Netanyahu's Plan

Rather than bringing about genuine peace, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to emphasize Palestinian "institution building." This would be laughable if it were not so tragic.

In September 2000, Palestinian President Yassir Arafat warned both Israeli Prime Minister Barak and the Clinton White House against allowing Ariel Sharon to campaign around the Islamic holy sites in Arab East Jerusalem since everyone knew this would trigger violence. Arafat's pleas were ignored though, and Sharon and 1000 Israeli police marched around Haram al-Sharif for half an hour thus triggering the second intifada. This was clearly a purposeful provocative act, and the resulting bloodshed was eventually followed by Israeli bombing of Palestinian police stations, Palestinian security annexes, Palestinian police check points, etc. As Robert Fisk questions in his book The Great War for Civilisation, how could Arafat be expected to make arrests if the Israelis destroyed all his police stations? So much for institution building.

Similarly in 2006, the Israelis targeted Lebanese civilian infrastructure, bombing airports, water and sewage treatment plants, ports, electrical facilities, roads, bridges, etc. (See Mearsheimer and Walt The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.) 16,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed.

Likewise in Gaza, Israel blasted hospitals, schools, factories, sewage plants, police stations, the central prison, institutions such as the parliament and main ministries, not to mention thousands of homes. (See George Bisharat "Israel on Trial" The New York Times 4/4/09) Now to make matters worse, the Israeli blockade does not permit re-building materials, such as cement, to enter Gaza.

It's clear that Netanyahu has put forth this fake plan of institution building as a typical stalling device so that Israel can proceed with the hidden goal of ethnic cleansing. Meanwhile the Israelis continue to demolish Palestinian homes in Israeli-occupied Arab East Jerusalem, and Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank continue to expand.