、物ーを 0 3 0 PAPER OR PLAS- Here's the reality on the ground: TIC? lnternational "HO CAN A PRISONER boycotts Of lsraeli Around 2.5 million Palestinians products are more live in the West Bank, which lsrael POP LATION BOYCOTT THE difficult in the West Bank, where t00k control of in 1967 , along with JAI ER WITHOUT STARVING? ” shoppers have few EastJerusalem and the Gaza Strip. alternatives. (The latter is now controlled by the lslamist group Hamas, and lsrael and Egypt have placed it under and residents need lsraeli permits tO leave the blockade. ) The Palestinian Authority rules parts territory, which authorities say are for security ofthe West Bank along with the lsraeli military. reasons. J0bs and money are in short supply But with the peace process stalled—and with it, among palestinians: The world Bank estimates hopes for a Palestinian state alongside lsrael— that West Bank unemployment for Palestinians Palestinians in the West Bank live in a fractured land dotted with lsraeli checkpoints and settle- reached 26 percent this year. palestinian lnterest in boycotting lsrael ments. (Former President Barack Obama and rises during increased conflict, like the 2014 his predecessors considered lsraeli settlements illegal under internationallaw, and an impedi- Gaza war, and then fades, gaming a little more momentum each time, says Sam Bahour, a Pales- ment tO peace. President Donald Trump s team tinian-American businessman in Ramallah. The actively supports their expansion. ) lsrael con- palestinian Authority cannot endorse boycotts trols all exports and imports in the West Bank, 17 02 / 17 / 2017 N E W S WE E K

P A G E 0 N E / M I D D L E E A S T SHOPPING WITH THE ENEMY Why it's so hard for PaIestinians in the West Bank to boycott lsraeli goods IT'S EARLY afternoon in Ramallah, the de facto Palestinian capital of the disputed West Bank, and the main fruit and vegetable market is bus- tling. Vendors and shoppers shout prices and orders in Arabic while they exchange produce in boxes bearing Hebrew letters. lt's here where battles over international campaigns for boycotts oflsraeli products Often clash with the reality Of 10Ca1 economics. lt's really hard for Palestinians in the West Bank tO boycott lsraeli goods because the country con- trols and saturates the market with products, and 10Ca1 and imported alternatives are limited for the average cash-strapped PaIestinian. Amid the crowded stalls and corridors that day, Rezan, who declined t0 give her last name for pnvacy reasons, IS on a mlSSion tO buy mushrooms. ln the West Bank, that means lsraeli mushrooms, as no palestinian producer. Rezan has five people in her family, and they, like many other Palestinians, support the boycott of lsraeli goods—in theory. But with few options, she buys what she can find and afford. "Each has their preferences," she says. She won t eat certain lsraeli packaged snacks, but she concedes, "I like lsraeli chocolate. Nearby, Ahmed Hawajah is selling lsraeli fruit and isn't interested in chatting. An older woman buying nectarines clicks her tongue when asked about the subject. practically, there's no boycott here," Hawa- jah says. People can't. We sell what we can. There are no alternatlves. N E W 5 W E E K lnternationally, global boycotts of lsrael— namely the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement—have gained momentum lll recent years, targeting compames, celebrities and academics associated with lsrael and its settle- ments. Supporters say it s a powerful nonv10- lent t001 tO oppose lsrael and its occupation Of the West Bank, drawing mspiration from the boycott against apartheid South Africa. Critics say BDS unfairly singles out lsrael and is tainted by anti-Semitlsm, drawing connections tO Nazi Germany-era boycotts ofJewish stores. Across Europe and the U. S. , the battles over BDS have been fierce, as supporters and critics have clashed in a variety ofplaces, from college campuses t0 fOOd co-ops. The lsraeli govern- ment declared BDS a strategic threat equivalent tO Palestinian militant groups and a nuclear lran. ln December, New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo lssued a blacklist of companies that support BDS, which critics condemned as an attack on free speech. lsraeli offcials recently called for boycotts ofFrench goods after France implemented European Union guidelines tO label lsraeli settlement products. ln the West Bank, however, navigating daily life in an economy tightly intertwined with lsrael is much less straightforward. "There are a lot of people who do not really care whether it's French or Palestinian or lsraeli,' says palestinian entrepreneur sameer Khrishi. 'lt's a bread-and-milk-sensitive issue. what's cheaper?" 16 02 / 17 / 2017 BY MIRIAM BERGER 当 @miriamaberger

