Long-term deal: Egyptian gas flows to Israel
Israel’s Minister for National Infrastructure, Brigadier General (reserve) Binyamin (Fuad) Ben Eliezer said in Jerusalem last week that he expects natural gas will be flowing from Egypt to Israel by the beginning of March, in an undersea pipeline from El Arish to Ashkelon.
Ben Eliezar, who belongs to the Labor Party, said that gas was first injected into the pipeline on the night of 19 February, “on a trial basis”. He said he hoped the full flow would be carried within days.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense confirmed on Thursday that the Egyptian gas has arrived successfully in Ashkelon, but the activation of the flow, or its distribution all over the country, will be in a few days. He said there would be an official inauguration ceremony just before the middle of March.
“By the way, the contract we signed with Egypt is for twenty years”, Ben Eliezar noted. This, he said, will help consolidate peace with Egypt . He made these remarks at a panel discussion held during The Jerusalem Conference on 20 February.
Israel’s first Ambassador to Egypt, Zvi Mazel, who is now retired, told journalists at a briefing in Jerusalem on Thursday that Egypt’s interest in the deal is that “it needs technology and investment from Israel, and we are ready to give it”.
Agence France Presse (AFP) reported this week that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood opposition, which controls a fifth of seats in parliament, says that the Egyptian Government is committing a “crime” against the Palestinian people by selling this gas to Israel while Israel is tightening sanctions and maintaining a siege of the Gaza Strip.
Ben Eliezar himself signed the Memorandum of Understanding with Egypt’s Oil Minister Sameh Fahmi in June 2005. The preliminary agreement was for 15 years – with the Israeli-Egyptian consortium East Mediterranean Gas (composed of Egyptian General Petrol Corporation and Israeli businessman Yossi Meiman’s Merhav) to provide 1.7 billion cubic meters or 59-60 billion cubic feet of gas annually to the Israel Electric Company for about $2.5 billion a year — with an option to extend for another five years.
The deal was first discussed in 1999, under Israel ’s then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, also a member and now the leader of the Labor Party — but was frozen for five years after the outbreak of the Second Intifada.
Around the time the agreement shaped up in 2005, it was reported that a part of the Egyptian gas going to Israel will be piped to the Gaza power station, which was originally designed to operate on gas.
Gaza ’s power plant has been meanwhile operating on Israeli-provided industrial diesel fuel, paid for by the European Union since November 2006. Before the recent Israeli military-ordered fuel cuts to Gaza reduced the quantity of fuel permitted to enter Gaza , the bill amounted to some $10 million a month.
Israel’s Minister Ben Eliezar predicted last week that an increasing proportion of Israel ’s energy mix will be satisfied by natural gas – rising from 20% at present to 40% in the next decade.
The highly-advantageous deal with Egypt – in which Israel locked in a relatively low price for the life of the contract, while the market price has risen several times — will only supply part of Israel’s needs.
While the gas well in the Mediterranean that belongs to the Israeli company Delek will be depleted in the coming decade, Ben Eliezar said, there is another well located 90 kilometers west of Haifa could, if proven, sustain Israel for the next 30 years.
Ben Eliezer said at the conference that Israel was still negotiating with BG over a deal to buy a large part of the output of the Gaza Marine gas wells located in Palestininian maritime space in the Mediterranean Sea, about 36 kilometers off Gaza’s coast – despite the fact that BG indicated on 20 December that it was calling off the negotiations with Israel. The main problem was reportedly that BG had insisted that Israel pay the market price for the Palestinian gas, while Israel wanted a more favorable deal.
The Israeli Minister mentioned that there were on-going discussions with Russia ’s Gazprom, and with Azerbaijan .
He also said that Israel has been negotiating with Turkey for almost three years on constructing three undersea channels or pipelines from Turkey to the Haifa in Israel’s north, and Ashkelon in Israel’s south.
As a country with difficult relations with its neighbors, Ben Eliezar said, Israel has to “make sure that we have at least five sources of energy” in order to ensure a constant supply.
Filed under: Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians
curious to learn if the pipeline runs directly thru the purported palestinian maritime space or takes the long detour around it
& whether the answer might somehow matter
Oh, it does matter.
