Why must 'Palestine' be judenrein?
Former director of the CIA R. James Woolsey takes the Obama administration to task for its insistence that their be no Jews in a future 'Palestinian state,' something that even Salam Fayyad did not advocate at the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival this past July. It's still unclear why the administration has a problem with Jews living in the West Bank. Even if every settlement and its residents were transferred to Palestinian sovereignty, Jews would still comprise under 10% of the population of the new Palestinian state. Arabs, overwhelmingly Muslim, would continue to comprise nearly 20% of Israel's population. Why should such a Jewish minority be forbidden in Mr. Fayyad's Palestine?Even assuming Fayyad's comments in Aspen were serious, he has no constituency among the 'Palestinians' and it is highly unlikely that the 'Palestinians' would accept any Jews living in their 'state.'
It would of course take some time for his hopes to become reality. It is also clear that without American support for religious and political freedom in Palestine, there is no chance that Palestinian leaders will decide to make their country one in which Jews can feel safe. Yet rather than promoting the rule of law in a future Palestine, the Obama administration essentially urges us to accept that, because Palestinians will kill unprotected Jews, Jews cannot be permitted in a Palestinian state.
This is what the late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan called "defining deviancy down." Will it provide the basis for peace in the Middle East for us to define deviancy for Palestinians in such a way that essentially accepts Fatah's goal of a Jew-free Palestine? As Mr. Moynihan once wryly understated it, such a move would simply be our deciding to "get used to a lot of behavior that is not good for us"—let alone for Israelis and Palestinians.
As to President Obama, he has elevated the goal of creating a 'Palestinian state' above all goals and at all costs. Throwing a few hundred Jews out of their homes to make it happen is a minor inconvenience in his book.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:47 PM
3 Comments:
Several hundred thousand Jews would have to be uprooted... at a cost that would bankrupt Israel. Its not going to happen. The only way the Palestinians can have a judenrein state is if they defeat Israel.
The costs of creating "Palestine" is prohibitive. The only peaceful way a transfer would work is if there was an equivalent exchange of population and territory. But the Palestinians are nowhere near ready to accept two states for two peoples.
That's the reality.
I think it would be perfectly acceptable for Israel to be free of Jews... just as long as Israel would be made free of non-Jews - first. You know - to show their commitment.
I doubt whether many Jews would feel comfortable living there!
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