A maJOr reason, according tO palestinian econ- oflsrael because ofeconom1C agreements in the omist Raja Khalidi is that the West Bank is a ' cap- 1994 Paris Protocol, which followed the Os10 tive economy, me aning lsrael dominate S all parts Accord. But in 2010 , the authority endorsed ofit and "dumps ” cheap products int0 the market. boycotts ofproducts from lsraeli settlements in THANKYOU, COME AGAIN: Some say the West Bank. PaIestinian Authority President Under these conditions, he maintains, Palestin- Palestinian inter- Mahmoud Abbas has angered BDS activists by lans can t be expected tO take part in boycotts like est in boycotting lsrael rises during those abroad. "HOW can a pnsoner population rgecting calls for wider measures. And despite increased conflict, the Palestinian Authority's ban, Bahour says, boycott the jailer without starving?" he tells Ⅳル 5- like the 2014 Gaza war, and then settlement products are still making their way ル記々 . Khalidi, whO wrote a recent report on the fades, gaining a to West Bank markets. "I don't think it[the idea prospects Of a palestinian boycott, argues that little more momen- ofboycotts] has been impactful. ” there isn t the [Palestinian] productive capacity, tum each time. 、薹さ物・ : 第のト、い 1 ー 14 ン ) 誕り 111 ) ユ 11 ) ユ 1 ) 1 ) 1 、 111 ・わユ し M 己 ! 芦 R 三辷な物洋 を u44 記 彎どこ石ー 屮。 0 坊 -9 し丿 NEWSWEEK 18 02 / 17 / 2017

it's self-defeating to call for an lsraeli boycott. Barriers tO production in the West Bank range from lsraeli import and export restrictions, tO the Palestinian Authority's chaotic and corrupt bureaucracy, tO the uncertainty Of investments under occupation and even people's preference for—and trust in—lsraeli products after years Of consuming them. About two-thirds of Palestinian imports are from lsrael, and more than 80 percent ofPales- For a brief period, Khrishi, the Palestinian tinian exports go tO lsrael, according tO the Bank entrepreneur, appeared tO Offer a model for suc- of lsrael. lsrael accounts for about 55 percent of cess. Nearly fouryears ago, he and a few friends Palestiman trade, but the palestinian territo- started the Amoro CO. , a mushroom farm ln ries make up Just 3 percent OftOtal lsraeli trade, Jerich0, using imports from H011and. They had according tO a 2016 United Nations report. little experience but compensated for it with "I think the idea ofbeing proactive in produc- passlon. They hired Palestinian women whO lng alternative palestinian production sources, had worked at lsraeli settlements—where many it's hard work," Khalidi says. "That's why BDS Arabs tOil in unregulated construction and agri- is SO popular [internationally]. lt's easy tO d0. culture jobs—and provided better salaries and Bishara Jubran, head of the Ramallah-based conditions. Arab lndustrial Co. , knows the struggle first- Soon they had gained a large share of the hand. ln 1970 , he and friends started a deter- West Bank mushroom market—until this sum- mer, when lsraeli authorities held the compost gent and personal care line, Star, that is now sold throughout the fractured Palestinian terri- they import for farming at the port because 0f tories. Jubran is proud Of his Palestinian brand, paperwork problems. A spokesperson for the but the company is "forced t0 deal with lsrael" lsrael Tax Authority said the agency could not specifically comment on the case because Of on all levels ofproduction, down tO the electric- ity that comes from there, he says, SO it's never fully independent. Jubran says his company has been WON'T EAT CERTAIN SH successful because Of itS focus on consumer quality. ln recent years, he LI PACKAGED SNACKS, adds, Palestinian dairy products and CONCEDES,"I LIKE BU medicines have notably increased in value and availability. ELI CHOCOLATE. ” IS StilI, he argues, Palestinian leaders must dO more tO improve the invest- ment environme nt , like strengthening laws and re moving bure aucratic red tape. "One ofthe problems with the boycott is the limited information. However, the spokesper- son said lsrael restricts imports Of "dual-use trust in the Palestinian products," he says. SO materials ” like fertilizer, which can be used for you need the efforts 0f the economy t0 help the Pale stinian manufacturers to upgrade the quality homemade bombs. Khrishi, however, alleges this was an excuse oftheir goods and services. tO stop their production. "LOts Of palestinian Over the past five tO 10 years, Palestinian companies d0 pay money for a middleman t0 producers have gained a greater market share facilitate their applications," he says. You have from lsraeli compames, says Yitzhak Gal, a to have an lsraeli middleman. But we didn't. researcher at Tel Aviv University s MOShe LOSing t00 much money, Khrishi and his team Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African shut down the business in September. They are Studies. But stipulations in the paris Protocol now trying tO turn the farm intO a homemade outlining trade with lsrael, coupled with the compost yard so they won't be dependent on lack Of basic water, sewage and transportation mports. "You have tO come up with alterna- infrastructure, remalll impediments tO 1 れ ore tives," he says. advanced production. 