I think, but I’m not sure, that this pipeline runs directly through the Palestinian maritime space — which is defined in the Oslo Accords as an economic space, for activities like fishing.
This El-Arish to Ashkelon pipeline is apparently only 100 km (63 miles) long (and the long way around would probably be much longer, wouldn’t it?).
The Palestinian maritime space is delimited as perpendicular to the coast, extending straight out to sea 20 miles (an unusual number for these things) — but it does not start until 1.5 miles south of the Israel-Gaza boundary point at the Mediterranean. It also does not start until 1 mile north of the Egypt-Gaza boundary point at the Mediterranean.
It is within this space that the two wells of the Gaza Marine field are located –often called the Palestinians’ only natural asset.
In exchange for allowing the Palestinians title to this asset, Israel has apparently received somebody’s assent (Mohammad Dahlan, apparently…) to retain indefinite security control over the Palestinian maritime space.
This makes the Palestinian maritime space a new type of Area C (Area Sea).
well i can confirm a 90 to 100 km or roughly 60 mile sea beeline between these 2 metro areas
& this bee would nowhere sail more than about 10 km or 6 miles off the curving coastline of the gaza strip
the long way round a standard territorial sea of 12 nautical miles
or say 14 statute miles
would indeed be much longer
tho i confess i am stunned to learn these unusual particulars of oslo you mention
which make the long way round even longer than i had expected
a 20 mile broad territorial sea
if thats what it is
might be unique in the world
but the offset coastal terminal points are weirder still
however a little research has since led me to the so called sterile zones
which i now understand are exclusively for israeli use
& which are the cause these offsets
indeed the more southerly sterile zone
which is sandwiched between gazan & egyptian seas
has all the earmarks of being de jure a territorial exclave of israel
but also
it seems that de facto gaza has no access to the sea at all in reality
since even just going into the surf for a dip was purportedly strictly forbidden when last i noticed
& it may well still be
judging from the sound of the indefinite security control you mention
but in any case
could you also clarify further your reference to an area sea or area c
which tho both vaguely familiar terms have so far eluded me
& finally
tho i dont pretend to really understand any of this very well for that matter
it sure feels to me as tho gaza must have some real interest in all this gas
whether we are talking about a territorial sea or an eez sort of zone
for i dont suppose there is any such thing in maritime law as innocent passage of gas
oops
One of the wierdest and most mysterious zones on earth at the moment is what you’ve called the one-mile-wide “sterile zone” that Israel has marked out, between the Egyptian and Palestinian maritime territory. This area is sometimes referred to by the way it is designated on the map appended to the Oslo Accords, as area “M”. The map can be seen here:
http://www.mfa.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/0D80237A-9B99-42D4-8BA0-FB8627593661/0/MFAG003p0.gif
(Similarly, as can be seen on this map, which seems to have been recently re-done, the 1.5 mile wide “sterile zone” between Israeli and Palestinian maritime spaces is known as area “K”.)
The map is exactly the same for both the 1995 Israel-Palestinian Interim Agreement (where it is listed as map 8), and for the 1994 “Gaza and Jerico first” agreement (where it is listed as map 6).
Israel (then-PM Yitzhak Rabin) and the PLO (then-Chairman Yassir Arafat) signed the map delineating the Palestinian maritime areas. In fact, this map was signed in CAIRO on 4 May 1994. The U.S. and Russian Foreign Ministers at the time (Warren Christopher and Andrey Kozyrev) also signed, as well as Egypt’s (was it Amr Moussa — who’s now SG of the Arab League?)
Another of the peculiar inventions of the Oslo process, whose significance was not so clear in the early 1990s, was the division of the West Bank (unlike Gaza) into Areas A, B, and C.
