[MER - The following commentary by Canadian columnist
Eric Margolis highlights what Har Homa and the other Israeli settlements
all around Jerusalem are really all about. Where Margolis may not be quite
on target is his implication that this is mainly the policy of the
Netanyahu-Likud government, when in actuality the Israeli Labor Party has
done more of the settling and building in the extended Jerusalem area than
the Likud!] -- http://www.MiddleEast.Org
The Jewish Maginot Line
By Eric Margolis
20 March 1997
Israeli bulldozers broke
ground Tuesday on a new Jewish `housing project' in Arab East Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shrugged off worldwide condemnation of
Israel, Vatican protests, and threats of violence by enraged Palestinians.
Total Jewish control of Jerusalem was more important than anything else
- including peace, he said.
Israel conquered and annexed
the Arab Old City and East Jerusalem in the 1967 War. This war, it is often
forgotten, was initiated by Israel after blunders and provocations by Egypt.
UN resolutions calling on Israel to relinquish the East Jerusalem, or share
it with a Palestinian 'entity' have been ignored by Israel, or vetoed by
the United States.
Immediately after the 1967
war, Israel began building `housing projects' on a broad arc from NE to
SE of the Old City. `Housing' is really a misnomer. As a specialist in
modern fortifications, I instantly recognized the massive housing projects
for what they truly were - a Jewish Maginot Line.
These massive, ugly apartment
blocs form a nearly unbroken wall, cutting off Jerusalem from the West
Bank. Constructed of large stone blocks protected by earth revetments,
and thick, steel-reinforced concrete, many are capable of withstanding
155mm howitzer shells and even direct fire by 105- 130mm flat trajectory
shells. Narrow windows resembling pillbox embrasures face the enemy. These
fortress blocs have underground shelters, magazines, and independent water
supplies. Their residents are armed and organized to defend the complexes.
The residential forts are
designed, like Israeli border settlements and forts along the Golan, to
delay an Arab attack, shelter civilians, and serve as tactical strong-points,
or `schwerpunkt,' upon which offensive armored formations can manoeuvre.
The latest construction
that sparked off this week's furore - at Jebel Abu Ghneim - is extremely
significant because it effectively severs the only remaining `open' land
corridor between Jerusalem and Palestinian-administered territory. By slamming
shut this last gate into Jerusalem, Israel sends Palestinians the brutally
clear message that Israel alone will rule Jerusalem, Christians and Muslims
will have freedom of worship there, but the City - New and Old - will be
forever united under Jewish rule.
The strategy of Netanyahu's
rightwing Likud Party:
- complete Israel's absorption of East Jerusalem,
- thin out its Arab population by eviction and bureaucratic harassment,
- sabotage the Oslo Peace Accords which Likud has always bitterly opposed.
Behind all the empty talk about compromise and understanding, Likud is
trying to humiliate Palestinians and probably provoke them to an orgy of
violence that will wreck the peace accords - but saddle Palestinians with
the blame.
Arab extremists and terrorists
will gleefully join Likud in trying to kill the shaky peace. Bombs are
probably already being fused. Palestinians have only two weapons in this
uneven struggle: violence and pressure from the world community. But many
Israelis say. `to hell with world opinion - where was it during the Holocaust?'
The US is the only nation with influence over Israel, . But on this issue,
the Israeli tail wags the American dog. Pro-Likud American fat cats top
the Clinton Administration's list of dearest donors.
Netanyahu's policy is terribly
wrong - bad for Jews, Muslims and Christians alike. It assures decades
more hostility between Israel and the world's 1 billion Muslims, for whom
the city is also holy. Share Jerusalem.
The Palestinian mini-state
will need East Jerusalem and the Old City as its political and spiritual
epicenter. Sharing what Israel has conquered by force, and holds in violation
of international law, won't weaken or imperil Israel. Doing so assures
better peace and security than the Jewish Maginot Line. Humiliated, abased,
bitter people will fight back for generations - as Jews themselves have
shown.
Alas, logic stops on the
road to the Holy City, over which Jews, Christians and Muslims often seem
more eager to fight than pray. This is a case for King Solomon.
© 1997 Eric Margolis
