Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Results

In the summer of 2004 I worked to research International Security Initiatives in Post-Disengagement Gaza. As far as I can tell these are they--and I am sorely displeased. It appears that the Palestinians gained on every front.

The following is the text of an email I sent to my boss at the JCPA, I think it captures everything I have to say on the matter:

I have read the State Depts release on "Movement and Access" for the Palestinian controlled areas, it looks like this is the result to which our paper looks. I am very confused.

The PA seems to have won on every front. They "gain control over entry and exit from their territory" through Rafah [at least the way it works here, in Buffalo, is that the Canadians control entry and the US controls exit--from my perspective. Why does the PA get both?] A seaport is to be constructed and "the importance of an airport" is acknowledged. They are even afforded convoys between WB and Gaza! I recognize that it can be done securely, but I had thought that that World Bank proposal was off the table.

The US is to act as a security coordinator (a task you indicated they were not up to under Oslo) and the border control (which **** told me the US would oversee) is being looked after by the EU--the UK is not even mentioned.

Is it just my reading, or does Israel have very few security guarantee with this compromise? Why, so soon after disengagement, has the PA been afforded such mobility, despite their poor showing on the political front?

I guess this is it.

1 comment:

Yehuda said...

My guess is that this is all preparation for the next pullout that will take place when the wall is completed.