Yesterday in Paris, the next key component of the Palestinian peace process which was restarted last month in Annapolis was put in place. Some 68 countries pledged no less than $5.6 billion over the next three years to help set up a viable Palestinian state, both in terms of institutions, including security forces, and of new enterprises, which will bring new jobs and wages to the economically deprived Palestine.
The Annapolis talks and the donor pledges in Paris were the two easy preliminaries to the process. Now the hard part begins. President Mahmoud Abbas warned his audience in Paris that his people face “total catastrophe” and he was not referring to the imminent insolvency of his administration. Within hours of the end of the Annapolis summit, the Israelis announced plans to press ahead with further illegal West Bank settlements, not least close to Jerusalem in a development that would effectively envelop the city. As long as the settlement activity continues, so too does the flow of oxygen to angry Palestinian radicals who no longer believe Israel has any intention of withdrawing totally from the occupied territories nor of reaching a just and honorable two-state solution.
Hamas, isolated in Gaza, continues to reject any settlement and still fires rockets into Israeli-controlled territory. As long as the rockets fall, the Israeli government has the excuse to delay substantive negotiations while continuing to build defensively on stolen land. And just in case anyone doubts the deep chasm separating it from the Palestinian government, a Hamas spokesman characterized the Paris donor talks as a “declaration of war” upon it. None of the pledged money is likely to go to Gaza as long as the international community censures Hamas for refusing to recognize Israel; the donor deal is certainly a gauntlet thrown down in the face of Hamas radicals.
The pledges might also, however, represent an opportunity. In seeking this money, the Abbas administration will not have done its costings purely on the basis of the West Bank alone. This substantial sum can be used to benefit the whole of Palestine, including the Gaza Strip. Will Hamas really be prepared to struggle on with hand-outs from its Iranian and Syrian backers, even though the Gazan economy is falling apart? If the West Bank is the only part of Palestine to benefit, its power-base will be further undermined as one segment of the population begins to flourish while the other remains mired in humiliating poverty.
The Israelis meanwhile are undoubtedly pleased that the Palestinian government now has the means to set up proper institutions and build factories and productive plants. Each new facility will be a future target for Israeli jets when it is deemed necessary to stoke Palestinian anger and frustrate the peace process. It has long been a problem for Israel to find leverage against a people they have occupied and brutalized, a people who until this $5.6 billion pledge, had nothing to lose.
