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The Two-State Illusion
Would it solve the
Middle East problem?
By: Daniel Abushery Daniel
There seems to almost universal consensus that in order to bring peace to the
Middle East the creation of a Palestinian state is unavoidable. What is more, such a “solution” is the policy of the
United States.
The lesson of
Gaza is the living proof that; a Palestinian state would be impossible for
Israel to accept. It would lead inevitably in
Israel’s destruction. The reason is primarily the lesson learn from the
Gaza experiment. Under pressure from most of the world,
Israel evacuated
Gaza, displacing hundreds of families who had lived there for generations and who had built substantial communities and extensive agricultural installations.
Instead of making even the least gesture of acknowledgement and gratitude, the Palestinians, almost from the very first day of their “liberation” from the hated Jaws, began to lob rockets into
Israel. Ultimately,
Israel was forced to defend itself against those attacks and invaded
Gaza in force. There was much damage and many casualties. As could be expected, “world opinion” condemned
Israel’s defensive action and called it “disproportionate”.
If Israel were foolish enough to yield to the unrelenting pressure and were to turn Judea/ Samaria (the “West Bank”) over to the Palestinians,
it would find itself surrounded by enemies, whose ultimate goal is not the creation of a Palestinian state but the destruction of Israel- to use the common rhetoric, to wipe Israel off the map and push the Jews into the sea.
Statehood opportunities rejected, the reality is that the Palestinians are not really interested in their own independent state. Such a state never existed and the concept of a “Palestinians “
people is a fairly new one. If the Palestinians were really interested in their own state, if that were their aspiration, they could have had such a state side by side with
Israel, for a very long time. the first partition of
Palestine- all of which, by the bal-four declaration and by the mandate of the league of Nation was to be the Jewish home – occurred in 1921. Winston Churchill, who was then the Colonial Secretary, split the mandated territory, allocating the great bulk to the Arabs for the creation of what is now the
Kingdom of
Jordan. But of course, that did not satisfy the Arabs, after much bloody fighting over the decades, other efforts were made to create an additional state for the Arabs( who by then called themselves “Palestinians” ). There was the peel partition plan of 1937, and most importantly perhaps, the United Nations partition plan of the 1947. under the UN plan, the territory west of the Jordan River was to be split, with the major portion going to the Arabs and the smaller, disconnected, portion, was to be “internationalized” – it would not belong to either. The Jews, anxious to form their state, accepted this plan under which they were granted only a small fraction of the”
Palestine” that they had been promised to be their homeland by the Bal- four Declaration and by the mandate of the League of the Nations. But the Arab rejected the partition out of hand. Almost the same day that
Israel declared its statehood and it’s
Independence, six Arabs armies invaded
Israel from north, east and south. In what could be called a Biblical miracle, ragtag Jewish forces defeated the combined Arab might.
Following the Six- Day War of 1967, in which Israeli forces defeated the combined invasion forces of Egypt and Syria, Israel offered generous terms for the formation of a Palestinian state, but it was not accepted, instead the Arabs convened in Khartoum (Sudan) and pronounced their famous three No’s: No peace with Israel, No negotiations with Israel, No recognition of Israel. Other offers of statehood were made over the course of the years.
Ehud Barak, then prime minister of
Israel, and
U.S. president Bill Clinton offered the Palestinians almost total withdrawal to the 1967 armistice lines. The Palestinians rejected the offer, presumably, because it did not include
Israel’s willingness to accept hundreds of thousands of Palestinians “refugees” who would with one stroke accomplish what the Arabs had not accomplished in their wars: the destruction of
Israel. The creation of a Palestinians state could have been accomplished many times, but it is the unalterable of the Palestinians, indeed, of most Arabs and most Muslims, to destroy the Jewish state and never to recognize and legitimizes
Israel in whatever shape and size as a Jewish state.
The author is a criminal justice administration graduate,
Phoenix,
AZ.,
U.S.A., former employee of Unity Bank,
Juba,
Sudan, and can be reached at [email protected].
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