There are a couple of ways to describe what has happened in the West Bank:
Area A is where the the major Palestinian cities in the West Bank are located - and places in Area A are supposed to be under the full control of the Palestinian Authority, but that doesn’t stop the IDF from entering at will, and doing whatever it likes;
Area B is where Palestinian (more rural) villages are concentrated, as well as Palestinian agricultural and grazing lands, and reserves for future expansion - places in area B are supposed to be under Palestinian civil control, but Israeli security control, though at one more optimistic point in time these places were described as being under joint Palestinian-Israeli control:
Area C, most of the West Bank, is where Israeli settlements in the West Bank are located, where there are Israeli military areas, and settler-only roads - and places in Area C are under full Israeli control except for the personal status of Palestinian civilians.
One of the most interesting analyses of this was Israeli-American Jeff Halper’s work, the Matrix of Control (see his map here: http://www.icahd.org/eng/articles.asp?menu=6&submenu=3&map=yes). Halper is coordinator of the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD) - motto: Don’t Say We Did Not Know.
It was originally thought that these designations indicated where there would be progressive implementations of the promise of self-rule that the Oslo Accords had seemed to suggest.
Now, it looks more like a balancing of various criteria (including strategetic value, historic or religious attachment, and realistic realization of where most concentrated centers of Palestinian population actually are located).
Many now say that it’s clear that Israel’s aim is maximum land, minimum Palestinians.
For some interesting maps, see http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/maps/peace_oslo.html
and
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/TheHumanitarianImpactOfIsraeliInfrastructureTheWestBank_conclusion.pdf
In 2005 Israel carried out its unilateral “Disengagement” of the Gaza Strip, but not of its maritime space (or airspace, for that matter).
My reference to Gaza’s maritime space as a kind of Area C (or Area Sea) is a sort of pun referring to the apparent agreement (though by whom it is not totally clear) on permanent Israeli security control.
Absolutely, Gaza — and all Palestinians — have a real interest in the gas in the Gaza Marine deposit. I wrote several articles on this last spring for Middle East Times, but the links to these articles have been brutally broken. Until then, there was almost no discussion at all about this Palestinian-assigned gas in the Palestinian media, but there have since been a number of articles mostly just asserting ownership.
(There is also an apparently less promising offshore gas deposit that seems to straddle the Israel and Palestinian maritime spaces, but that was put aside for the moment …and now, it seems, even the development of Gaza Marine is being put aside for the moment, as BG recently dropped negotiations with Israel as prime purchaser of the Palestinian gas, reportedly because Israel was bargaining for a price lower than the market rate.)
Gaza’s fishermen have been restricted non-stop to areas rather close to shore — from 3 km. to a maximum in good moments of 6 km out, despite a 2002 promise by Israel to allow the fishermen out to 12 nautical miles from source, during a stern working-visit from then UN USG Catherine Bertini, extracted when there was a lot of international pressure on Israel because of its marauding around the West Bank (particularly, at that time, Jenin and also Nablus), its seige of Arafat in his Ramallah Muqata’a headquarters, and its razing of parts of Gaza (particularly Khan Younis and Rafah. But Israel has never implemented its promise on this 12-mile fishing permission, though at one brief moment in 2005 Gaza’s fishermen might have been able to get up to 10 miles out.
One of the few good things for Gazans since the 2005 unilateral Israeli “Disengagement” — meaning that the 8,000 Israeli settlers were pulled out, along with the IDF troops who were protecting them among 1.4 million Palestinians — is that they have since been able to go swimming off their beaches. It is really lovely to see this.
Now, however, as a result of the present fuel and electricity cuts ordered by the Israeli military, some 40 million liters of untreated Gazan sewage is poured into the sea on a daily basis, to prevent a repeat of last year’s accident when a sewage pool in northern Gaza overflowed and five persons were drowned.
There was a sort-of precedent (of this concept of Areas A, B and C) in the Israel-Egypt peace treaty, which divided the Israel-occupied Sinai desert into four areas, three of which were on the Egyptian side of the border, from which Israel gradually withdrew. was a sort-of precedent in the Israel-Egypt peace treaty, which divided the Israel-occupied Sinai desert into four areas, actually, three of which were on the Egyptian side of the border, from which Israel gradually withdrew.
