36165&v=9898981811\">Paradigm Shift<\/a>” in which she also attacked key “Oslo” assumptions.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Assumption…: Abu Mazen is a better, more moderate a partner than Hamas…<\/p>\n<p>But… Abu Mazen is not only hopelessly weak and ineffective; he also is \tcovering for the mergence of a new Palestinian consensus around positions \tcloser to Hamas’ than ever before. In this situation, the international \tcommunity gains little from supporting Abu Mazen; he is no partner for \tpeace…<\/p>\n<p>Assumption…: Only independent Palestinian statehood will provide a \tpermanent solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.<\/p>\n<p>We are witnessing the collapse not only of the Road Map and the \tDisengagement and Convergence concepts but of a paradigm which emerged in \t1994 during the Oslo process…<\/p>\n<p>From September 1970 until September 1993, it was universally understood in \tJordan, in Israel and in the West that the local Palestinian issue was <strong> \tbest subsumed under a Jordanian-Israeli condominium to isolate the issue \tfrom being exploited by broader regional forces<\/strong>…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In a recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/8ec69b4e-0867-11dc-b11e-000b5df10621.html\"> interview with the <em>Financial Times<\/em><\/a>, Israeli Likud Party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu offered a similar vision of a post-Oslo scenario:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Some kind of federated or confederated effort between Jordan and the \tPalestinians might introduce that function of security and peace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ken Ellingwood’s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/nationworld\/world\/la-fg-palsplit15jun15,1,4086573.story?track=rss\"> <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em> article<\/a> acknowledges that there are supporters of such a scenario, but he doesn’t name names and he thinks it marginal.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Another idea that has circulated is an old one: reconnecting the West \tBank to Jordan, somehow, and putting Gaza back into Egypt’s hands. But this \tscenario is a long shot.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The chances of this “long shot” becoming an active initiative would be far greater with the <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=285\">collapse of the Olmert government<\/a> and the election of Netanyahu as Israeli prime minister.<\/p>\n<p>In the notion of a Palestinian confederation with Jordan, Right Zionists have a vision (little word from Jordan on any of this, of course).<\/p>\n<p>The horrifying part is that Right Zionists have almost <em>nothing<\/em> to say about Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Is there a vision for Gaza?<\/p>\n<p>It seems not.<\/p>\n<p>There is plenty of alarm about Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Writing in the<em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.weeklystandard.com\/Utilities\/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=13785&R=113D7C48D\"> Weekly Standard<\/a><\/em>, Meyrav<em> <\/em>Wurmser expresses deep concerns about Gaza:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Now Hamas is threatening to escalate hostilities by attacking Israel’s \tmain electric grid in Ashkelon. The significance of this–as well as of the \tPalestinian civil war and Hamas’s capture of Gaza–is that Hamas, and by \textension Iran, has launched a real push to take over the Palestinian areas, \tjust as the violence in Lebanon represents Syria’s attempt to retake that \tcountry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Similarly, Shoshana Bryen, director of special projects at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jewishjournal.com\/home\/preview.php?id=17817\">reported to have recently suggested<\/a> that Washington abandon all Oslo pretensions.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Washington should go one step further and announce it is no longer \tworking to set up the conditions for Palestinian independence.<\/p>\n<p>“The conditions don’t exist,” Bryen said. “This is a huge emergency.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But what does this “huge emergency” imply for Gaza?<\/p>\n<p>Silence.<\/p>\n<p>There is no plan for Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Ken Ellingwood of the <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/nationworld\/world\/la-fg-palsplit15jun15,1,4086573.story?track=rss\"> offers up<\/a> a chilling conclusion via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.israelcentersf.org\/culture\/2005-2006\/scholars-bios.html\"> Gidi Grinstein<\/a>, a former aide to Ehud Barak:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Israeli analyst Gidi Grinstein told Israel Radio. “The Gaza entity will \tbe regarded as an enemy entity and be treated accordingly…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In some respectsIn some respects, the American-sponsored “Dayton Plan”–named for US security coordinator Lt.-Gen Keith Dayton–to foment factional fighting within the Palestinian “unity government,” bolster the forces of Fatah, and challenge the dominance of Hamas in Gaza seemed like the work of Right Zionist hawks in the Bush administration (i.e., Elliott Abrams at the NSC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,31,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}