Where on Earth....?

Conal Urquhart in The Guardian. today reports on how Ariel Sharon is trying to sweeten the Gaza "evacuation" by a combination of financial and racial inducements. Apparently Gaza settlers who accept the pay off to leave will get hundreds of thousands of pounds on a sliding scale depending on how much they have stolen from the native population. Those who have stolen land merely for habitation are expected to receive about £180,000 whereas those who have engaged in the exploitation of the natives might get as much as £600,000. The racial inducement is the fact that these war criminals "could be persuaded that they could better help Israel and Zionism by populating the new towns which are designed to prevent the expansion of Arab communities in northern and southern Israel"! Unbelievable! Where else on earth can a State give vent to such grotesque racism? And does anyone suppose that the "Labour" Zionists would be any better? Blair and Blunkett have been accused of racism for far less but imagine them calling on Welsh and Scots people to come and populate the cities of England to thwart the "expansion" of non-white communities. The letters page has Linda Grant wrestling with her conscience and losing. She's anxious about Israeli war crimes in Rafah. One day she'll wake up to the realisation that Israel exists solely thanks to such war crimes as making whole villages and towns homeless. Then she can write a novel promoting the anti-Zionist position. Who knows? She might even win an Orange prize or a Free Jaffa Orange prize, when Jaffa's free that is.