Israel should buy land from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Mar 31, 2017 at 22:22

Dear Dr Pipes, I should credit, our resident Islamic apologist, Debanjan Banerjee, for this idea because it occurred to me only after I read Mr Banerjee's message. Banerjee has suggested that Israel should settle Syrian refugees in Golan Heights. You, very correctly, dismissed Banerjee's absurd suggestion because Israel will not like to have millions of potentially violent enemies within her border. Though Mr Banerjee's suggestion is untenable, a reverse proposal is very feasible. It is so good that it deserves its own paragraph.

You see, Saudi Arabia's population is about four times the population of Israel. But Saudi Arabia's area is about 100 times that of Israel. The Saudi land will be very valuable for Israel and the brilliant Israelis --who have excelled in every creative discipline that men has ever seen-- can make this land far more productive than it is now. I suggest that KSA should either donate some of its land to Israel or sell it at a low price. I checked the world map and the distance between Saudi Arabia and Israel is not all that large and some land can easily be passed from KSA to Israel. Such a deal can become even more feasible if Jordan is also involved in this land exchange. And while settling Syrians in Israel has the risk of unprecedented violence spreading into Israel, as far as I know, Israel has no desire to bring violence all around the world. So there is no threat to peace if some of Saudi Arabian land is passed to Israel. Just one percent of Saudi land will double the size of Israel.

This idea might sound bad to your readers but it may be a permanent solution to the peace problem in the ME.

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