'Water and electricity ln the meantime, there are still plenty 0f supply restrictions tOday are more harmful than lsraeli mushrooms in Ramallah's market for traditional, SO tO speak, restrictions on the pas- sage oftrucks," Gal says. Rezan and 0ther shoppers t0 buy. ロ P A G E 0 N E / M I D D L E E A S T 0 0 19 02 / 17 / 2017 N E W S W E E K

the Rosatom state nuclear energy corporation during the key lran negotiations. "The lranians trusted us. We were their guarantee ofsecurity. At the same time, Russia was alSO inserting itself, steadily and qmetly, int0 the lsraeli-palestinian peace process. Moscow's key allywas Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who earned a doctorate at the Peoples' Friendship University in Moscow in the 1970S. lsraeli researchers, citing documents that KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin smuggled out 0fRussia in 1991 , have claimed that Abbas was recruited by the SOViet security service under the code name "Krotov"—although palestinian offcials dismissed the allegation as an lsraeli smear. Agent or not, Abbas "likes the Russians, he wants to please them," says Ziad Abu zayyad, a former Palestinian mmister and negotiator. When Putin visited Bethlehem during a 2012 trip t0 the West Bank, Abbas gave him a plot 0f land—now a Russian cultural center; that year, he named streets in Bethlehem and JerichO after Putin and his predecessor, Dmitry Medvedev. Running parallel with these grand, public gestures of friendship is a quieter and constant diplomatic campalgn in the reglOn ・ Spearheading Moscow's outreach is a bespecta- cled, Arabic-speaking, 64-year-oId career dip- lomat named Mikhail Bogdanov, who has been putin's special envoy to the Middle East since 2012. A former ambassador to Syria, Egypt and PEACEMAKERS: lsrael, Bogdanov has played a key role in winning Putin listens to friends and influencing people, from Egypt's Recep Tayyip president and military strongman, Abdel Fattah Erdogan in lstanbulin el-Sisi, to Libya's Haftar. October. The America's steady disengagement from the Russian and Turkish presidents Middle East under Obama helped Bogdanov ・ are co-sponsormg The White House had good reason to step talks in a bid to end the Syrian war. back from the region: The president wanted tO wind down unpopular American military 0 0

EJIA LET'S GREAT and most important ally in the Middle East. Russian Jets now operate within reach Of the GOlan Heights, a contested territory that lsrael captured from Syria in the 1967 War and now divides the tWO countries. lsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has visited Putin in Moscow three times smce September 2015 ー・ more than he has visited Obama, with whom he had a notoriously rancorous relationship. Medvedev traveled tO lsrael in November last year tO mark 25 years Of diplomatic ties between the tWO countries, and tO bOOSt trade. Netanyahu is obviously concerned about Russia s cooperation With tWO Of ene- mles, lran and the Lebanon-based Shiite militia Hezbollah. He hopes t0 harness Russian influence with lsrael's enemies tO his benefit, and, SO far, Moscow has not objected when lsrael has conducted strikes against Hezb011ah in Syria. But Netanyahu had concerns about the U. S. , t00 : POSTER BOYS: Pedestrians in DaniIovgrad, Montenegro, flank a billboard showing a picture Of Putin and U.S. President DonaId Trump. 十 Obama overruled lsraeli objections tO a nuclear deal with lran and pressured the lsraeli leader t0 stop settlement building in the West Bank, a main obstacle tO reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians. On February 2 , the White House press secretary sean spicer echoed Obama's policy, saymg "the construction Of new settle- ments or the expansion Of existing settlements beyond their current borders may not be helpful in achieving peace. Russia, on the Other hand, makes no such tiresome demands 0f lsrael. After Washington set sanctlons on Russia following the annexation of Crimea, Putin has been pushing t0 make all the friends he can get in the region in order tO "develop a second front, ” says zvi lsraeli former Magen, tO Russia. ambassador Putin needs 1 ore lever- age with the West. … One [such lever] , the new one, is the Israeli-Palestinian process. ” After putin and Netanyahu's third meet- ing in Moscow in June—1n which the Russian leader called lsrael an uncondi- tional" ally—Russia offered tO host peace negotiations in Moscow between Net- anyahu and Abbas. ln this blossoming relationship, based on pragmatism, both leaders saw an opportunity: "tRUSSIA HAS コ BECOME VERY INFLUENTIAL IN SYRIA BECAUSE THEY ENGAGE IN BEHAVIOR WHICH, IN ANY OTHER PART OF THE WORLD, WOULD B E CONDEMNED AS WAR CRIMES. ” 調ーなド 0

