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Fresh Thinking is Needed

Reader comment on item: Have Israelis Finally Learned the Strategic Value of Territory?

Submitted by Steve Berman (United States), Jan 4, 2009 at 10:28

Israel, the United States, and--indeed--the world need to adopt new strategies. The two state solution will never work because there is no basis for a second state. The Palestinians are not and never were a separate "people" that can serve as the substrate for an independent country. As they were more properly considered for most of Israel's existence, they are refugees who need to be absorbed by one or more of the surrounding Arab states just as millions of Jews have been absorbed by Israel. They need real homes where they can live and thrive. At present, they are merely being exploited as a weapon to destroy Israel.

If Egypt or other Muslim countries were to take over Gaza, this might work. But I doubt that Egypt could actually govern that area as it is presently constituted. Egypt would have to move a large part of the population elsewhere and run Gaza as a completely demilitarized zone with no weapons of any kind allowed. Nevertheless, one way or the other, we need a solution in which a separate Palestinian country does not exist at all.

What we see in the Middle East today is the result of not one but several "monsters" that for the most part were created inadvertently and which have now gotten out of control.

1) The refugee monster. I do not know whether the Arabs were actually smart enough to deliberately set the refugees up as an anti-Israeli weapon or whether this is just the inadvertent result intransigence and unwillingness to part with even a tiny part of their domain. However, they turned into a weapon that seemed useful to the various Arab and other Muslim states for a while. Now, however, I suspect that much of the Muslim leadership fears the refugees (aka "Palestinians") as a weapon out of control.

2) The oil monster. Ironically, some of the most seemingly pro-Israeli groups in the US have also been pro-Big Oil. They have resisted anything that could reduce the world's dependence on Middle Eastern (and now Russian) oil. This over-empowered the Muslims who have not been able to use the money for true economic development in most cases. That is changing now. The world will turn away from oil, though it will take decades to accomplish fully. The wiser Muslims (and there are many) realize they need real development and trade and not just oil revenues which are unstable. A reasonable peace agreement with Israel is in the best interests of the Muslim nations. Many of them realize that but do not know how to get there.

3) A separate Lebanese monster which consists in part of Lebanon's internal refugees and which is largely fueled by the oil revenues of the surrounding states.

4) The belief that elections and democracy will solve everything. In the end, Democracy probably is the answer but the level of education in some areas is so low that it is hard to see how these areas can govern themselves via a democracy. The world needs to strengthen responsible existing governments and guide them gradually toward democracy in the future.

5) Islamism, which has become empowered by the other "monsters."

6) The almost mindless misunderstanding of the whole Middle East situation by a large part of the people in Europe as well as much of the American "intelligentsia." To some extent, those who actually know better but who fear the economic and political consequences of opposing "Islamic interests" deliberately drive this misunderstanding. Real leaders in Europe and the US (and I am praying that Obama is such a leader) need to rethink the issues and adopt new approaches that are beneficial to and compatible with Islamic interests but which enhance rather than destroy our "Western" (it is not Western anymore--consider Japan, India, Australia, etc.) democratic civilization.

Military action can do only so much. I support what Israel is doing now but in the longer run the world needs to resettle the various groups of refugees, adopt better approaches to energy generation, and support fair and humane governance of some regions of the world that are not now ready for absolute democracy.

By the way, Israel should turn away from its own radical right-wing religious policies that now make it harder for it to absorb many Jews who want to "return." There are actually millions of people throughout the world who claim Jewish heritage and who would love to "return." While I do not think that Israel should or could take them all carte blanche, Israel needs to improve and modernize its policies. Instead, it is making it harder in many ways because the ultra-Orthodox are allowed to dictate the religious policies, which, unfortunately, turn into state policies. On an individual level this has caused significant hardship by prohibiting marriages between individuals who are Jewish by any reasonable standard but not in the eyes of the ultra-Orthodox rabbis who have become sort of Jewish Ayatollahs.

Submitting....

