Israel Matzav

How about one Jewish state, end of story

Yet another 'game' that ignores reality while pretending to mimic it.

The system has been used in the past by top policymakers directly involved in Israeli-Palestinian final-status negotiations. And now, as part of The Atlantic's "Is Peace Possible" special report, we're bringing that capability to you. Constructed by SAYA, an architecture and design practice that specializes in "resolution planning" by applying planning, design, and visual tools for conflict resolution and policy-making in disputed areas, this new interactive website gives you the opportunity to construct you own border proposal to meet the needs of both Israelis and Palestinians. The challenge is to include as many Israelis as possible within Israel's new borders while still allowing for the creation of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state. Former negotiators as well as numerous scholars and NGOs have tried their hands at this task; now it is your turn.

Users are presented with a map of the West Bank, and can pick which settlements they think should be included within Israel's borders as part of a final-status agreement. Hovering over each settlement will show its population numbers and how disruptive its annexation would be for Palestinian contiguity. (Users can also select settlements to include or exclude from a list of settlements, organized by population size or alphabetically.) Users can also see the most recent Israeli and Palestinian border proposals (as well as the route of Israeli security barrier and the Geneva Initiative's border proposal) grafted onto the map as a reference point in devising their own border.

For every settlement a user chooses to include within Israel, a ticker at the bottom of the page tabulates how many of the 500,000 Israelis living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem would be included or excluded from Israel's new borders. It also calculates how much land would be annexed - which is the amount of land that Israel would likely have to swap to Palestinians from within Israel proper. When users are satisfied with their Israeli annexations of the West Bank, they are shown scenarios of what land from Israel would be swapped to the new Palestinian state. Finally, the tool allows users to create a printable and savable version of the map they created, which can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, and across the web.

So would Israeli annexation of E1 - or any other settlement, for that matter - be a "fatal blow" to the two-state solution? Now you can be the judge of that. Click here to design your own border proposal, then post your maps in the comments section below. (Once you share it on Facebook or Twitter, you'll be given a link for your map that you can post below.)

All this 'game' does is to perpetuate the myth that the dispute is about borders. It's not. It's existential. 

UPDATE 9:26 PM

Another reason to call this game a fraud: I understand from a friend who tried it that there is no way to include Kiryat Arba, Beit El or Shilo in Israel.

Labels: Judea and Samaria, S. Daniel Abraham, settlements, two-state solution

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:40 PM