Interesting piece but if it represents the actual calculations of the Israeli government, then there is one mistake that could be a rather large problem.
Cynical but true, resistance functions best when a population is one or two levels above destitution, meaning there is still enough to eat and get by.
That statement is debatable, at best. The social science literature generated from the middle 60s into the middle 80s carried the notion of the infamous J curve. That is a population was most ready for mobilization into resistance when a period of rising expectations ended. That's the current state of play among the Palestinians at the moment. So, if one of the aims of the fence, is to reduce the Palestinians to further economic desparation and thus to reduce their willingness to engage in acts of resistance, that aim doesn't fit with the literature. It may or may not work but, as the saying goes, given the past, I wouldn't bet on it.
Thus, I'm afraid I still see the actions of the respective leaders, including Bush, as within the Algerian metaphor. I don't like that and wish something else, more hopeful, would emerge. |
