The decision of Hamas to take part in the legislative elections to be held in July adds a new dimension to Palestinian politics. That Israel, which has been for years quite loud in its demand that the Palestinians democratize their politics, is not excited about a democratization that will give Hamas legitimacy is hardly surprising. Hamas will probably do exceptionally well in the parliamentary elections. The problems that such a victory could pose for any eventual Middle East peace negotiations are a big worry for Israel.
However, that is not the most serious worry at the moment so far as peace prospects are concerned. It is the outpost scandal. Documents show the hand the Israeli government had in establishing settlements that should never have been built. There is now documented evidence of government collusion, not just in the present administration but the last five, going back to Yitzhak Rabin in the mid-1990s, in establishing some 105 illegal outposts. Millions of shekels were poured into the outposts although the Cabinet did not approve a single one. The government-sponsored study is damning, saying in essence that institutions took the law into their own hands in a coordinated effort chilling in its cohesiveness: The Housing Ministry would supply mobile homes, the Defense Ministry approved positioning of trailers to begin new outposts, the Education Ministry paid for nurseries and their teachers, the Energy Ministry connected outposts to electricity grids and roads to outposts were paid for by taxpayers’ money. A web of deceit that was explained away by a government spokesman as “a tangle of overlapping legal codes in the West Bank” that “created the possibility for those who want to use the law or misuse the law to do so.” In other words, if there’s a will (to break the law) there’s a way.
The report did not assign personal culpability to Cabinet ministers but many people will look no further than Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, once the leading settler patron. One of the peak periods for outposts began after Sharon became prime minister in 2001 and who, as foreign minister in 1998, urged settlers to seize hilltops in order to break up the contiguity of Palestinian areas to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. So dangerous are settlements to Palestinian aspirations they are illegal under international law. Every peace agreement, from Oslo to the road map, has called on Israel to dismantle them. And every American administration has requested the same action be taken.
The government’s answer to the report is the creation of a committee which will be charged with getting to the bottom of the affair. The focus will be on the 24 settlements set up since March 2001 — when Sharon became premier. Some are recommending a criminal investigation against those allegedly involved but the betting is that little will be done in the way of punishment. The big story these days is the Gaza withdrawal — one of the top issues on the agenda of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as he makes his first trip to the region in four years. That the pullout will overshadow the outpost story will give those involved breathing space but should not let them off the hook.
