Ebad, Hamas Made No Acceptable Offer
Ebad Rahman, I have to unfortunately take issue with one of the statements in today's column:
Hamas has proposed something like such a plan. It was not a peace plan, but a plan for a long-term "hudna", an Islamist term meaning a long-term truce in which both parties to a war resume normal life long enough to prepare themselves for the next phase of battle.
The additional problem with this proposal is the so-called "right of return for refugees". Israelis, Jews and our supporters have heard this proposal before. We've derisively nicknamed it the "1.5 state solution", and I'll explain to you why. Any peace deal that creates a Palestinian state and gives Palestinian refugees a right of return into Israel does not actually result in a Jewish Israel coexisting alongside an Arab Palestine. It results in an Arab Palestine, possibly with a tiny minority of Jewish settlers, and an Israel whose population contains more Arabs than Jews. That would force Israel to make a sadistic choice between its democratic character and its Jewish character -- the very apartheid that Israel's enemies allege already exists. Thus, if Israel chose to remain Jewish it would become a true apartheid state, and if Israel chose to remain democratic it would become - by popular vote! - an Arab state with an official Jewish minority. Thus, this solution results in either apartheid in Israel alongside a Palestine or two Arab states, one of which happens to carry the name "Dawlat Israil".
None of us sensible people want this. I believe that you don't want such a situation either. The question is: why does Hamas?
Hamas wants such a "solution" because it favors them while defeating the Jewish state. It results in either Arab reign in "kul Falistina" without any Jewish state at all, or it results in a truly apartheid Jewish state that Hamas can easily turn the world against, thus transforming bad-case of an apartheid Israel into the worse-case of no Jewish state at all.
And if you truly believe that the Palestinian capability for violence is "insignificant", I don't think you've payed close enough attention to the situation. Israel has become very effective at preventing Palestinian terrorism by employing the very unpleasant tactics that Palestinian Arabs' supporters decry. Without the security fence, the blockade on Gaza, or the occupation of the West Bank, Israel would find itself facing near-total war with the Palestinian Arabs. Please do not confuse Israel's extreme competence at protecting themselves with a Hamas or Palestinian inability or lack of desire for violence.
What the area needs is a real two-state solution, not a trap to force an Arabic victory.
Hamas has even proposed a peace plan – which would establish a PalestinianState within 1967 borders, with Jerusalem – and right of return for refugees.
Hamas has proposed something like such a plan. It was not a peace plan, but a plan for a long-term "hudna", an Islamist term meaning a long-term truce in which both parties to a war resume normal life long enough to prepare themselves for the next phase of battle.
The additional problem with this proposal is the so-called "right of return for refugees". Israelis, Jews and our supporters have heard this proposal before. We've derisively nicknamed it the "1.5 state solution", and I'll explain to you why. Any peace deal that creates a Palestinian state and gives Palestinian refugees a right of return into Israel does not actually result in a Jewish Israel coexisting alongside an Arab Palestine. It results in an Arab Palestine, possibly with a tiny minority of Jewish settlers, and an Israel whose population contains more Arabs than Jews. That would force Israel to make a sadistic choice between its democratic character and its Jewish character -- the very apartheid that Israel's enemies allege already exists. Thus, if Israel chose to remain Jewish it would become a true apartheid state, and if Israel chose to remain democratic it would become - by popular vote! - an Arab state with an official Jewish minority. Thus, this solution results in either apartheid in Israel alongside a Palestine or two Arab states, one of which happens to carry the name "Dawlat Israil".
None of us sensible people want this. I believe that you don't want such a situation either. The question is: why does Hamas?
Hamas wants such a "solution" because it favors them while defeating the Jewish state. It results in either Arab reign in "kul Falistina" without any Jewish state at all, or it results in a truly apartheid Jewish state that Hamas can easily turn the world against, thus transforming bad-case of an apartheid Israel into the worse-case of no Jewish state at all.
And if you truly believe that the Palestinian capability for violence is "insignificant", I don't think you've payed close enough attention to the situation. Israel has become very effective at preventing Palestinian terrorism by employing the very unpleasant tactics that Palestinian Arabs' supporters decry. Without the security fence, the blockade on Gaza, or the occupation of the West Bank, Israel would find itself facing near-total war with the Palestinian Arabs. Please do not confuse Israel's extreme competence at protecting themselves with a Hamas or Palestinian inability or lack of desire for violence.
What the area needs is a real two-state solution, not a trap to force an Arabic victory.
posted by Eli Sennesh at
11:22 AM
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