Palestinians. After years of foot dragging on the part of the Begin and Shamir governments, this development was welcomed by the western powers. This was not the case however in the occupied territories, where the
Palestinians are looking for something more than empty gestures.
MICHEL WARSHAWSKY•
A
T THE dawn of his second career as prime minister Yitzhak Rabin finds himself in an enviable position, with several advantages at his disposal. On his right, confusion reigns in the Likud, torn by the struggle of the various contenders for the party leadership. The left, including the formations which are not part of the governing coalition and the extraparliamentary formations, have given him a measure of support which, if not unlimited, will give him a broad margin of manoeuvre for at least several months.
The Americans, followed by the Europeans, have decided to treat him as if one of their own had assumed the functions of the Israeli head of state and have offered
$10bn in credits in exchange for verbal declarations and a few relatively meaningless measures.
Assured for the moment of general support, Rabin can begin a radical turn in
Israeli politics, in particular around the question of negotiations with the Arab countries and the Palestinians. Nevertheless, one question remains unclear: does the new government really plan to effect a major change, or will it merely enact a handful of cosmetic changes around a few minor reforms?
In his acceptance speech Rabin insisted that his government would change the order of national priorities. If the building of settlements in the occupied territories was the number one priority for Shamir, the new prime minister sees his primary task as above all tackling the internal problems of Israeli society: housing, employment, integration of the new immigrants, health, education, and so on.
In order to do this, it is vital that Israel obtain bank loans of $10bn from the United States. And in order to obtain these
*This article first appeared in the September 3, 1992 issue of the French revolutionary Marxist newspaper, Rouge.
credits, Rabin had to respond favorably to president Bush's ultimatum demanding that Israel immediately cease the building of settlements in the occupied territories. Knowing that in an electoral period Bush needed to put an end to the tension between his administration and the Israeli government, Rabin was able to obtain the US credits without having to proclaim a total freeze on the settlements.
### Critics neutralized
By distinguishing between political settlements - which will be halted - and settlements built for security reasons, he was able to neutralize his critics on the right in order to keep his hands untied so that he could continue part of Shamir's policies under the cover of "national security problems".
The partial freezing of settlements in the occupied territories is not only a concession to American demands. It is also a political and economic choice that reflects the state of Israeli public opinion which, as has been shown in the last elections and in various polls, demands that the government begin to find answers to the increasingly pressing day to day problems of the big majority of the population, and therefore cease the spending of enormous sums for some tens of thousands of colonists.
The negotiations are the second area where the differences between the Rabin and Shamir government can be seen. For the latter, as he admitted in a recent interview in the daily newspaper Maariv, the negotiations were intended to lead to nothing, their sole objective being to buy the necessary time to change the demographic situation in the occopied territories. Things are different with the Labor Party.
In their opinion the occupation is bad for Israel — at least in its current form. Once the option of expelling the population there is excluded, the occupation of the territoconsequences: tensions with the international community, absence of national consensus, a feeling of insecurity due to the acts of resistance of the Palestinians, the use of the army for functions far from its "normal" tasks and so on.
End to status quo sought
Unlike the preceding governments, the Laborites want to put an end to the status quo that has lasted for nearly a quarter of a century, during which Israel has not been able to absorb the million and a half Palestinians in the occupied territories, especially as all forms of repression have proved incapable of breaking their resistance.
The autonomy that the Israeli government proposes today is not conceived as a step towards the self-determination of the Palestinian people but, rather, as a means of allowing the Israeli army to leave the West Bank and Gaza strip. For Yitzhak Rabin, the autonomy project is not a concession to the Palestinians, even if they have an interest in presenting it as such. Rather, it reflects the needs of the State of Israel in changing the forms of the occupa-
It is clear that the Palestinians do not view these propositions in this way. They demand that this autonomy be a transitional step towards independence which will involve aspects of a Palestinian power. This is the real meaning of the debate on the role of the autonomy council which is supposed to be elected in several months time. The debate concerns whether or not it will have an administrative or legislative role, as well as the role of its members: 15 as the Israelis want, or 80 as demanded by the Palestinians.
What type of autonomy will the Palestinians live under for the next year? The Rabin model of autonomy, that is a sort of municipal autonomy on a grand scale, or the autonomy which Doctor Nabil Shaath speaks of, which would be a transitional step towards independence and the total withdrawal of Israeli forces?
The answer to this question will be a function of the determination of the Palestinian negotiators, on the condition, of course, that they are not content with merely negotiating but also with maintaining the pressure on the ground, and making life tough for the occupation forces
To give a bit more credibility to the propositions of his government, Rabin took a series of political measures aimed at "crea 1 9 ting a new climate" in the occupied territo-
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dawn?
Heights of Speculation