Collective punishment
The division between Gaza and the West Bank is a national tragedy for the still stateless Palestinians. But for politicians in Washington, Tel Aviv and Brussels, it looks more like a golden opportunity. The plan is easy to see. The West Bank under Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas will be rewarded with a removal of the embargo, the loosening of Israeli checks and a partial withdrawal of the occupation army. On the other hand, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip will be punished with financial sanctions, air raids and further exclusion. Over time, the idea is, Palestinians will come to see that moderation is rewarded whereas intransigence gets punished and they will turn against Hamas. Morally speaking, of course, the plan is full of holes. For how can one justify the decision to wall off 1.5 million people and deprive them of everything but the basic necessities just because they are ruled by the «wrong» leader? The USA and the EU have put all their eggs in Abbas’s basket, relieved at having finally found a suit-and-tie politician in place of the idiosyncratic Arafat in his trademark uniform and kaffiyeh. After all, Abbas has written a 600-page diatribe on the Oslo agreements without making a single reference to the word «occupation.» Furthermore, he has for a year now been pressing Hamas to release Israeli army corporal Gilad Shalit without asking Tel Aviv to free his former ally, and the most popular Palestinian politician, Marwan Barghuti. After Hamas won elections, the West and Israel imposed an embargo on the Palestianians and kept Abbas as their only contact as if it had been Fatah that won. But that policy risks portraying Abbas as a puppet of the occupation forces and their allies. Such a myopic approach will end up discrediting Abbas and radicalizing Palestianians, not only against Israel but against the West as well.
