[xzins]

Excellent points.

There is extreme international pressure now that would prevent annexation.

I expect it could have been accomplished after the 7 days war, or even after the Yom Kippur War, but to do it now would not work.

I believe they still control Golan (formerly Syrian?), and they were wrong to leave their strip in Southern Lebanon on the promises of the UN. The UN is a failed organization and an effort at world socialism, which I hope will be seen for the utter failure that it is, and that socialism has always been shown to be.

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

Excellent points. There is extreme international pressure now that would prevent annexation. I expect it could have been accomplished after the 7 days war, or even after the Yom Kippur War, but to do it now would not work.

I agree that "There is extreme international pressure now that would prevent annexation"; I'm just saying that's a damn shame.

I agree with you that in '67 or '73 Israel could have "bit the bullet" and Annexed Judea and Samaria and ended this problem; my own research tells me that up until the 1987 intifada, most Arabs living in Israel considered themselves "Israeli Arabs", not this imaginary "Palestinian" ethnicity. Israel could have dealt with the problem then, and incorporated the people of the so-called "West Bank" as "Israeli Arabs".

Unfortunately, she did not. Ergo (and sadly), I think that the best option for Israel now is to ANNEX the major Jewish settlements of the West Bank (which are mostly adjacent to Israel anyway), and then leave the rest of the "Palestinian" Arab areas to "sink or swim" on their own.

The example of Hong Kong (an otherwise-worthless rock with no natural resources) provides, I believe, a perfect example for the "Palestinians" of the Arab West Bank -- if you wanna be completely Pacifist and Libertarian, foreign investors will queue up in droves to park money (and create jobs) in an "enterprise zone" with low taxes and even lower regulation. On the other hand, if you wanna be a bunch of terrorist nutbars, no-one will invest in you, and you'll starve to death.

Israel should CUT OFF the "West Bank" (aside from the major Jewish settlements, which I think she should Formally Annex), and leave the Palestinians that choice -- Peace, or Starving to Death. Hey, Moslems -- make your choice!!

The same goes for Gaza, of course; while my Essay establishes that the Israelis have a precendent Legal Right to the Gaza Strip due to the Paris Peace Conference, I personally believe that on pragmatic grounds Israel should cut them off to "sink or swim" also. A few (a very few) American Christian Fundamentalists like Pastor John Hagee believe that Israel should not relinquish the Gaza Strip (since it was tributary to King Solomon or whatever), but I personally think that Israel needs 1.3 million recalcitrant Gaza-Strip Arabs like the USA needs another 100 million or so Illegal Aliens (proportionately). Hey, why don't we just all shoot ourselves in the head, and save our enemies the trouble? No. Cut 'em off, Sink or Swim.

I believe they still control Golan (formerly Syrian?),

Israel controls most of the Golan Heights, except for a UN demilitarized zone between Israeli troop depolyments and Syrian troop deployments.

The Golan is an entirely different case from Judea and Samaria (Legally speaking), because the Golan was ceded from the Palestine Mandate to French Syria in 1923 without much objection from the Zionists. I suppose that one could make, for the Israelis, a weak claim to the Golan based upon the (questionable) Biblical territory of East Manasseh and the 1917 Balfour declaration; however, since the Zionists of 1923 and every Israeli government since then has never entertained any claims to the area, I think it's safe to say that Israel legally acknowledges the Golan Heights to be Syrian Sovereign Territory.

Thus, the possession of the Golan Heights falls under Canonical Rules for Just War: since Israel has not laid claim to the Golan as "Defender's Spoils", it is only appropriate for Israel to immediately return to Syria territory which is rightfully Syrian -- just as soon as Syria formally terminates its State of War against Israel, a State of War which has existed since 1948.

Of course, as long as Syria formally continues to be in a Legal State of War against Israel (as she has been for almost 60 years), then she has no cause to object to continued Israeli occupation of the (Legally-Syrian) Golan Heights.

You have to be at Peace with your Neighbor before you've got any rights to bitch about the fence-posts.

and they were wrong to leave their strip in Southern Lebanon on the promises of the UN. The UN is a failed organization and an effort at world socialism, which I hope will be seen for the utter failure that it is, and that socialism has always been shown to be.

Lebanon is a more tragic situation by far. Unlike almost every other state in the region, as far as I know Lebanon has NEVER declared War against Israel. Lebanon is perhaps the only country in the region with a Christian population large enough to matter in their internal politics (well, there was Iraq... oops... sorry, our "nation-building" in Iraq has worked so well that the Christians are now mostly dead or gone), and has unfortunately been a much-abused Pawn of Arab-Israeli warfare for the last 30 years.

• In the 1970's, the Sunni Arabs used Lebanon as a Pawn for the Sunni-Arab PLO to launch terrorist attacks upon Israel, and so Israel (defensively) went in and destroyed the whole southern half of the country.

• NOW, the Shi'ite Arabs and Persians are using Lebanon as a Pawn for the Shi'ite Arab Hezbollah to launch terrorist attacks upon Israel, and so Israel is (defensively) going in and destroying the whole southern half of the country (and, respectively, don't tell me about "precision-bombing" and "radar-directed counter-battery fire"... Israel has launched air-raid retribution attacks on Lebanese villages DAYS after the last Hezbollah rockets were fired therefrom, killing scores of civilians LONG AFTER Hezbollah missile launchers moved on.) Israel is annihilating anything which could possibly support Hezbollah, period... and yes, civilians suffer as a result.

In other words, the People of Lebanon (many of them Christians, many of them who don't "Hate Israel" but who have an understandably-Patriotic objection to any Foreign Occupation) are caught between a Hezbollah which is so violent and incompetent that it fires over 1,500 missiles at Israel causing less than 100 deaths, (only half of them military); AND... an Israeli War Machine which is so ruthlessly powerful it kills hundreds in its path every time it does anything, 90% of the deaths being civilians.

It's not a good situation, period. Israel is defending itself against the Hezbollah terrorist army, and Lebanese civilians are getting caught right in the war-zone and getting butchered like cattle -- women, children, babies.

It's an ugly situation on all sides. That's all there is to it.