NO BIG DEAL!
Happens all the time. Italians take over Tyrol, Slovenians take over Pola and Dalmatia, Russians take Eastern Poland. Poles take Eastern Germany. Czechs and Slovaks break up. Latvians take back Latvia.
But taking over territorry, or even retaking territory that was once yours (Irrendentism), gives you a limited number of options on dealing with the people that are presently in residence, no matter how unfashionbable they might be, i.e., unlike you:
Choice No. 1: Genocide: Kill them off, root and branch. Been done. Not acceptable in the 21st Century. Whether it's Muslims killing Christians in Timor, Israelis rocketing Palestinians, Turks wiping out Armenians, Albanians bumping off Serbs; it's just not done by nice people nowadays.
Choice No. 2: You can recognize the present residents' property and legal rights according to Western codes of law amd live peacably with them. Ain't gonna happen. The 'Palestinians' are breeding faster than a jar full of fruit flies, and even within Israel itself, will soon outnumber Jewish Israelis. Somehow, I don't think they'll be voting to maintain a Zionist state.Besides, like in East Germany, who the hell could ever figure out who owns what now?
Choice No. 3: You can buy them off if they play nice: Like the Italians do the Austrians in the Tyrol and the English do to the Ulstermen: give them lower taxes and sweetheart deals on everything from rent to gasoline. Ain't gonna happen in Israel.
Choice No. 4: You can REALLY buy them off. Give every Palestinian head of household $150,000 (or more) and the deed to his new ranch elsewhere in the Islamic world which you have thoughtfully bought for him. Move him and his 18 rock-throwing, suicide-bombing kids out of the refugee camp, put them on the bus, fill their pockets with money. Just get them the hell out of Dodge. Once they are relocated, subsidize the hell out of them so they can't fail. Perfect job for the Saudis.
Need a model? Look how the French resettled the French colonists of Algeria. Bought them part of Corsica, and are subsidizing them to this day. By the way, it served the purpose of developing a pretty rough and unproductive part of France.
Here's the way I see it: First, wouldn't it be helpful to purge the Biblical and Armageddon-type rhetoric from the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and just solve the goddam problem?(Pun intended)
The "God" argument is a phony in this dispute. In the first place, Israelis are notorious among the more Orthodox for being 'secular.' In the second place, the Palestinians were regularly chastized by the rest of the Islamic world for the same thing.
There is a private movement underway in Israel right now to buy out Palestinian families, giving them fair market value for their properties and expediting their move (!) to the US. This highlights what in my humble opinion, went wrong from the beginning of Israel: i.e., there never was an official, coherent plan to compensate the Palestinians and/or resettle them. The blame for this can be shared between Israelis and the Arab world in any proportion. The fact is, it was never done properly. In point of historical fact, both Arabs and Israelis encouraged the Palestinians to flee.
I proposed that each Palestinian Head of Household be paid a substantial sum as compensation, and be given title to a homestead in another Islamic region. I propose Northwestern Iraq, which is not only very underpopulated,but has great mineral and agricultural potential, including developable water resources.
Instead of putting them on disjointed "Reservation" territories which will never support them, the Palestinians simply ought to be paid off and given another country. Iraq was founded as a geographical convenience by the British. No reason why we cannot re-arrange its arbitrary borders. No reason why the New Palestine could not be an autonomous province of Iraq. There are no end of 'thinking- out-of-the-box' solutions.
These two peoples can never share a country. For example, what do the Israelis reallyintend to do when the Palestinians inside a democratic Israel outnumber them?
Here's an analogy based on the real estate business: (which this dispute is, once you boil off the religiosity that infects, and is the weakest argument, of both sides,) One buys a slum apartment property. It is inhabited by very unfashionable, low-rent tenants. Before one rehabilitates the property, buyer and seller must agree on a plan to compensate and relocate those inconvenient tenants. Happens everyday in LA, NYC, Detroit. It's the law. Once the slum dwellers are paid off and gone, one is free to beautify, yuppify, and charge higher rents. The relocation part of a real estate deal is never easy, it's never pretty, but it's a necessity.
To do this on a vast scale in Israel, with the Palestinians breeding as they do, might cost $30 Billion. But it might be way to BUY peace. Put enough money on the table, and many things thought impossible become attractive.
Let's build another coalition. We pay, the Israelis pay, Arafat pays (he's worth $10 Billion in London Real Estate!)The Saudi's pay, the EC pays, and friends of Israel the world over chip in symbolic amounts. Afterwards, just like in any fair deal, there's never a question about who owns what. It's bought and paid for.
