The western wall
Israel seems in a hopeless bind. Neither peace nor war hold out much prospect of ensuring the country's security. There's little point resuming negotiations with Arafat, or even of pursuing a formal peace with Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia. As Dennis Ross, Clinton's negotiator, has rather bitterly pointed out, Arafat didn't even try to negotiate seriously when presented with the 97% deal. Arafat knows that Palestinians can achieve their aims more effectively through violence, and he's right, because they have. There is a deeper issue. Most Arabs have not come to terms with the existence of the state of Israel, even within its 1967 boundaries, and a piece of paper isn't going to change that. What is the point of forcing Arafat to declare his love for the Jewish people, in English and in Arabic, if he and everyone else knows this is a meaningless ritual? After any comprehensive "peace" agreement, there is every indication that Palestinian and Islamic activists will continue to attack Israel. Let's remember that the inhabitants of the Jenin refugee camp want, not the independence of the West Bank, but their families' former homes and land in Israel proper.
And war? Expulsion of the Palestinians from the West Bank? Continued occupation? Sure, expulsion would solve Israel's strategic dilemma, the proximity of Palestinians to the main Jewish population centers of Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem. Another Deir Yassin massacre, or ten, would do it. But I don't believe Israel has the stomach for ethnic cleansing. It would lose the support of moderate Jews internationally, and prompt more Jewish emigration from Israel. Nor is the status quo any more appealing. Jewish settlers living alongside embittered Palestinian refugees; you might as well put two fighting dogs in a cage. And while the conflict continues, a generation of Palestinians, and Arab television viewers, are being brought up to believe the Jews are baby killers. Which sometimes, they are bound to be. There is no security in occupying a sliver of land, surrounded by hate. "We hate you, the earth hates you, the air hates you," as one Palestinian leader said after the Israel military action.
So, what to do, if war cannot be stomached, the status quo dangerous, and peace talks are pointless? Unilateral withdrawal, and separation, is the only solution. Israel needs to withdraw from most of the West Bank and Gaza, not to make nice with Arafat, the Arabs and western liberals, but because withdrawal is a matter of Israel's national security. As long as Jews and Arabs live side by side, they will kill eachother, and eachother's children. If you can't or won't expel (read massacre) the Palestinians, you have to uproot or abandon the settlements. Israel has to get its troops off the al-Jazeera evening news, or it will continue to be the focus for the murderous rage of the Arab world. Let them take it out on Russia or India, or eachother, for a while.
What about the suicide bombers? More than 99 out of 100 terrorist attacks in Israel proper are conducted by Arabs from the occupied territories. Stop them crossing over. Rely on peacable Filipinos to work in construction and agriculture, the Gulf States do. Build a wall. Israel needs to withdraw itself, not just from the West Bank, but from the Middle East, that godforsaken place the Jews were unwise enough to choose for their homeland. Sure, separation would devastate the Palestinian economy, and the divide, which would have to thread through Jerusalem, would be the new Berlin wall, a symbol of, well, whatever it's convenient to blame on Israel. But the EU could polish its conscience by increasing aid to the Palestinian authority; viewers would get bored of the pictures of the wall after a month; and the suicide terrorism would fade. And, in Jerusalem, there's already one storied stretch of wall anyhow; an extension won't hurt. So here's the proposal. · withdraw from most of the occupied territories · annex land around Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem · abandon settlements beyond the boundary · forget about regional cooperation · bar all migrant workers from Palestinian-controlled territory · build barrier between Israeli and Palestinian territory · maintains overflight rights · air force bombs source of any cross-border rocket attacks · wait two generations
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