At the end of 2006, UN aid agencies were warning of an economic crisis in the occupied terrorities of Palestine - with 2/3 of the 4 million Palestinian population living below the poverty line and half "food-insecure" - unable to afford to meet their basic dietary needs.
The United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported the year as one of the worst for Palestinian children, with 123 killed (more than double 2005) and 340 in
The immediate cause is an
boycott imposed in March after Hamas's January election victory and the withholding by Israel of tax revenues at a rate of $60m a month now totalling $600m. 160,000 government workers have had their salaries frozen as a result.
There has also been a 40 per cent increase in the number of barriers and checkpoints across the West Bank and the continued closure of crossing points in and out of Gaza.
Between June and November the Israeli army engaged in a massive military offensive against Gaza wrecking the infrastructure, killing more than Palestinians and injuring over 1,000. The ostensible pretext was the kidnapping of Israeli Defence Force corporal Gilad Shalit.
The failure to secure his release and crush Palestinian resistance undoubtedly contributed to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert finally agreeing in December to a Hamas ceasefire offer.
But Olmert's gloss that this might lead to "the opening of serious, real, open and direct negotiations ... so that we can move forward towards a comprehensive agreement" is of course a total fantasy.
There have been no serious talks since the second intifada started six years ago. Similar "agreements" like Sharm elSheik in 2005, proved entirely worthless exercises, providing political cover for the Zionist government.
Olmert is determined backed by Britain and the US - to crush the democratically elected Hamas government. In public statements by Israel's western supporters, Palestinian capitulation is the first and only precondition to any "peace" process - generally dressed up as recognition of Israel, renunciation of violence and adherence to discredited past deals.
Senior Hamas official Ahmad Yousef, on a visit to London in October, stated that there was no support among Palestinians for recognition and he could not propose such change, explaining that otherwise "I would end up like Michael Collins" - a reference to the pro-treaty leader assassinated in the Irish civil war.
Nonetheless he revived long-standing Hamas proposals that constitute a de facto climb down. Offering a 10 year ceasefire in return for an end to the occupation he said "debate about a political nation's right to exist seems infantile, Israel is a state now, it is part of the UN it is de facto there and we deal with it every day". You can hardly call this controntational. Nonetheless the Foreign Office refused even to talk to him.
Against this background, Tony Blair has decided - as the swan-song of his premiership - to bid for a legacy as Middle East "peacemaker".
Almost universal disinterest across the Middle East hasn't stopped the British press treating with straightHamas banner hangs high over streets of Ramallah, invaded once again by Israeli troops as we go to press faced seriousness Blair's preXmas claim that he is working "hard to unlock peace negotiations". But it doesn't bear even the most cursory scrutiny.
His renewed interest is little more than a piggyback ride on the US Iraq Study Group, tail-ending one wing of the split in the American right.
His opening salvo on meeting President Abbas in December was to call for the smashing of the Hamas government and to offer f13m of aid in support of Abbas's paramilitary militias - in particular the presidential security guard. At a time of mass malnutrition caused by a western blockade, these were not intended to be the building blocks for a free Palestine.
Gaza is in the grip of a fullscale bloody faction fight between Abbas's Fatah party - defeated in last January's elections and Hamas. Abbas, egged on by the West is trying to pull down the Hamas government - under the cover of a bogus and unconstitutional call for fresh elections - by blaming it for the severe privations caused by the Israeli onslaught and international blockade.
Blair is yet again acting as bagman for Bush. The US State Department had been touting precisely such a proposal around Congress over the preceding fortnight.
Blair explicitly linked his military aid plan to what he pitched as a region-wide fight against the alleged threat of a Tehran-organised "fundamentalist" threat. This attempt by the Bush/Blair axis to foment a violent overthrow of the democratically elected Palestinian Administration government thus takes "placing Israel/Palestine centre stage", full circle from 2001
Far from prioritising Palestinian rights as a means of tackling the deep causes of alienation in the region, they are being openly sacrificed in the name of imperialism's game plan for regional hegemony. This "peace process" of the Baghdad variety.
Bush and Blair are working in tandem with pro-western Arab regimes on this. Egypt has colluded in the recent closure of the Rafah border crossing into Gaza in order to prevent the Palestinian prime minister from bringing in sorely needed cash. And top Fatah funder Saudi Arabia is brazenly threatening to finance a civil war in Iraq, as a block to "Iranian influence", should the US and Britain withdraw.
Never has public popular opposition to British complicity in all this been more important. ADVENTURES IN THE ARMS & TORTURE TRADE Windsor reported