NO BIG DEAL!
Happens all the time. Italians take over Tyrol, Slovenians take over Pola and Dalmatia, Russians take Eastern Poland. Poles take Eastern Germany. Czechs and Slovaks break up. Latvians take back Latvia.
But taking over territorry, or even retaking territory that was once yours (Irrendentism), gives you a limited number of options on dealing with the people that are presently in residence, no matter how unfashionbable they might be, i.e., unlike you:
Choice No. 1: Genocide: Kill them off, root and branch. Been done. Not acceptable in the 21st Century. Whether it's Muslims killing Christians in Timor, Israelis rocketing Palestinians, Turks wiping out Armenians, Albanians bumping off Serbs; it's just not done by nice people nowadays.
Choice No. 2: You can recognize the present residents' property and legal rights according to Western codes of law amd live peacably with them. Ain't gonna happen. The 'Palestinians' are breeding faster than a jar full of fruit flies, and even within Israel itself, will soon outnumber Jewish Israelis. Somehow, I don't think they'll be voting to maintain a Zionist state.Besides, like in East Germany, who the hell could ever figure out who owns what now?
Choice No. 3: You can buy them off if they play nice: Like the Italians do the Austrians in the Tyrol and the English do to the Ulstermen: give them lower taxes and sweetheart deals on everything from rent to gasoline. Ain't gonna happen in Israel.
Choice No. 4: You can REALLY buy them off. Give every Palestinian head of household $150,000 (or more) and the deed to his new ranch elsewhere in the Islamic world which you have thoughtfully bought for him. Move him and his 18 rock-throwing, suicide-bombing kids out of the refugee camp, put them on the bus, fill their pockets with money. Just get them the hell out of Dodge. Once they are relocated, subsidize the hell out of them so they can't fail. Perfect job for the Saudis.
Need a model? Look how the French resettled the French colonists of Algeria. Bought them part of Corsica, and are subsidizing them to this day. By the way, it served the purpose of developing a pretty rough and unproductive part of France.
Here's the way I see it: First, wouldn't it be helpful to purge the Biblical and Armageddon-type rhetoric from the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and just solve the goddam problem?(Pun intended)
The "God" argument is a phony in this dispute. In the first place, Israelis are notorious among the more Orthodox for being 'secular.' In the second place, the Palestinians were regularly chastized by the rest of the Islamic world for the same thing.
There is a private movement underway in Israel right now to buy out Palestinian families, giving them fair market value for their properties and expediting their move (!) to the US. This highlights what in my humble opinion, went wrong from the beginning of Israel: i.e., there never was an official, coherent plan to compensate the Palestinians and/or resettle them. The blame for this can be shared between Israelis and the Arab world in any proportion. The fact is, it was never done properly. In point of historical fact, both Arabs and Israelis encouraged the Palestinians to flee.
I proposed that each Palestinian Head of Household be paid a substantial sum as compensation, and be given title to a homestead in another Islamic region. I propose Northwestern Iraq, which is not only very underpopulated,but has great mineral and agricultural potential, including developable water resources.
Instead of putting them on disjointed "Reservation" territories which will never support them, the Palestinians simply ought to be paid off and given another country. Iraq was founded as a geographical convenience by the British. No reason why we cannot re-arrange its arbitrary borders. No reason why the New Palestine could not be an autonomous province of Iraq. There are no end of 'thinking- out-of-the-box' solutions.
These two peoples can never share a country. For example, what do the Israelis reallyintend to do when the Palestinians inside a democratic Israel outnumber them?
Here's an analogy based on the real estate business: (which this dispute is, once you boil off the religiosity that infects, and is the weakest argument, of both sides,) One buys a slum apartment property. It is inhabited by very unfashionable, low-rent tenants. Before one rehabilitates the property, buyer and seller must agree on a plan to compensate and relocate those inconvenient tenants. Happens everyday in LA, NYC, Detroit. It's the law. Once the slum dwellers are paid off and gone, one is free to beautify, yuppify, and charge higher rents. The relocation part of a real estate deal is never easy, it's never pretty, but it's a necessity.
To do this on a vast scale in Israel, with the Palestinians breeding as they do, might cost $30 Billion. But it might be way to BUY peace. Put enough money on the table, and many things thought impossible become attractive.
Let's build another coalition. We pay, the Israelis pay, Arafat pays (he's worth $10 Billion in London Real Estate!)The Saudi's pay, the EC pays, and friends of Israel the world over chip in symbolic amounts. Afterwards, just like in any fair deal, there's never a question about who owns what. It's bought and paid for.