Why Do Palestinians Need a State?

Arutz Sheva ^ | 02 February 2003 | Bruce S. Ticker

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[tictoc]

Bump

[MoJo2001]

Palestinians don't need a state. They have a country for which they should move to: JORDAN! The Palestinian people may be suffering, but whose fault is it? They need to grow some balls and find some Kahunas to get the job done. Yasser Arafat hasn't done anything for them. Yet, they insist on his being their leader. So? It's either freedom and democracy or Yasser Arafat? What have they chosen to this point? Well, they can't complain that Americans don't have sympathy. They are too stupid to understand.

[Sparta]

Are you nuts? Sending the Palis to Jordan would severly undermine King Abdullah who is truly an ally of the United States. Send them to Saudi Arabia or Syria instead.

[Sparta]

I'm looking forward to the next article by the Elder of Zion.

[anotherview]

The last thing Israel or the U.S. wants is to destabilize the Hashemite government in Jordan.

It isn't that the Palestinians need a state. Israel needs to get rid of the Palestinians, and nobody will take them.

[Blennos]

Why do the so-called palestinians need a state? The answer is quite clear. This will help the arabs fulfill their oft-stated goal of removing Western influence, Jewish and Christian, entirely from the Middle East.

Such a state, if established, would simply a more effective base for terrorism, internationally sanctioned, and very difficult to undo once established.

Just what we need, another arab terrorist state to add to the list: Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq,Yemen, Sudan, Somalia et al.

[Sparta]

There's plenty of land in Saudi Arabia for the Palis. Why don't the Saudi Royal Family take them in?

[anotherview]

I agree that a terrorist state cannot and should not be established in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. Hwoever, not all Palestinians are terrorists. Many (if not most) just want to live in peace, feed their families, and work normal jobs. Their so-called leadership is the problem, and the fact that anyone who questions that leadership is branded a "collaborator" and risks death.

No, there can be no state under Arafat or his ilk. There can be if there is a genuine change in leadership, a Palestinian media that supports peace, and no more agitation from Iraq, Syra, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc...

Oh, and no, I don't see any of this happening soon.

[Non-Sequitur]

There's plenty of land in Saudi Arabia for the Palis. Why don't the Saudi Royal Family take them in?

Maybe they don't want to go?

[anotherview]

The Saudis hate the Palestians only slightly less than the Israelis do. There are still ethnic/tribal divisions between the Arabs. They are hardly unified in anything except their hatred of Israel and the Jewish people.

[anotherview]

Exactly. Would you want to be uprooted from your home? Well, they feel exactly the same way.

[Lee Enfield]

They need a state for the same reason the French do, no one else can live with them.

[SJackson]

Are you nuts? Sending the Palis to Jordan would severly undermine King Abdullah who is truly an ally of the United States. Send them to Saudi Arabia or Syria instead.

Southwestern Iraq, in a Jordanian protectorate?

Then again, since I'm frequently assured the "bad" Palestinians are a small minority, Jordan might be the right place, I'm sure King Abdullah got some advice from dad on handling the PLO, and it won't be the tepid Israeli way.

[Dog Gone]

Fine. Annex the West Bank, and soon the Jewish State becomes an arab state.

Or, if you don't annex that land, make it a country. I think everybody is entitled to citizenship in a country, and the West Bank is limboland.

[anotherview]

You are mostly right. The "Green Line" is not an internationally recognized border. It's the 1949 armistice line between the Arabs and Israel. Annexing the West Bank is a demographic nightmare for Israel, but Israel cannot go back to the indefensible 1967 boundaries. New borders must be drawn based on demographics, or, as Ehud Barak put it: "Use here, them there". This is essentially what was offered at Camp David. I differ with Barak in that I would never support redividing Jerusalem.

The problem is, to the Arab, concessions are a sign of weakness. The unilateral withdrawal from southern Lebanon was seen as a Hizbullah "victory", and it inspired the current intifada. Israel cannot repeat that mistake or go down the disasterous Oslo road again. However Israel eventually disentangles itself from the Palestinians, it must do so in a way that guarantees it's security and is seen as strength, not weakness. Clearly any withdrawal must be done as part of some sort of agreement, and failing that, it must be accompanied by annexation. The Palestinians must see themselves as only losing, not gaining anything, through terrorism.

[Dog Gone]

That's right, but it's in Israel's interest to create a Palestinian state on the West Bank. The 1967 borders won't work, but something will.

Decide what that is, build a wall to separate it, if necessary for security, and move on.

At some point, even the Palestinians will realize that they have most of what they asked for. And the demographics for Israel remaining Jewish will remain intact.

[anotherview]

It isn't that simple. Do you know how small Israel is?

Let me give you an idea. From my home in Netanya, which is on the coast, to Samaria is just seven miles. A wall will not stop modern weaponry. Imagine the Palestinians with rockets and chemical warheads, for example.

Israel cannot cede the territories or any part of the territories without some sort of security guarantee.

Catch 22: We can't keep the territories and we can't survive without them.

[MoJo2001]

King Abdullah who is truly an ally of the United States

Nuts? Please! He's not a true ally of America. He's just like the rest of the spineless monarchy over there. If democracy is good for Palestinians, it should good for all of the Middle East. That includes Jordan.

King Abdullah has come to Washington DC and like every other useless Arab monarch, he's tried to put pressure on Israel. His father screwed with Israel and lost badly. He's just a bit more restrained. There will not be peace between Israel or any of her neighbors. They want Israel to be abolished. They want the Jewish people to be wiped out. That's the essence of all this.