Palestinian morale is at its lowest ebb and the impotent Palestinian Authority is debating whether to dissolve itself, according to Harvey Morris in today’s Financial Times – all in keeping with the Sharon government’s game plan.
Palestinian academics and politicians told Morris that, 10 years after its founding, the PA had reached a “dead end” – unable to garner effective international support for a viable independent state, or, alternatively, to lead a popular resistance movement to the Israeli occupation, the latter task having fallen to the Islamist parties. As Morris notes, the beleaguered Palestinians are at a crossroads: either capitulate to the surrender terms on offer from the Sharon government, or abandon the two-state solution in favour of an “anti-apartheid” struggle for democratic and human rights in a single binational state of Hebrew- and Arabic-speakers. In an accompanying sidebar, however, Morris reports how Israel intends to keep the Palestinians outside as a cheap labour pool while annexing part of occupied territory containing the settlements through a series of bypass tunnels and bridges augmenting the border wall. Financial Times (sub only) article reproduced on www.supportingfacts.com. Sorry for any cross posting.
