Outsourcing the Occupation 

NEVE GORDON / Haaretz (Israel) 30apr2005

Israel is the key to understanding United States President George W. Bush's strategy in Iraq. This is not because it had any influence on the decision-making process that led to the second Gulf War, but rather because the current administration adopted the model of "democratic occupation" — as former MK Tamar Gozansky of Hadash called it not long ago — that Israel developed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

After the outbreak of the first intifada, Israel had to station a relatively large number of soldiers in the territories, supported by tanks and armored vehicles, in order to maintain the occupation — exactly as the United States is now doing in Iraq. This transformed the Israel occupation from a profitable enterprise, economically speaking, into a financial burden and led the heads of the country to the brilliant idea of outsourcing — transferring the responsibility for the population to an external entity while retaining control of the natural resources (land and water, in this case).

After lengthy negotiations, the Palestinian Authority was established — an entity that took upon itself the running of the daily lives of the inhabitants of the territories, while Israel kept control of more than 80 percent of the land reserves. Within a few months, the civil institutions necessary for administering populations in a modern society, including education, health and welfare systems, were transferred by Israel to the hands of the young authority, which in return was granted a limited kind of sovereignty. Thus, without relinquishing its right to control the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Israel transferred the responsibility for the inhabitants to a kind of subcontractor — the PA — and in this way sharply reduced the cost of the occupation.

The democratic elections in the territories in January 1996 were essential for affording a degree of legitimacy to the PA. Of course in the end the PA did not fulfill Israel's expectations, and in many senses became a rebellious entity. But this is not directly connected to Israel's original aims.

The Israeli occupation is essential for understanding Iraq for two basic reasons. First of all, like Israel, the United States has created a distinction between the population it has occupied and its resources. The intention of the Bush administration is to enable the Iraqis to run their lives for themselves, thus reducing the cost of the occupation, while retaining control of the rich oil fields. The important question at this time is which American corporations will profit most from the expected 200 percent increase in Iraqi oil production — from 2.1 million to 6 million barrels a day.

Secondly, although Israel was not the first country to have initiated elections in the context of an occupation, it was the first to have brought back this practice in the post-colonial era in order to give legitimacy to a prolonged occupation. The Bush administration has found this strategy useful as it is well-suited to the new narrative of "spreading liberty" in the Middle East. Since it is impossible to nurture liberty and at the same time to impose a puppet government, Bush insisted on holding elections. The heart of the matter is that the aim of the elections is not to transfer power and authority to the Iraqi people but rather to give legitimization to continued American control in the region.

Therefore, the current discussion among liberals about the degree to which the elections in Iraq stuck to the minimal procedures that ensure a fair democratic process misses the point. Even if former president Jimmy Carter himself had approved the entire election procedure, the Iraqis themselves would have had no voice, for example, in the question of the deployment of foreign forces in their country. After all, the new "democratic government" in Iraq was created in order to administer the local population so that the economic elite of the occupying power could enjoy the spoils.

The writer is a lecturer in the department of politics and administration at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=570309&contrassID=2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0 30apr2005