Dear Friends,
It seems to me that Jewish settlement of the West Bank is a tractable problem… If both sides want long term peace.
The Jews and the Palestinians could exchange land. Land that is largely settled by Israelis in the west bank for a substantial land bridge along the Egyptian border connecting Gaza and the West Bank. Exchange equal land in the West Bank for land along the border. (Including land that has been ipso facto taken by the Israeli “wall.“ Were the two side to come to this agreement it would benefit them both.
The Palestinians would have a continual piece of land to hold sovereignty over. One that they can control politically as well as culturally. Palestinians (with the financial help of the Israeli state) could settle the new Palestinian land. Trade with Egypt should flourish.
Israel could shorten their boarders with potentially hostile neighbors drastically. A shorter border is easier to protect. Having a continuous Palestinian state would free up a great deal of military investments for use in more productive endeavors.
If the Palestinians have a shot at making a real Palestinian state. Not one that is utterly dependant on a hostile neighbor. They will work hard and make a good life for their children and their children’s children. I am certain that the Palestinian people will make good choices in their own governance once they are depressurized.
Today the Palestinian people are under the yoke of two tyrannies. One is the Israeli state. The other is their own hatred of the Israelis. It makes them allow rockets to be fired from their children’s playgrounds at other people‘s children‘s playgrounds. It makes them vote for a party they know will eventually oppress them. But they hope it will save them from the corrupt one they feel they were saddled with. Depressurize the Palestinian people and we may all be surprised at the refinement the Palestinians possess.
But Israel must work to make this happen. It won’t be easy… I don’t believe that the Israeli state will give up any land no matter if they are getting land in the West Bank. They feel it is their birthright… as do the Palestinians. But the hardest nut to crack will be getting the settlers that already occupy land on the future Palestinian West Bank to evacuate or be subject to the Palestinian authority.
I can see the horror in the faces of people in the world over at reading this. But there was a guy named William James who had a theory of philosophy… Pragmatism. Pragmatism is the basic philosophy of Capitalists and of the American people. If we all know something cannot work, namely a fractured Palestinian state, then why spend energy on it?
To continue to polish the turd doesn‘t make it any better. If it cannot work and has been proven not to work… try something new. The “plan for peace“ was rejected by Yassier Arafat in Washington DC when Bill Clinton even leveraged an agreement for part of Jerusalem to be capital of the Palestinian State. He knew that Palestine must be contiguous. The two parts must connect. Break that egg and the world might have a settlement of the Israeli Palestinian differences… Peace.
