Israel and Palestine

The Proper Solution Is No Solution

With all the talk about a two-state solution in the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians you would think there would be more action on its behalf. There could be many reasons why this is not occurring and as a diehard proponent of the measure it saddens me it has not progressed further. Even if the two states would be living side-by-side antagonistically, I thought it was the best resolution to end the conflict that has been raging since Israel became a country back in the 1940s.

But then I started to think about it and realized that making the Gaza Strip and West Bank a country for the Palestinians would not solve anything. The reason for this is that all the Palestinians living there would see a country next to them filled with people living on land that is justifiably theirs to have and share.

The two-state solution is no solution at all. In fact the only fair and just thing to fight for in this part of the Middle East is something the Jews in Israel would never allow to happen. Even if it would historically represent a justified creation, a shared state for both Jews and Arabs in Palestine, would be impossible to implement without strong leadership and an almost Herculean heart to forgive.

But before we dismiss it outright let's look a little closer at what I propose and the main reason the Israel leadership would dismiss it out of hand. If you go back in history there have always been Jews and Arabs in Palestine. Therefore it shouldn't be a stretch to realize they need to share it again on a basis of equality.

But in order to do this the Jews of Israel must give up one of the founding principals they held when creating the state in the first place; that is, Israel as an ethnic Jewish state. As you probably realize this would be difficult. Israel was created so the Jews would have land and a country where they would feel protected. The Nazi's tried to systematically remove the Jews from existence and when you lose 6 million of your brothers and sisters it is not difficult to understand why a country by and for the Jews would be a way to reduce the chances of this ever occurring again.

But does it have to come on the backs of another group of people? Does it make sense to destroy one group to protect another? It is almost like an abuse victim becoming an abuser himself. Israel, in order to keep it ethnically Jewish must refuse to allow all the Palestinians to gain citizenship and equal participation in the cultural and political affairs of the country. If all the Palestinians were allowed back and given equal rights, they would form a majority of the population and the Jewish state would disappear. The Jews would fight to the death to stop this from occurring.

Even if dissolving the state of Israel and taking its land and combining it with the West Bank, Gaza Strip, the part of Jordan that was Palestinian at one time, and any other part of the Middle East considered historically Palestine, and making a new state based on Democracy, the rule of law, and the equality of all its citizens, is just a pipe dream, it is the only just and fair thing to do.

I guess we will have to rely on the extreme good will of the Palestinians to give up what was historically theirs to share in order to create a state next door and start a process that will eventually end in a lasting peace. If not we will have to live with suicide bombers, rocket attacks, and Israeli invasions to fill the news agencies as so much fodder for the ears of the world.

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