$$How much for peace?$$ The bottom line.

Submitted by Michael S, May 21, 2017 at 17:17

I agree with Dr. Sherman. Your own assertion, Dr. Pipes, that the war will not be over for "decades" is, essentially, ac concession to Sherman's arguments. I don't know what "decades" means to you, but to me, it means "never". You are only 1-1/2 years younger than me; and I already see as many obituaries in the paper for people younger than me, as for people older than me.

From a practical standpoint, I see only one possible solution to the "Palestinian" problem: Israel needs to come to a binding agreement with the two neighbors it is at peace with, namely, Egypt and Jordan, over how to manage the Arab minority in Israel.

Some voices on Arutz Sheva and Israpundit have floated the idea of self-governance in the "territories", based on the Arab clans there. I don't think that's a practical approach; because the world's integrated economy is moving away from clans. If there is ever peace in Israel, you will find the Arab areas of Yesha abandoned, and Arabs moving in droves to cities. Considering that millions of Arabs have already flooded into Europe, this is likely to be a major destination. Given half a chance, though, the overwhelming majority will want to move to Israeli cities like Tel Aviv. This cannot be allowed to happen, hence the need for Jabotinsky's "Iron Wall".

Does that sound like Apartheid? Not really. The problem white South Africans had, was trying to carve out internationally-recognized "bantustans" in their own country. Israel is blessed, in that its "bantustans" are already internationally recognized as being outside of Israel, making the situation more like that of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies. Nobody in the world complains, about Indian workers being denied citizenship in Oman, or Filipinos in Saudi Arabia; because those expatriates have their own countries.

If "Palestine" is recognized as not being part of Israel, but as Egyptian and Jordanian protectorates, Israel has quite a bit of leverage to deal with citizens of those protectorates as it wills. The key, is for the Egyptians and Jordanians to be bound by law to go along with this deal.

This is just an academic discussion. An Israeli-Arab "solution" will probably be imposed by outsiders, using a time-tested method: raw, unabashed bribery; and the budding world expert in such bribery is Jared Kushner, the US President's son-in-law. In the middle of a Mainstream-Media-concocted "scandal" at home and devastating wars all over the Middle East, 666Kushner666 has been able to engineer the most friendly pow-wow ever between us and nearly all the Arab powers... by reasoning? No. by religious reform? No. by military victory? No. By just plain, good old, 300+ BILLION $$ worth of contracts with US businesses, many of them military. Whether the Arabs or anyone else want peace is irrelevant. The only thing relevant, is how much we need to pay them, for how many years.

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