They propose entering the territories, "cleaning" them of terrorists and weapons, and then ruling the areas. The move would include the elimination of the Palestinian Authority. Some also call for the physical elimination of Yasser Arafat. According to the ex-generals, the strategic reality could be changed "in a week."
Done efficiently, this would be minimally violent towards civilians and would indeed change the strategic reality. It would also clear the way for moderate Palestinians to emerge (mostly from Arafat's prisons) with whom real negotiation might be possible. It would be the best possible thing that could happen to the Palestinians, though it would take them a long time to realize it. It would liberate them from a murderous thugocracy that has denied them elementary civil liberties, stolen them blind, and used streams of propaganda, much of it openly anti-Semitic, to get them fixated on revenge and blood and death rather than making a better life for their children in the real world. I have two main objections:
1. I think the unilateral declaration of Israeli sovereignty over the territories would be a bad idea. It would close off options and bring Israel unnecessary problems abroad. The military destruction of the PLO and that ilk would accomplish the goal without it. Suicide bombers are made by terrorist indoctrination, they do not spring up spontaneously out of the ground.
2. I don't think that direct Israeli rule over the Palestinians in the territories would be a good idea. That might be the one thing that could extend the life of Palestinian terrorism beyond the military action proposed. I think that they need to put the idea of a Palestinian state on permanent hold, encourage the emergence of pro-democracy Palestinian leaders (there are probably still some Arafat hasn't killed) and get international help for a non-Israeli and non-US order-keeping force - Turks come to mind.
There should be no public timetable, but a slow process of moving towards free elections of Palestinian leaders and gradually more day-to-day self-governance as the Palestinians demonstrate themselves to be capable of it and recovered from terror-fever. And turn their economy loose - let raw capitalism hold sway. The Palestinians are reputedly the most capable people in the Arab world and had a pretty promising economy, for Arabs, before US and Israeli idiots took Arafat out of mothballs so his incompetent thugs could run it into the ground.
What the options are for the Palestinian future might change dramatically in twenty years of this approach. Hopefully the forces of freedom set loose by the war against terrorism will shake the surrounding Arab world loose from its stagnant bitterness. The generals are right that a more stable and democratic Jordan, which was no longer under pressure from neighboring terror states (would you like to live between Syria and Iraq?) and terrorist threats within, would change the possibilities in fundamental ways.
Moving away from proportional representation is always a good idea, since it just gives marginal idiots and creeps of all hues and types the chance to use the national legislature as a platform. Good grief, if the US had proportional representation, the Aryan Nation and the Nation of Islam would have smooth political branches with seats in Congress. Think Gerry Adams.
Promoting democracy in the region connects with Sharansky's ideas, and he's one of the most far-seeing Israeli politicians of them all. But they need to include promoting democracy and civil liberties amongst the Palestinians as well.
On the whole, though, I'd say that Israel has a pretty bright group of old right-wing generals.
1. I think the unilateral declaration of Israeli sovereignty over the territories would be a bad idea. It would close off options and bring Israel unnecessary problems abroad. The military destruction of the PLO and that ilk would accomplish the goal without it. Suicide bombers are made by terrorist indoctrination, they do not spring up spontaneously out of the ground.
2. I don't think that direct Israeli rule over the Palestinians in the territories would be a good idea. That might be the one thing that could extend the life of Palestinian terrorism beyond the military action proposed. I think that they need to put the idea of a Palestinian state on permanent hold, encourage the emergence of pro-democracy Palestinian leaders (there are probably still some Arafat hasn't killed) and get international help for a non-Israeli and non-US order-keeping force - Turks come to mind.
For the immediate present, the establishment of about a 25km cordon sanitaire would do it, at least until Israel's enemies place longer ranged weapons in the hands of their PLO and Hezbolla surrogates- the *10,000 missiles* includes such shorter-range equipment as Antitank RPGs and Sagger missiles, and free-volly Katyusha 122mm rockets, certainly effective from such ideal locations as the Golan Heights, but less so across more open distances.
That would likely only serve for a few years, however, and perhaps only for a few months. But it might be better than the wholesale slaughter that will result if the Palis have to be cleared away in house-to-house actions by the Israeli military.
In any event, the idea of a buffer region is an interesting one, and perhaps those poor souls who have mistakenly crossed the US Border from the south might also be relocated there, to live peacefully under those Turkish Janissaries you propose. It could be called *New Mexico*...-no, wait: that name's already in use....
-archy-/-