The Israel-Palestine Issue

my_views


I agree Israel should own Judea and Samaria.
But Israel never admits that it wants all of Judea and Samaria and plays a game that it is interested in a two-state solution. Why?
Because annexation would require enfranchisement of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria – and that might be a demographic threat to Israel. So Israel has kept the Arabs under a twilight zone of martial law (military rule) for 45 years, where they are denied basic civil rightis – even before the Intifadas.
Martial Law is harsh, and it has enraged the Arabs, an already irrational and violent people. Israel has to make some hard choices and stop playing games. If Israel wants the land, then annex it. Otherwise, let it go; but make the hard choices, and stop keeping the Arabs under martial law; and victimized by bureaucratic tyranny.
I am not asking Israel to 'divide the land,' but the present situation is not sustainable.
Israel must deal with the 1½ – 2 Million Arabs in Judea and Samaria in an equitable way. Either enfranchise those willing to assimilate or pay them to leave.

I am the close to the Right Wing Zionist view, except that some of them have blood-curdling views of what to do with the Arabs in Judea and Samaria (what the world calls the West Bank). Though I support Israel, I cannot agree with such thuggery.

I do NOT think Jerusalem should be re-divided. I think it is eternally Jewish. I do, however, feel the Israelis should not be giving the Arabs a hard time getting permits to build in Israel. This is bureaucratic persecution.

I do NOT think Israel should give up Judea and Samaria (what the world wrongly calls the West Bank); but I do not think the Israelis should be tormenting the Arabs with unnecessary searches and checkpoints.

Israel says the checkpoints are there for security purposes. Indeed some are; but many times they are there just to intimidate the Arabs, to break their spirit, and convince them to leave.

I know some Arabs can be murderous, but I also think Israel mistreats the general Palestinian population; both in the West Bank, and inside pre-1967 Israel, to a lesser degree.

I think Israel never had any intention of giving up Judea and Samaria since they conquered it in 1967; but they played along because they wanted the land, but not the Arabs on it.

I agree that Israel had a better claim to the land, but they pulled tricks to expel the Arabs by bureaucratic shenanigans. For example: If an Arab went to school in a foreign country for too long, they would deny him his residency, and not allow him to return.

Israel admits it revoked residency rights of a quarter million Palestinians – Ha’aretz
Akiva Eldar Jun.12, 2012

Israel stripped more than 100,000 residents of Gaza and some 140,000 residents of the West Bank of their residency rights during the 27 years between its conquest of the territories in 1967 and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994.

Many of those prevented from returning were students or young professionals, working aboard to support their families

(Read More)


Stone throwers are indeed violent; and have killed people.
The media lies in portraying them as peaceful.

Some of these Palestinian Arabs had their residencies revoked; and with no nationality had no place to go. This was slow ethnic cleansing by bureaucracy. It was not as bad was what the Arabs did, but it was still not right. Not right at all.

Ultra-Right Wing Zionists would defend such a policy. I would not.

Now, I am aware of how badly the Arabs treated Jewish residents in the Arab world. These Jews should be allowed to return to the Arab world also.

However, the Palestinians were not responsible for Egyptian, Libyan, etc. policies.

Israel has a right to exist. Half the world would deny that.

Israel has a right to all of Jerusalem. Almost all of the world would deny that, except born-again Christians.

Israel has a right to all of Judea and Samaria. Only Right Wing Evangelicals and Zionist say that.

But Israel does not have a right to mistreat the Palestinians, confiscate Arab property (as often happened, and still happens), and keep them under martial law (military rule), with no vote in the Israeli government which rules over them, controlling their borders, their economy, residency permits, and lives.

I am NOT anti-Israel. Since I support Israel’s claim to Judea and Samaria, I would be considered a strong Christian Zionist. But, it is just as clear that Israel has erected a wall of laws and regulation meant to make the lives of Palestinians miserable, in both the West Bank and inside Israel.

If Israel does not want the Arabs, then pay the Arabs to leave, by offering them generous packages and residency in another area of the world – possibly South America, since the Muslims states will not naturalize Palestinians. The remaininge Arabs should be slowly enfranchised upon learning some Hebrew and a time of National Service.