WEEKLY FROM MID-EAST REALITIES: "QUOTE, UNQUOTE"

"The perception of Israel’s moral superiority is so entrenched, at least in the United States, that comparing the violent settlers with bus bombers of Hamas may seem unthinkable to some. But the history of settler violence shows that the fears of Arab Hebronites for their safety in the mosque and the marketplace are as legitimate as those of Jewish bus riders in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem... It’s about time we stopped pretending that Israel’s extremists are crazy."

Marda Dunsky - Guardian Weekly - 2/7/97

____________________

TOWARD A NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT IN ISRAEL  (THE CLOSE ALLIANCE OF SHARON AND PERES)

The reason why Sharon, who did not change his views, made the alliance with Peres is, as Barnea (Yediot Ahronot, 20 December 1996) put it correctly in my view, the knowledge that while under Netanyahu the U.S. openly declares that “we shall monitor the building of even a single house in the settlements. We shall photograph it from the land and the sky, by satellite. We shall oppose any attempt by Israeli government to encourage people to move to the settlements” (under Rabin and Peres the U.S. government did not monitor the settlements). “During the rule of Rabin and Peres the numbers of settlers grew by 50% and the Americans closed their eyes.” Even the trumpeted deduction from the guarantees, of money invested by Israel in settling was quietly abolished in 1995, after Rabin persuaded Clinton that the settlements are good for peace (Arafat too was persuaded). Thus, it is reasonable for Sharon, for years the fiercest advocate of settling among the secular Israeli politicians, to hope that with Peres within the Israeli government the U.S. will allow, at least tacitly, the settling that it prohibits to the present government.

Dr. Israel Shahak (Jerusalem),

Translations From the Hebrew Press - 1/1297

---------------------QUQ6----------------------