No or Very Few Military Targets & Bad Idea of Ruling Palestinians.

Submitted by Robert (United States), Aug 20, 2018 at 18:59

Dear Daniel Pipes,

Victory usually means the violence of war
followed by military conquest.

But there are practical no military targets in the West Bank or Gaza.
And Total War has become a War Crime since the end of WWII.

At the moment, the Palestinian Authority (PA) governs part of the West Bank,
and Hamas essentially governs Gaza.
If conquest entails taking over from these bodies
it seems that this is a very bad idea.

(1) In the case of Gaza, Israel has abandoned it a long time ago.
Perhaps Israel should work to recognize Gaza under Hamas?
The fact that the PA is "divided" from Hamas in Gaza
is a condition Israel should exploit to its advantage?

(2) Although the borders of the West Bank have not yet been defined,
it seems that Israel does not wish to incorporate the whole West Bank
as a part of Jewish Israel.
If that is the case, perhaps Israel should extend its current "Wall"
and treat it as a border.

Maybe Israel should "recognize" the 2 Palestine as Soverign,
with the obvious proviso that the Palestinians are currently in a Civil War.

Victory usually means that the victorious power dictates its own terms.
So the biggest problem for Israel is I think
is that it doesn't know how much of the West Bank it wants to keep,
or even if it will allow a "Palestinian Capitol" in a small portion of Jerusalem.

I don't believe that Egypt wants Gaza back.
And neither does Jordan want to rule over
and diminished Palestinian West Bank.

Victory in War usually means Conquest.
But I don't think Israel wants to take more land with a Palestinian demographic.
It knows what a "poison pill"is in this context:
that the majority of Israelis thereby would be Palestinian Muslims.
Syria is an example in which the minority Shia
have dominated the majority Sunnis.
Similarly,Iraq was a majority Shea country
dominated by the minority Sunnis.

I can only guess that you are advocating
the maintenance of the status quo
on the assumption that time is on the side of Israel.

It has been reported that Jordan's King
recently observed that young Palestinians want a one-state solution,
to be absorbed as citizens of Israel.

And now Israel has defined itself,in its Basic Law (Constitution)
as a Jewish State - meaning the State of the Jewish People.

These facts all make it very hard for me to understand
what is meant by an Israeli Victory.
Maybe it should be the job of Jewish Israel
to do the job of state-building in the area;
even though all other states have failed at doing that for another county?
But the British have succeeded in leaving successful legacies
when the Brits abandoned their Imperialism in its former non-Muslim colonies.

Israel's hesitancy in participating in the struggles in Iraq and Syria
maybe needs a re-examination;
maybe Pan-Arabism can be revived with Israelis
and Palestinian support.

Arab and Muslim unity
based solely or mainly on the hatred of Israel
may dissipate - once Arab and Muslim intellectuals
evaluate the failure of Theocratic Shea Muslim Iran,
and the disastrous failure of the Arab Spring.

The part of Victory which needs further exploration
is that of Political Islam among Muslims, Arabs, and Europeans,
especially now that Europe recognizes the true meaning of (justified?) ISLAMOPHOBIA
as Europe struggles to absorb its North African and East Asian mostly Muslim immigrants.

I don't see anyone connecting the consequences of all these failed Muslim majority states
with the impatience at creating another potentially failing Muslim Palestinian state.

Maybe Israel should demand that a new Palestinian State will be recognized
but only if it provides for 20% Jewish demographic?
So Palestinians apparently seem foolish in opposing Jewish "settlements."
Separate but equal proved a failure during racism America.
The fact that Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank want zero Jews among them
may be due to national pride and the failure of Muslim and Arab culture
in creating a modern successful state.
Even non-Arab Turkey has abandoned its Secularism
in favor of the Islamization under Erdogan.
Maybe Israel needs to wait
for this latest Ottoman Muslim prospective failure to play itself out?
Will Turkey once more, like in its prior Ottoman state,
soon become the Sick Man of Europe?

An Israeli Victory requires also prevailing over Palestine's allies,
particularly the Arab and Muslim states that see themselves
as part of the Palestinian (Muslim) Umma ?

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