Israel Matzav

New vistas for 'Palestinians'

Yesterday's New York Sun featured an article by Youssef Ibrahim that discussed the 'new vistas' that will be opened to 'Palestinians' if Republican Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani's stated policies against the creation of a 'Palestinian' state reichlet are implemented.

Hat Tip: NY Nana

Should his handlers leave him alone to develop this position further, Mr. Giuliani could singlehandedly move the debate on the Middle East to a place where it makes sense. And should that position hold, it would be liberating in so many ways for American policy-making in the Middle East, as well as for Israelis and Arabs.

Under such circumstances, a far more humane and realistic discussion could begin to be explored for the nearly 2 million Palestinian Arabs under direct or indirect Israeli control and the estimated 3 million to 4 million spread throughout Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt as refugees. Among the options are permanent residency, substantial financial help, and the management of these societies beyond the current bankrupt edicts of the United Nations. A greater benefit of the former mayor's stance would be to push other American presidential candidates to match a new level of play, one that is closer to responsibility and further from meaningless platitudes.

...

To date, Mitt Romney and Senator McCain of Arizona, along with virtually all the Democrats, are dancing in a no man's land, sticking to the safe haven of supporting Israel while promising nirvana to the Palestinian Arabs maybe, someday, only after an impossible set of things happen that includes internal reforms, renunciation of terror, and the introduction of civil society. Every responsible person knows these goals are unattainable among all the Arabs, let alone the Palestinians.

Holding out false hopes is duplicitous and condescending to the Palestinian Arabs, who are in need of urgent real-time help.

...

The immediate objective is not nationhood for these millions, who are sinking into a culture of suicide bombing, eternal struggle, hopeless poverty, and ignorance. Needed are fundamentally new education, health, and community services, to be managed by a new team of Western technocrats that would replace the tired, bankrupt supervision of the United Nations, which has handled Palestinian affairs since 1948. The new team will not offer democracy but expertise in population management, schooling, health care, and civil society building.

None of this can begin to happen before we formally declare what Mr. Giuliani is coming close to saying to the Palestinian Arabs: Folks, forget about independence for now. Let's get you better first.

It has been nearly sixty years since the State of Israel declared its independence just three years after the end of World War II. During that time, millions of refugees have been resettled all over the world. Millions of those refugees came from World War II alone. Only the 'Palestinians' remain refugees. They are being held hostage by their fellow Arabs whose 'honor' was injured by the establishment of a Jewish state in their midst.

A solution to the 'Palestinian' 'refugee' problem should have two prongs: grants of citizenship by those countries in which the 'Palestinians' have been 'refugees' for the past sixty years (principally Jordan and Lebanon, but also Iraq, Syria and Egypt) and resettlement in the West (preferably not in Europe, which is already being overrun by Muslims) for those who would like to leave, including much of Gaza's population. At the moment, the US in particular and the West in general have economic and other leverage in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt and can force some accommodation in those countries for the 'Palestinians.' The time has come to do so.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:30 AM