thanx
that is entirely crystal clear now
& i am so glad too about the restoration of fundamental bathing rights
& was hoping area sea would turn out to be a pun too
for it is a good & true one
but i was fooled enough by it to have gone googling & wracking my memory in unclos law
hahaha
good one
i admit i have to avert my gaze from some of these fragmentation maps tho
it seems that diverting war may in some cases have a lot to do with putting humpty dumpty back together again
but to call something the west bank that in fact has no bank at all any more
except perhaps directly beneath the narrow span of allenby bridge
well
i should think the land itself might cry whattt
hmm
but how do we put him together again anyway
fortunately we at least are neither the kings horses nor his men
hmm so why dont we try summonsing all the kings women
& all the kings cows
yes thats it maestro
trumpet & coronet flourishes
hear ye hear ye
kind women & womanly kine
ye are called to foregather at turtle bay jerusalem & cream hill for milking
in preparation for the coming resurrection of humpty dumpty
oops its too late for sadie hawkins in jerusalem
so lets call this one for march first
or better yet
make that march fourth for best auspices
so yes lets all march forth on march 4th
with milking pails & stools
in full war diversion festivity
& til then love anything
divert war & relay the cosmic egg
Yes - I never thought of it, or rather experienced it, in exactly that way, but yes, sometimes one cannot continue to stare with hard growing realization … and then must break away and avert one’s gaze from those West Bank “fragmentation maps”.
March first, March fourth (forth) — it may be too late.
ok i agree
march first & ask questions later
so i will rise directly to the top of cream hill here at high noon & levitate
& i am sure jerusalem is very well covered by you too maid marian
so heaven alone will be left to cover nottingham today
er i mean turtle bay
unless word travels the 86 miles from here very fast
but the die is cast
augurial report of the creaming of mars
in a highly auspicious development this noon at cream hill
a foot of the fluffiest virgin snow i have ever seen
or felt the crunching of
lifted me bodily off the front porch in my bedroom slippers
& down our pathway of buried stepping stones
out the driveway summitward before my feet ever hit the ground
so the projected levitation was fait accompli & indeed well done
even as the march of climbs was only half begun
a slightly chilling breeze multiplied invigoration upon exhilaration
thru a mostly cloudly sky the sun kept burning & popping in & out all the way to the top of the hill
sugaring pails suggested sap was rising
no cows or maids in sight
i had no need to lift off into golden light
returning home
i sprawled out on the fresh shag carpet
somewhere between sun bathing & snow angeling
i compressed a large handful of warm fluff into a tiny hailstone
like superman a coal into a diamond i fancied
as i happened to be wearing a superman logo shirt
with an md in place of the usual s monogram
hence supermd
or perhaps rather supermaid
churning & pressing air into butter & cheese
for yes
blessed are the cheesemakers & producers of all dairy products
& so
we have indeed marched first & have indeed risen first too
& can now begin to ask any follow up questions as promised
ok doctor robin here again saluting radio free marian from station cream
with a crimson cardinal as soon as i pulled up the shade this morning
& no idea yet exactly why today is to be such a red letter day
but that it must follow from yesterdays martial fulguration play
& also have no idea if anyone else in the world is reading us yet
in this strange place of sanctuary & conversation
but my first questions
since i promised to ask at least 2 of them
are
what are they surely selling in jerusalem today & where exactly
& i only ask because something has been telling me to
trammel a sure jerusalem mart
do you read
roger & out
ok marian
i am still climbing on all this march mythopoeia
in pursuit of the resurrection of humpty dumpty
since it has all actually taken me so delightfully by surprise
& feels like great medicine to boot
& i do see you are answering my questions quite directly
at least by serving up the several staggering new blog items today
by which to sketch if not actually delineate the ideal marketplace & elliptical trammel or ambit i was asking for in my previous comment
the only difficulty is i cant bear to look very hard at your true answers
for they are true yet not fair
& my cockamamie algebra can only point at what is both true & fair at the same time
for which all these answers so far
as i think you may agree
are just the absurd or negative roots of a positive & rational solution or interpretation that remains to be divined by us
so i think what my questions really boil down to now is
what are the territorial outlines or trammels of any
even very minimal but also obvious
