Peoples Geography — Reclaiming space

Busy painting and moving furniture this weekend so time affords me only pointing to these good recent reads, excerpted here but well worth reading in full. Interestingly, both the first two articles compare the instability in the region with Europe in 1914, and point to lessons and opportunities Israel has missed.

• Alastair Crooke, Our Second Biggest Mistake in the Middle East, London Review of Books (Vol. 29 No. 13, 5 July 2007)

EXCERPT: When all parties begin to see conflict as inevitable, then the ‘inevitable’ becomes self-fulfilling. Americans are fond of comparing the situation in the region to the 1930s and the rise of totalitarianism; but perhaps Europe in 1914 is a better metaphor: the situation is such that some small, unexpected autonomous event might trigger a sequence of events that even the great powers of the region could find it beyond their ability to control. In the past, after all, a car accident (in the case of the first intifada) and a cinema fire (triggering the Iranian revolution) have unleashed consequences that no one could have foreseen.

• Patrick Seale, Israel Seems Determined to Dig its own Grave, Al-Hayat (22 June 2007)

What would it take to persuade Israel to rethink its attitude towards its Arab neighbours – and primarily towards the Palestinians? The Hamas victory in Gaza is surely a clear signal that an Israeli change of direction is urgently needed.

All Israel’s efforts to break the democratically-elected Hamas government have failed. Its policies of boycott, siege and starvation, of bombing and shelling, of extra-judicial murder, of withholding tax revenues, of the systematic destruction of Palestinian institutions have served only to create a time-bomb of hunger, despair and defiance on Israel’s flank.

Yet Israel appears to have learned nothing. Instead of seeking peace with the Arabs – instead of seizing their outstretched hand – it persists in rejecting all peace overtures, preferring to rely on force and still more force, and on its ability to manipulate its American ally. READ THE REST HERE

and a ray of hope in the act of conscience of an orthodox American Jew, donating money towards rebuilding Palestinian and Bedouin homes destroyed by the apartheid state:

• Tovah Lazaroff, American Jew finances anti-demolition campaign, J-Post (12 June 2007)

An Orthodox American Jew has donated $1.5 million to fund a campaign against the demolition of Palestinian and Beduin homes throughout Israel and the territories, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions announced on Monday.

The committee plans to use those funds to rebuild as many as 300 Palestinians homes it expects to be demolished this year either by the Interior Ministry, the Jerusalem Municipality or the Civil Administration.