CHOBA MKL4M! now a member Of the Duma security commit- tee, puts it: "There are thousands Of our citlzens fighting there. They are inadequate people 仕 om all over the world [thatl have gathered in Syria ・ The lslamic aspect is just an excuse. These peo- ple who enj oy putting othe rs on their knee s, lit- e rally and metaphoric ally, who e nJOY m aking women their sex slaves. lt's a matter Of national s ecurity tO make sure that they don't bring th at ideology back to Russia. Russia is determined tO hang on tO its new dominance in the Middle East—which means that regional leaders will have t0 find a way t0 cooperate with b0th the し S. and Russia. Trump has re ache d out to Netanyahu by inviting him tO meet in Washington next month; pledging t0 move the し S. embassy t0 Jerusalem; and appointing a pro-settler ambassador tO lsrael— all of which may dampen the Netanyahu-Pu- tin bond. (The Palestinians, however, will need Moscow more than ever. We have no hope with Trump, says Abu Zayyad, wh0 was a Palestinian negotiator in the 1994 OslO Peace Accords. ) Just as lsrael may seek a compromise between dealing with both Russia and the U. S. , so may Egypt. Alongside closer ties with Putin, Sisi has alsowarmed t0 Trump. ln aphone call, he became the first world le ade r to congratulate the billion- on hiS November election ViCtory over Hil- lary Clinton, having already been the first Arab le ader t0 me et with him during the campaign ・ Their close relationship has developed further since Trump entered the White House. After his inauguration , Trump first ge sture toward the Arab world was to call Sisi; he also hosted Jor- dan's King Abdullah Ⅱ in Washington and called several Arab leaders tO assure them ofAmerica s continue d support. One can broadly assume that [Trump and Sisi] see the world in the same way, says Hugh Lovatt, Middle East and North Africa policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. 'lt's not beyond the realm 0f imag- ination tO see a sort Of Russian-Egyptian-U.S. JOint effort ” on Middle Eastern lssues such as the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Such a triad could be appealing t0 lsrael, which has developed secretive diplomatic and security ties with Egypt, more SO than with Other Arab states. For the し S. , that would be a largely new way of doing business. ln all previous Middle East peace talks, it has been the primary broker. Trump must now face an awkward reality: TO strike p e ace de als, crush terrornsm and prote ct America S economic interests in the region, he might have no chOice but tO continue express- ing admiration for the man whO made the last American president's eight years SO dffcult. ロ 5. れ 2 !OR D ETHER! for Netanyahu, a pivot from the Obama admin- istration; for putin, a challenge tO Washington's le ade rship. The re 's a 10t Of win-win situa- tions developing in the Middle East right now. Unfortunately, none ofthem apply to the U. S. PARTNER OR SPOILER? Obama may have retreated from employing Bush-like American force in the Middle East— and elsewhere—but it seems that Trump is intent on entirely abandoning America s 70-year-01d, bipartisan commitment tO being the world's most determined promoter ofdemocracy. Amer- ica s policy Of "interventlon and chaos" must end, Trump said in December. That shift, in the Kremlin s V1ew, threatens tO create a dangerous power vacuum that could be filled with lslamist sympathizers, from Libya t0 lraq t0 Syria. Though many in the West see Moscow s resurgence in terms Of building a lost empire ofprestige and influence, many top Rus- sian offcials see their Middle East deployment as a matter ofRussia's self-defense. We remember hOW many radicals came tO fight in Chechnya from the Middle East," Leonid Kalashnikov, chairm an of the Duma Commit- tee on the Former SOViet Union, tells Ⅳビル 5 ルた , referring to foreign jihadis who fought alongside rebels in separatist wars in the North Caucasus in the 1990S. "The region is right next t0 Cen- tral Asia. That is our underbelly. We have t0 be in [Syria] in order tO prevent the contagion Of terrorism from spreading. Or, as Nikolai Kovalev, a former head of the Russian domestic security service (the FSB) and 2 , 5 0 0 THE N U M B E R 0 F R U S S 工 A N WHO HAD 工 S 工 S B Y S E P T E M B E R C 工 T 工 Z E N S J 0 工 N E D M 工 D ー 2 015 NEWSWEEK 35 02 / 17 / 2017