pressure relieving deal or swap involving jerusalem
that nobody can afford to refuse today
just for starters
which is to say
cant we at least just trammel a sure jerusalem mart
& it seems to me a sure jerusalem mart could only mean an ongoing selling or promotion of
& a buying into
some sort of a greater & greater sure or secure jerusalem
but the idea behind it appears to be that jerusalem would become so truly divine & magnetic in this way that it might absorb a great deal of everything of any persuasion that touches it
& in that way much of the west bank fragmentation might be healed by being drawn & integrated into a greater & greater federal jerusalem
& of course this new polity would have to remain under full israeli control to begin with
but would ultimately or penultimately be phased into local home rule
based on an ongoing series of local self determinations
however
or moreover
it also seems pretty clear that to even reach the possibility of arriving at this penultimate solution to the ultimate humpty dumpty puzzle
a still more obvious & more preliminary
hence antepenultimate
deal
for confidence building etc
would be to cut gaza completely loose & seat it as such at turtle bay as soon as possible
so in a nutshell
all under a white flag of cease fire
becoming a truce
becoming peace
a sort of a triage trammel deal or swap
that might fairly quickly make of gaza a whole country on one hand
& might on a second hand erect a greatest possible greater jerusalem out of both israeli & palestinian land contributions & municipal accessions
& only then
on a third hand
to begin reconstructing & reconsolidating what is left of the so called west bank
the relatively heterogeneous statuses of the proposed jerusalem polity
& of the remaining & presumably shrinking nonjerusalem israel entity
& of the similarly remaining nonjerusalem nongaza palestinian entity
might continue to coexist in the present melange & limbo for as long as necessary
but the sifting out of local cleavages in all areas would be expeditiously ongoing rather than necessarily final at any given point
just as was proposed for the kirkuk area
in fact at this point i have no idea how many states the proposal might ultimately lead to
& who cares if it turns out as a 1state 2state 3state or 4state solution
if only it begins to work & keeps working & keeps working itself out
so think of it if you would as just another de mistura mattress
to name the invention after its inspiration rather than its inventor
but only custom tailored in this case to the holy land
but anyway
there you have it
hot & cherry red from the cosmic anvil
& it probably needs to go back into the forge for some more modifications & annealing etc
but i just wonder what you or anyone else may think of the essay so far
& of course
just to bring this back down to earth & indeed to the seabed on which it all began
with that egypto israeli gas pipeline flatulence
there is no need to disturb this facility even if it does prove to be illegal
which i assume it will become retroactively
as soon as the purportedly palestinian fishing grounds across which it runs become presumptively fully fledged gazan territorial seas
for the new owners of these seas by virtue of country club admission
or perhaps new part owners
since these will be condominial west bank seas too unless i am mistaken
may simply be expected to innocently tap into rather than injure this also innocent gas line
& may there be more & more innocent passage of gas in all directions
in a world become equally free for all
wow
& this morning it is looking like all iraq is fast becoming a de mistura mattress between the usa & iran
or a
march
as such a mattress may once have been called in the days before westphalia
when modern boundary art first bloomed
but how strange & lovely to find such bedparagons of peaceful coexistence
lifted from
http://www.stratfor.com/geopolitical_diary/geopolitical_diary_ahmadinejad_among_iraqis
Geopolitical Diary: Ahmadinejad Among the Iraqis
March 3, 2008 | 0255 GMT
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Baghdad on Sunday for a formal state visit. There were the normal trappings of a state visit, and bilateral discussions and press conferences. Ahmadinejad preceded his trip with an intense verbal attack on Israel, designed to drive home that going to Baghdad did not undercut his credentials as an Islamist militant. And during the visit, he lashed out at the United States, saying it was the real problem in Iraq and denying American charges that Iran was shipping weapons into Iraq.
In many ways, the content of the visit was far less interesting than the mere fact that it took place at all. Try to imagine this happening a year ago. At that point, the viability of the Iraqi government was seriously in doubt, the United States was cranking up its surge and Shiite-Sunni violence seemed about to rip the country apart. The United States was hardly likely to countenance the presence of the Iranian president on Iraqi soil.
