Israel as a Jewish state.

Submitted by ron (Canada), Nov 29, 2007 at 11:27

Pipes' article of course puts the key issue front and centre. Unfortunately we know the response before the question is asked. The Palestinians, Arabs and other Islamic states mean to destroy Israel, at least to the extent of the Jewish nature of the country.

We have seen this film before and should by now know its conclusion. In 2000 Bill Clinton as a morally disgraced president who had been impeached made a strenuous and sincere attempt to bring about an agreement. He went so far as to have Ehud Barak empty his pockets of any bargaining position in the attempt only to find that as expected Yasser Arafat, the old terrorist, had not the slightest intention of making a deal that would recognize Israel's existence as a Jewish state (or perhaps as any sort of state).

Now George Bush, reviled for his apparent bungling of the Iraq war, is about to make another very sincere attempt to square this circle of negotiation. The agreement by Olmert and Abbas to meet every fortnight, shake hands for the cameras, hug each other, promise to negotiate in good faith, etc. etc. will be for nought. The end of this movie is the same as the last installment in 2000.

The issue should be left for at least a generation or two. After a longer period of stewing in their own juice and incompetence and watching their territory regress while the rest of the world progresses perhaps there will be a chance with the next group of leaders or the group after them for some resolution. It is interesting to note that the approximately 250,000 palestinians now in East Jerusalem and for some years now under Israeli authority are in fact fearing a 'two state' solution that would see them revert to the control of the PLO and thus to probable economic decline and decline of their current freedoms to access the benefits of the Israeli state.

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