By David Bedein
January 22, 2007
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At a time when a Palestinian Arab sovereign state is so widely discussed, very few have taken the time to consider the consequences of establishing such an entity. Here are questions that every citizen can bring to the attention of the US government which conceptualizes the idea and to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which seems ready to swallow such an idea:
1. Encirclement. Will a proposed sovereign Palestine not swallow up Jordan, most of whose population is Palestinian, leaving Israel with a hostile state from the Iraqi border to the Mediterranean Sea, with a corridor across the Negev between Gaza to Hebron?
2. Israeli Arabs. Will the Arabs of the Galilee and the Triangle not sue for "autonomy," and then l demand the fulfillment of UN Resolution 181-an Israeli withdrawal to the 1947 borders (evacuation of Nahariya, Acre, Nazareth, Jaffa, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Kiryat Gat and Beer Sheva)?
3. Terror. Why will a new Palestinian entity disband terrorist organizations? After all, Mahmud Abbas has so far refused to dismantle or disband the Al Aksa Brigades of the Fateh which continue to fire missiles into the Western Negev.
4. Armament. Why should there be any expectation that a sovereign Palestine will uphold any commitment for demilitarization, since the Palestinian Authority never upheld any such commitment since the Oslo accords?
5. Refugees. Based on Israel's surprising agreement to view the Saudi plan as a basis for a state, does that not mean that Israel will have to absorb descendents of refugees and displace thousands of Israelis from places like Haifa, Tfzat and Jaffa and 80 kibbutzim which rest on Arab neighborhoods or villages from where Arabs fled in 1948?
6. Air space. Will the Israel Air Force be forbidden from flying over the "West Bank," just as it was banned from the Lebanese skies?
7. Alliances. Based on diplomatic experience with the Palestinian Authority, will a Palestine not violate every prohibition on signing military agreements with countries hostile to Israel, placing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on Israel's borders?
8. Water. Like the Palestinian Authority before it, will a sovereign Palestine not carry out pirate drillings, and threaten the mountain aquifer of Judea and Samaria?
9. Jewish sovereignty. Will the momentum of a Palestine not erase the right of the Jews to the land of Israel in international consciousness?
10. Loss of independence. Will Israel not become a protectorate that is subject to the Quartet -- the US, the EU, the US and the UN?
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