Israel Matzav

There is no a choice

On a Saturday night in the winter of 1969, my parents took me, a precocious, politically astute pre-teen, to a young couples meeting at the (Orthodox) synagogue at which a representative of a new organization was going to speak. The 'representative' came from the liberal campus of Brandeis University, a few miles up the road, and the organization he was representing was something called Breira, which means choice in Hebrew.

Their argument was quite simple: Israel had no choice but to return all of the land it had liberated in the 1967 War to the Arabs, because taking land in warfare - even in defensive warfare - was unacceptable, and Jews did not do things like that. No one talked about 'Palestinians' then - they barely existed in our minds - and certainly no one ever dreamed had nightmares about a 'Palestinian' state. They were talking about giving land to Jordan and letting King Hussein deal with it.

Most of those present disagreed and argued that there was a choice (yes, even in the ultra-liberal Boston suburbs). We argued that no other country and no other people in the world had ever been asked to - much less actually - give up territory that it took in a defensive war. Israel, we argued, had the right to be treated like everyone else.

Breira became the paradigm for the Israeli left. Beginning with an increasing shrillness after the Meir government was caught flat-footed in 1973 (yes, I know, there are those who argue that the Nixon administration forced Israel not to preempt, but there was much that could have been done to prepare short of preempting), the Israeli left has argued that we have no choice but to give away all the strategic territory we liberated in 1967 because we don't want to rule over the Arabs, because the world won't allow us to retain it, because it's not fair, and so on and so on.

But the truth is that territory is not only Israel's biblical heartland, it's also strategically vital for Israel's future existence. It controls all of the high ground that protects or exposes the Jerusalem - Tel Aviv corridor, it has most of our water resources, and it controls the approach to Israel from the Arab countries that lie east of the Jordan River. But other than the stillborn Alon plan developed shortly after the 1967 war (which was official Labor party policy for many years, by the way) and a plan to confederate a 'Palestinian autonomy' with Jordan that lasted from when Menachem Begin proposed autonomy at Camp David in 1977 until King Hussein disavowed any interest in ruling over the 'Palestinians' in 1988, the right wing has never really had any alternative but the status quo. Until now.

Knesset member Benny Elon of the right wing National Union/National Religious Party has proposed a peace plan that has won praise from several MK's in the left-leaning Labor and Kadima Achora party. Elon's plan, called the Israel Initiative, would leave the people where they are - except for moving the 'Palestinians' out of the 'refugee camps' - but would keep the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria citizens of Israel while making the Arab residents citizens of Jordan. Among those backing Elon's plan are several members of the United States Congress and Eli Sadan of Ramat Gan, who heads the Labor party's traditional and religious forum.

"Labor has Peace Now people, but there are also realistic hawks in the party, who think we need to safeguard the state," Sadan said. "Israel has to find a solution and I think the Jordanian option makes the most sense. With all the rocket attacks on Sderot, we need to put on the brakes, and that's what I intend to tell [Labor chairman Ehud] Barak."

Elon's plan, called the Israel Initiative, calls for the dismantling of Palestinian refugee camps, Palestinians in the West Bank becoming citizens of Jordan and Jews in the West Bank remaining there as citizens of Israel.

"We are hearing ricochets from other parties as awareness of the plan grows," Elon said. "I will start an effort soon to sell the plan to MKs across [the] political spectrum."

Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu read from the plan from the podium of the Knesset plenum. Kadima MK Marina Solodkin said she would endorse part of it.

"Benny was right to emphasize the refugee issue in his plan," Solodkin said. "There are of course things in the plan that I disagree with, but if I were the head of a party, I would include in my plan building permanent housing for Palestinians instead of the refugee camps, which are a cradle of discontent."

Elon also received support for elements of the plan from American legislators on a visit to Capitol Hill. Elon, who returned from Washington on Monday, said he had positive meetings with House of Representatives Republican whip Roy Blunt (R-Missouri), Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana) and with Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-Nevada).

Berkley recently wrote US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a letter opposing the formation of a Palestinian state. Elon said he saw on his visit to Washington that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was exaggerating about support for the Annapolis summit among decision-makers in the US.

The Israel Initiative began a new online advertising campaign in English and Hebrew ahead of the summit warning of repeating the mistakes of Oslo and Camp David under the slogan, "Danger: recycling. It's time to think outside the box."

It sure is. It's too bad that most of the Israeli left won't even hang around long enough to listen.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:58 PM