If there are Israeli Arabs, why not Palestinian Jews?
James Woolsey in The Wall Street Journal:
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?
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.
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Yes, a brilliant idea - I’ve been talking about this for the past year or so. But of course Israel, as a democratic society, has minority religions living within it’s small borders - I guess we’ll need to wait for the PA to get to that point, if ever.
Exactly. That the PA insisted that Gaza not only be turned over to them but be Judenrein was really nothing but successful and societally approved ethnic cleansing.
Realistically, the proper response would have been to say “If the Jews want to stay in Gaza they will be treated the same as Moslems and Christians living in Gaza and will become citizens of a Palestinian state when one is created”
I suspect we will NOT see that as the accepted treatment of Jews living on the other side of whatever border is finally resolved. But, I would be happy to be proven wrong.
This idea is not new. Israel was founded by Jewish Palestinians. Shortly after its founding, the “Canaanite” movement was established by a group of ex-Zionists (the post-Zionists of their day). And there is at least one Jewish member of the Palestinian Authority. I think having Jews in Palestine and Arabs in Israel makes a lot of sense.
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Leon Sturman
10/12/09 03:41 PM
What a brilliant idea! If this comes to pass perhaps the Arab countries that expelled Jews will return the property and allow them to return as well.