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By Ted Belman
February 13, 2008
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Things are not going well for the traditional two-state solution.
Palestinian PM Fayed said that no agreement will be reached this year. The latest poll in the territories discloses that since the Annapolis meeting, Fatah is losing popularity. Hamas has taken centre stage with its breach of the Gaza border. Livni acknowledges that Hamas must be dealt with first before the peace process can succeed. Though some say the look of the final deal is known others say the parties are farther apart than ever.
An agreement looks so far away that David Landau, the (now outgoing) Editor-in-Chief of Haaretz, told Secretary Rice in December that Israel wanted to be raped. The Left, including Israel Policy Forum, is lobbying the US government for an imposed solution.
Attempting to create two states on this small piece of land, with the hatred and distrust that exists between the peoples, is an impossible task, particularly when the Palestinians want to destroy Israel rather have their own state and Israel doesn't want to accept the Saudi Plan.
The US and Europe want to find a solution to the conflict. Creating a 23rd Arab state isn't the primary goal. Let us assume they abandon the idea of creating a Palestinian state and instead allow Israel to destroy Hamas, Fatah and the PA. Israel would collect all weapons and once again be in charge of the Rafah crossing. All UN agencies doing work in the territories including UNWRA would be replaced by Israel. All check points would be removed and the fence taken down.
That would be the easy part.
The refugees living outside the territories should receive compensation and passports. They should be absorbed by other nations but not be allowed to return to the territories except in limited circumstances, and if so only to a new Mandatory Palestine. This is key.
If resettling about 4 million refugees throughout the world is too problematic, the US should work with their allies, Jordan and Egypt to develop an alternative location for a Palestinian State. Remarkably, it was Hamas who showed the world the way, by breaking down the barrier between Gaza and northern Sinai.
Jordan and Egypt are threatened by a radical Palestine and have much to gain in cooperating. Nevertheless, for its own reasons, Egypt may be induced to give the northeast corner of Sinai to Gaza as a potential new state. The entire area should be under a UN Mandate, like the Palestine Mandate, only this time on different land. The US could be the Mandatory Power.
The refugees still living in camps in Jordan, Lebanon and elsewhere could be resettled in this new land and then be put to work building the necessary housing and infrastructure. This could be a ten or twenty year project.
Now Israel, the US and the EU should agree to the following in the West Bank.
1. Israel would annex the West Bank.
2. The Arabs living there could be offered generous compensation to leave and settle the contiguous Palestinian state on the western coast of the Mediterranean (a new West West Bank" and an Mideast Riviera that would bring tears to the eyes of Shimon Peres). Former West Bankers could be offered citizenship in Jordan (where Palestinians are already a majority) or the the new Palestine State (where there would be only Palestinians and Bedouins).
3. Israel would re-educate the Arabs for peaceful coexistence. The Arabs would adapt to having a state in the making on the beautiful, balmy Mediterranean seacoast.
4. At the end of a fifteen year transitional period, Israel would enable any Arabs remaining to apply for Israeli citizenship subject to certain oaths, pledges and commitments.
5. By that time, Jews would likely outnumber the Arabs west of the Jordan and east of Gaza by a margin of more than 3 to 1. Israel could remain Jewish and be democratic. With the creation of a Palestinian state in Gaza and northern Sinai ("Palesinai?") and a US and EU-backed "Mideast Marshall Plan" there, every thing would slowly but surely settle down.
There would be additional benefits for the region. Removing 400,000 Palestinian refugees from Lebanon and evicting Hezbullah would stabilize that country. Egypt could be given a highway connection to Jordan from the Sinai and neither country would have to worry about a radical state on its borders.
Of course this would require the Arab League to give up the goal of destroying Israel. But with or without their consent, the US and the EU could do it, and content themselves with the realization that they had created a Palestinian State and a two state solution after all, only a little bit further south.
We have Hamas to thank for showing us how easily it could be done. Bring on the bulldozers.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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