Iraqi Sunni sentiment is still hostile to Iran and there were expressions of hostility reported throughout the Sunni community during Ahmadinejad’s visit. But what is most striking is what didn’t happen. Suicide bombers didn’t conduct attacks throughout the Shiite region of Iraq in an attempt to disrupt the visit. For that matter, the Americans didn’t block the trip. They certainly could have — the presence of some 150,000 troops in the country gives the United States substantial leverage, and non-Shiite elements in the government could have been persuaded not to participate. But the United States did not use its leverage and did not object to the visit. And Ahmadinejad did not balk at paying a state visit to a government that was essentially crafted by the United States. These represent enormous changes in the status of Iraq over the past year.
Ahmadinejad’s trip was portrayed as (and effectively was) a meeting between the leaders of the sovereign state of Iran and the sovereign state of Iraq. Formally, it was as if the United States wasn’t there. Indeed, both sides went out of their way to say that U.S. troops did not provide security. That might have been formally true — save that the Green Zone, where the main meetings occurred, is under U.S. security overwatch. The Americans certainly wanted to count everyone that Ahmadinejad brought with him, watch them and make sure they all went home — and that included his own bodyguards. If not actually guarding Ahmadinejad, the United States was watching him.
Still, it suited the Iranians to pretend the Americans weren’t there and it suited the Americans to pretend that Ahmadinejad coming to Iraq was not their concern. When asked by a reporter whether the visit undermined U.S. efforts to isolate Iran because of its nuclear enrichment program, U.S. President George W. Bush said the talks were needed because the countries are neighbors.
It is interesting to note that the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, showed up unannounced in Iraq on March 1. There is not the slightest evidence that Mullen met with any Iranians, but his dropping in reminded everyone that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs comes and goes in Iraq without anyone’s permission. The message: The Iraqi government is formally sovereign, with emphasis on the word “formally.”
There was much talk about this bringing closure to the bitter history of Iranian-Iraqi relations. But it seems to us that the more interesting dimension was that it established a new paradigm. The Americans and Iranians do not have to talk with each other publicly. The Iraqis can talk to both. In an odd way, this satisfies more than the American and Iranian need to ignore each other. The Iraqi government becomes more authoritative and perhaps more cohesive in this role, which suits the Americans, because the stronger Iraq becomes, the greater a geopolitical counterweight it is to Iran. And it suits Iran, because the stronger the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government becomes, the less of a threat Iraq is to Tehran. The trick now is to find the balance in which the Iraqi government satisfies U.S. interests by being anti-jihadist and it satisfies Iranian interests by not being dominated by Sunnis.
In the meantime, there is always domestic politics. Any progress on Iraq helps Sen. John McCain in the U.S. presidential race. And any indication that Ahmadinejad is a statesman helps him in Iran’s upcoming elections. Neither country is free of politics now.
I am sorry but I took off the true answers posting — though it is not one-sided to show the horrid and cruel damage caused by war, this war.
For an amazing read, see http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804?printable=true¤tPage=all
Yes, it doesn’t matter whether 1state or 2state, whichever works. But to fragment it further seems at first consideration unfair — because it would mean cutting adrift those that some do not want here. And wouldn’t inclusion be better than exclusion?
The idea, at one different point in time, was that Gaza would be the Palestinian access to the sea — it would have its deep-water port, and its international airport, and the best most beautiful and glistening beaches.
No, I can’t get into what should or should not remain under full Israeli control, other than to say this should be for those who wish to do so freely. And those should be given guarantees enough to reassure them of their security and identity — that would only be fair, and practical, and might reduce the terrible tension here.
The idea of the greatest-possible Jerusalem is fascinating — let’s make it even larger than it is today! Why not?
But, it is not a small place — it is Israel’s largest city, and probably fastest-growing, in an awful demographic race.
But the consequences of dividing the post-1967 unilaterally-defined greater Jerusalem might be that you would have to pass very unpleasant checkpoints to go from one part of the city to another — even from one side of the Old City to another, as our man on the spot Ghaleb speculated in a late phone conversation last night And, believe me, nobody could want to pass any more of these checkpoints!
