Democratic Palestine : 19 (ص 13)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 19 (ص 13)
- المحتوى
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Plan for ‘Improving
the Quality of Life’
Aims and Dimensions
The following article, written by Samir Abdullah, appeared in
Al Katib, issue no. 76, 1986.
Hussein accepts Bush’s offer of US money for passifying
THE START OF THE PLAN
In the second half of 1984, news leaked out about a group of
American businessmen who had started activities concerning
the 1967 occupied territories earlier in the year. The group
appeared under a variety of flashy names, such as «The Ame-
rican Society for Peace in the Middle East» and
«Businessmen’s Association for Peace and Development.»
Chaired by Steve Cohen, a Jewish professor at Queens City
College in New York, this group includes a select number of
Jewish and Arab American bie businessmen. It includes
prominent Zionist figures such as Howard Squadron and
Philip Klusnik, former chairman of the World Jewish Con-
gress. The members of Arab origin include Najeeb Halaby,
father-in-law of King Hussein of Jordan, and Khashoggi, the
known Saudi businessman who has made secret visits to
‘Israel’. The group also includes known US politicians like
Cyrus Vance and Philip Habib.
This group is closely tied to Secretary of State George
schultz who has been speaking much about the subject of
<improving the quality of life» of the citizens of the West Bank
ind Gaza Strip, while completely ignoring the essence of the
?alestinian people’s cause. According to one report, the
troup’s work is totally coordinated with Schultz’s office, espe-
ally with his assistant William Kirby, architect of the plan for
iettling Palestinians in the USA and Canada.(2)
In 1985, there was no tald about the project. It seemed that
the initiators preferred to wait and give the Hussein-Arfat
agreement of February 11, 1985, a chance. Then talk about the
yroject resumed after Hussein’s speech freezing coordination
with the official PLO leadership, and after the Israeli military
coordinator of the West Bank, Moshe Goren, had toured
Zurope, carrying a secret list of projects to the tune of half a
dillion dollars. Then, Israeli Prime Minister Peres proposed a
(Marshall plan» for the Middle East,also known as the Peres-
¢halil plan (Mustafa Khalil is Egypt’s prime minister). This is
yased on coupling international capital with Israeli technology
n order to ‘develop’ the whole Middle East. This project
ippears to be the focus of several parties in the region, espe-
cially the ruling circles in Egypt and ‘Israel’.
3ACKGROUND FOR THE PLAN
To understand the background for the plan to «improve the
juality of life» in the occupied territories, we have to go back
o the conditions and changes that preceded its emergence:
1. The PLO’s departure from Beirut, and the official lea-
lership’s deviation towards the Arab reactionary trend, which
neans dealing with the US settlement, cooperation with the
‘amp David regime in Egypt, and coordination with the
ordanian regime. This was coupled with many splits in the
the occupied territories.
Palestinian arena. This situation led to demoralization among
the Palestinians. Chances were opened for the imperialists to
eliminate the goals achieved by the Palestinian people through
long, hard struggle and sacrifices.
2. During this period, two main factors caused the deterio-
ration of the economic situation in the occupied territories.
First was the recession in the Arab countries, especially the oil-
producers, due to falling oil prices and the Gulf war. This
reduced the remittances sent home by Palestinians working
abroad, and the amount of aid given to the occupied territo-
ries. There are fewer job opportunities for Palestinians and less:
markets for Palestinian farmers in the Arab countries. The
second factor was the acute economic crisis in ‘Israel’, that
negatively affected the economic situation in the 1967 occupied
territories. Thousands of Palestinian laborers lost their jobs;
West Bank products, especially construction materials, could
not be sold on the Israeli market. Fears arose in US and Israeli
circles that the bad economic situation would lead to an esca-
lation of Palestinian national resistance to occupation. Some
local ‘moderates’ thought that this would lead to ‘extremism’
and tried to use this talk to encourage a solution for the eco-
nomic problems of the occupied territories.
3. The fall of the Likud government in 1984, and expecta-
tions that the Labor Party would succeed in the elections, was a
very significant factor, because Labor’s formula for a political
settlement harmonizes with the Jordanian ‘option’. Labor has
a more flexible approach to the issue of political settlement and
engages in tactics, more so than the Likud which is known for
its blunt policies.
These three factors were the malin variables that created the
background for promoting the US businessmen’s plan. These
variables encouraged imperialism, Zionism and Arab reaction
to intensify their attack which became especially prominent on
the diplomatic front with the Reagan plan and the continuous
visits of US envoys to the area. Yet, from the outset, these
parties realized that the invasion of Lebanon, the PLO’s
departure from Beirut and the inter-Palestinian conflicts had
not altered the basic political orientation in the occupied terri-
tories. The distinguishing tendency was still adherence to the
PLO and the Palestinian national goals. Thus, the conspiring
parties set out to exploit the economic deterioration in the
occupied territories, in order to change this political tendency.
In this light, we can view the American businessmen’s project
as a plan for achieving what the Israelis were not able to
achieve by invading Lebanon. This was in fact precisely
expressed by the initiators of the plan themselves.
GOALS OF THE PLAN
In an interview with the Israeli daily Maariv, Steve Cohen
explained: «Israel’s security is the common factor among the >
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