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Reader comments (40) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Could Mr Pipes or anyone help me understand why [623 words]Marcella, USJan 7, 2009 15:38147331
stop the misunderstanding on muslims attitude especially on martyrdorm [228 words]maiyangJan 9, 2009 00:45147331
ARAB EMIGRATION [135 words]CaroleJan 24, 2009 13:18147331
Whose land for peace? [757 words]Halley FaustJan 7, 2009 14:28147322
Media, the Craven Enemy of Humanity -- Ignores Legal Definition of "Disproportionate" and Uses the Sound Bite to Disinform -- Dore Gold Clarifies [205 words]Sofa SogoodJan 6, 2009 07:50147117
No No out-of-context givebacks! [87 words]MelMJan 5, 2009 23:50147089
Israel, That Special Country [241 words]JayJan 5, 2009 20:20147070
Mazel Tov but.. has Ehud Olmert learnt from the mistakes of 2006? [292 words]ShishirJan 5, 2009 13:50147025
Civilian populations enable terrorists [288 words]MichaelJan 5, 2009 12:18147020
The Withdraw for the Sinai was a terrible mistake ( and when many unsolvable problems began ) [69 words]James BurkeJan 5, 2009 10:51146996
Have Israelis Finally Learned that giving up their land which the LORD God has given them is not theirs but Gods! [155 words]VigilantJan 5, 2009 10:30146990
Prove to me that religion is true [74 words]Badr HariJan 9, 2009 15:33146990
Massacre of Israelis [104 words]CaroleJan 24, 2009 12:57146990
Israel should not give up one acre of land...Ever! [91 words]Ames TiedemanJan 5, 2009 09:17146977
i hope israel is not giving up any land [28 words]thomasMar 3, 2010 19:28146977
The Morality of War [173 words]Ralph C Whaley MDJan 5, 2009 08:17146968
Territory [18 words]PhillipJan 5, 2009 07:33146965
Self-defense [168 words]Jolly JackJan 5, 2009 05:31146955
Hamas Out? PA In [325 words]Prof. Paul EidelbergJan 5, 2009 03:11146945
Media, the Craven Enemy of Humanity -- Ignores Definition of "Disproportionate" and Uses the Sound Bite to Disinform -- Dore Gold Clarifies [206 words]Sofa SogoodJan 5, 2009 02:47146942
Disproportionality of Israeli Response ? [349 words]Stephen HughesJan 4, 2009 15:41146884
Disproportionality -- Nonsense [39 words]Romesh ChanderJan 5, 2009 01:45146884
What is a proper proportion in warfare? [75 words]Seamus MacNemiJan 5, 2009 16:59146884
Maximum terror/minimum damage has its advantages (for Hamas) [131 words]MelMJan 5, 2009 17:37146884
Fresh Thinking is Needed [822 words]Steve BermanJan 4, 2009 10:28146863
I wish, but it misses the point: RELIGION [990 words]der AlleswisserJan 4, 2009 20:19146863
If Egypt were to possess Gaza... [48 words]Matthew C. MasottiJan 3, 2009 16:29146765
Egypt does not want any part of Gaza [112 words]Romesh ChanderJan 5, 2009 01:41146765
It's not just about territory [134 words]Fred SchlomkaJan 3, 2009 10:38146744
Have Israelis Finally Learned the Strategic Value of Territory? [2739 words]Tess McNamara B.A. Women's Studies, B.A Family Studies, Student of Islam....(Australia)Jan 3, 2009 04:38146716
Magnanimous Speech. [195 words]SvetlanachkahJan 4, 2009 14:34146716
Bravo Tess! You survived the liberal, academic community, [15 words]Kerry L. WinnJan 5, 2009 08:46146716
All good points except [38 words]ShishirJan 5, 2009 13:37146716
Palestinian People Must Feel the Pain [142 words]John HarrisJan 2, 2009 22:02146698
flaws in the argument [91 words]yuval BrandstetterJan 4, 2009 13:02146698
A brilliant observation Mr. Harris and so true [122 words]Seamus MacNemiJan 6, 2009 09:20146698
Mr. Pipes: I asked you years ago to not use the misnomer. "War on Terror " as there is no such thing. [77 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Steve BorkowskiJan 2, 2009 16:32146671
Land for Peace policy [114 words]Jon PurizhanskyJan 2, 2009 11:54146656
What about Sinai [61 words]WayneJan 2, 2009 04:14146637
No Wayne [35 words]Kerry L. WinnJan 5, 2009 08:50146637

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