And tomorrow, we shall see if Condoleeza RIce will pass at all…
thank you partner
& i am with you loud & clear
nor did i mean by not fair that i thought your coverage was lopsided at all
but only that it was not pretty
& thus impossible for me to fully entertain or duly comprehend
since i do reflexively turn away from anything so ravaging or indeed at all disturbing to my feeling tone
be it images or words or whatever
& maybe i should also mention i read very haltingly even under the best of circumstances
so any time you give the skinny or the sketchy of anything long or hard
or hard to take
which you do generally do so admirably well may i say
it is of course much appreciated
& i also agree inclusion is always better than exclusion
all other things being equal
& provided especially that the inclusion works well for all
the intrinsic unfairness of fragmentation could only be mitigated
or justified
if separation is clearly more conducive to overall happiness than the continuing struggle to maintain an unhappy union
or rather to maintain the intrinsic unfairness of a false integrity
the beauty & value of any de mistura mattress or march
& particularly of the establishment & ongoing promotion of a secure jerusalem trammel
is precisely that it would be so inclusive & attractive & available to all
& the cease fire that launches the whole process by according some palestinians an immediate voice & full power of self determination
& all palestinians a voice & full power in very short order
might be expected to lead also sooner rather than later to a real truce & also to at least some small degree of relaxation for everyone
while things continue locally to either blend in federation or separate out into natural cleavages
until at some point a more durable peace could evolve & walls come down
for it seems to me
only by a gradual & steady process such as this would any real guarantees of security & identity eventually emerge
& i would also agree
the great irony & difficulty at present is that everyone seems to be expecting things to be set aright by the very outsiders who are & have always been mucking everything up in the first place
in the style of that vanity fair article
which was indeed amazing as you say
without however being at all surprising
so i would say that the fact that no one can tell if there really are 1 or 2 palestines just now is not necessarily an inhibition or a negative at all
but may actually present a special opportunity & indeed just the very loose end needed to actually begin gently unraveling this pesky knot
rather than only continuing to yank & flail & hack at it
& if there do turn out to be 2 or more palestines
then i do believe the gaza seas will remain legally condominial to them
& what is one airport or seaport more or less in such a compact region
if movement & access really do grow less restricted than they are now
& who cares who is at fault for having perpetrated what stupid crime
even so recently as yesterday
etc
etc
it is only the situation actually facing us that matters & that we can improve upon
so i am not expecting anything from condi tomorrow
& it is not that i am cynical or anything
but just that she is not the one with the real power here
Yes, thank you, dear Dr. AK MD.
Anybody who wants to see what is happening in Gaza can always take a look at http://www.freegaza.ps — the not-bad website of the Popular Committee to Break the Siege, which uses the work of professional news photographers — Gazans — who also work for the worlds’s major news agencies, which do not publish all these very graphic photos.
Further to that, there is a very interesting and terrifying AP story today about Israel using its pilotless drones — constantly overhead in Gaza — to shoot missiles at its targets. It might explain why so many of the casualties reported over the last week were found in pieces.
As to the possibility of greater movement and access — I don’t know what it will take. One of the delights that is remembered only by the older generation here now is that it used to be possible to leave Cairo and go to Damascus for lunch, and then to Beirut for shopping — all in one day, and before the days of good roads, or fast cars.
Now, I think twice, or even three and four times, before having any unnecessary interaction with the supposed temporary military checkpoint I am obliged to exit in order to get to more civilized, comfortable, and amusing spots in Jerusalem…
with you all crystal clear love thanx
& omphaloskeptic that i am
i googled my dreams last midnight
expecting a halftime score of something like
daedalus nine
peninsula dead
& sure enough
de mistura mattress came up totally void on day 3 of its existence
but
trammel a sure jerusalem mart
aha
recorded this double if not multiple score already
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:8NU25dMGWZQJ:www.mockok.com/T-Z/tz.htm+%22trammel+a+sure+jerusalem+mart%22%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=safari
identifying first its parentage & origin in the 1970s
& then dishing up a most remarkable old scribbling of mine dated april fools 2002
which i had actually forgotten & was almost totally astonished by
but which i heartily commend to you now with squealing delight
especially under the present circumstances
oops
excuse me
too excited as usual
the link i meant to recommend is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BoundaryPoint/message/6034