The News Behind The News
February 15, 2001
The Meaning of Sneh's RemarkCalling for peace talks, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said Israel and the Palestinians were locked in a war for which there was no military solution.
"It's a war in which there is no military victory, certainly not easy and swift. It's a problem for the public, the people, to withstand a continuing war,'' he told Army Radio.
This comment from Mr. Sneh comes on the heels of a massacre of 8 people by an Arab-Palestinian bus driver yesterday. The driver, who was shot after a 35km chase is now recovering. He was defended by Yassir Arafat who called the terrorist action "a traffic accident." But what explains Mr. Sneh's comment that terrorist acts will not cease or be radically controlled by military action? Certainly this is not an obvious conclusion. It is in fact false.
What explains Mr. Sneh's comment is the bus the driver was driving. The driver was an employee of the Israeli company Egged which is a government monopoly. Like all Israeli monopolies and cartels, they can operate only with US aid. Without the US aid and other outside monies amounting to 10% of Israel's GDP, Israel would have market competition and growth, including growth of population. Without this aid, however, which produces demographic decline (for example the failure to populate the West Bank) the response of Israel to terrorism on its front doorstep would be to make it too costly for the Arabs who seek Israel's replacement with a "democratic multinational state." Of course terrorism or any force and violence can be stopped by deterrence. But because Israel needs outside money to pay for Egged, and, much more to the point, because this money induces economic and demographic decline, it has either to retain the aid and not grow or drop the aid and grow. Israel's political elites, including Mr. Sharon, prefer the aid and the socialism. This is the meaning of Mr. Sneh's remark.
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