BIG SI-I()TS WEST BANK SettIing fo 「 a Figh t Amona, West Bank— lsraeli police evict settlers on February 1 from an outpost in the West Bank built without govern- ment authorization. Nationalist protesters burned tires, threw rocks at the police and chanted,"AJew doesn t evict a Jew, according to NBC News. prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to build new settlements, while the Palestinian farmers who owned the land SEBASTIAN SCHEINER ーⅲ g 知〃 po 止 February 1 , told The hiS Amona home on was barricaded inside a father ofeight who time," Eli Greenberg, end ofthis terrible Trump. This is the good vibrations fi ℃ m outposts. 'We feel Trump supports thei r President Donald tions. settlers believe cheered the evic-

diplomatic bargaining chips t0 exchange for softening ofWestern sanctions imposed after the 2014 annexatlon Of Crimea—or for future use ln negotiations with the West. First and foremost this is a question Of regaining our strategic influence," senator Oleg Morozov, a Of S Federation Council international affairs committee, tells Ⅳビルルた . Or, as Dmitri Trenin, director Of Moscow's Carnegie Center, puts it: The goal Of [Putin's] foreign policy is to restore Russia as a global major power. For him t0 be able to operate in the Middle East, in competition with the U. S. , is a badge 0f [being] a major power. That is what Russia did in Syria. But perhaps more important than either Of these goals—and a motivation little understood in the West—is Moscow's desire tO protect Russia from radical lslamist terrorism, the fear ofwhich helped Putin ascend t0 power during the brutal wars in Russia s North Caucasus in the 1990S. Russia's homegrown insurgencies shaped its pol- itics SO that the Kremlin—and many Russians— favors order over personal nghts and freedoms. After watching the し S. try to import democracy t0 lraq and Libya a decade later, only tO see them crumble intO civil strife, putin saw a stark choice: Outside powers could side with strong regimes, however ruthless they might be, or the world will witness what he called "the destruction Of state systems and the rise Of ter- ronsm. As ISIS grew more influential in Syria, so did Putin's mlstrust ofWestern efforts tO combat the militant group. ln mid-September 2015 , Russia s security servlces announced that there were at least 2 , 500 Russian nationals fighting for ISIS. ln putin's eyes this was enough tO make the survival and success Of Assad'S a matter ofnational security for Russia. Our 1 れ alll a11 れ in Syria iS tO make sure that our citizens wh0 went out there [t0 fight with ISIS] never come says Vyacheslav Nikonov, a Duma member. For Russia, intervention in the MiddIe East is a matter of defending our own security. AII the rest is details. Defensive or not, Russia s return tO the Mid- dle East has proved a stunning, sudden suc- cess—and a setback tO American power and prestige ・ Up until recently the U. S. had no real diplomatic or military rival in the Middle East. NOW, as Donald Trump begins his presi- dency with promses of wiping out ISIS, there are Russian planes in the air and troops on the ground in Syria; battleships 0 代 the coast 0f Libya; and Moscow's friends occupy—or are in line tO occupy—presidential palaces from TriPOli tO Damascus. Any time Trump makes Western military actlon in Libya and Yemen helped produce failed states that are still mired in civil wars.Washington's backing 0fSyrian rebels and insistence that autocratic President Bashar al-Assad shouldn't stay in power allowed syria's CiVil war tO drag on, or even intensify—fueling the rise ofthe lslamic State militant group (ISIS). And a two-state solution between lsrael and the Palestinians—a longstanding goal of U. S. for- elgn policy—now seems further away than ever. After Obama's two terms, last year s historic lran nuclear deal, which curbed Tehran s nuclear pro- gram ln return for lifting sanctions, remams as the lone regional success story—and even that 100kS shaky under the new administration. Obama's entire policy in the Middle East has failed," says Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the committee on foreign affairs in Russia S lower house 0f parliament (the Duma). "The power- lessness and the lack ofresults are evident. Observing America s setbacks, the Krem- lin sensed an opportunity. For Moscow, the advantages Of regaining some Of the SOViet Union s old influence in the Middle East are manifold: Russia can contlnue empire- building and projecting its growing global influence and military heft; it can alSO gather 1 THE NUMBER OF T 工 MES R E C E 工 V E D L E A D E R S 0 F M 工 DDLE STATES P U T 工 N H A S EASTERN S 工 N C E JANUARY 2 015 NEWSWEEK 27 02 / 17 / 2017