How does Israel fit into the big picture?

[Magda Hassan]

Many factors contributed to the subsequent breakdown....However, two factors that contributed to Israel's retreat into unilateralism are little understood and rarely discussed, both related to the unique ways that the Chicago School free-market crusade played out in Israel. One was the influx of Soviet Jews, which was a direct result of Russia's shock therapy experiment. The other was the flipping of Israel's export economy from one based on traditional goods and high technology to one disproportionately dependent on selling expertise and devices related to counterrorism. Both factors were greatly disruptive to the Oslo process: the arrival of Russians reduced Israel's reliance on Palestinian labor and allowed it to seal in the occupied territories, while the rapid expansion of the high-tech security economy created a powerful appetite inside Israel's wealthy and most powerful sectors for abandoning peace in favor of fighting a continual, and continuously expanding, War on Terror.

Perhaps there is another underlying influence which she hasn't mentioned. South Africa. South Africa was part of the Jewish diaspora like the other English (and non-English, for that matter) speaking nations. While the role played by some Jews in the anti-aparteid movement is exemplary others were involved in less noble and more lucrative activities. Since the end of the apartheid era many people have left South Africa amongst them S.A. Jews. Some have gone to Israel and some have gone elsewhere. Amongst the many South Africans I have met here during that time some were involved in 'security' in South Africa. 'Security' in South Africa is more than just deadlocks on the doors and windows or sending a security guard to check the factory gates are locked. Way more. I also recall during the early 1980's looking at the undergraduate courses available externally at the University of South Africa (UNISA) Half the handbook was full of Police Studies, Security Studies and Prison Studies that would thrill the cold shriveled heart of a dyed in the wool fascist like Darth Vader and UNISA was considered a most liberal university compared to others. It was obviously a HUGE industry there. South Africa had a very healthy arms industry in those days too. Self funded? Funded by whom? What was the UK connection especially during the boycott? It is interesting the whole parallel apartheid wall (existence) being built around parts of the occupied territories and the bantustans of old South Africa. Also, as two pariah states apartheid South Africa and Israel had strong ties.