The Palestine/Palestinian Question

Submitted by Robert (United States), Oct 20, 2018 at 16:38

Dear Daniel Pipes,

I don't know of any scholar alive today who knows more than you about the history and dynamics of Islam, Arabs, and Israelis. I explicitly omit what I euphemistically call Obama Jews, the American bleeding hearts for the Palestinians who don't have the guns, tanks, and planes and need to use knives, tunnels, suicide vests, and kites with gasoline. Unlike the Jews who are Israelis and live there (in Israel and Mandatory Palestine), from the comfort of their home in Uncle Sam's Promised land, the wish to dictate a solution - one which they never had during the Pogroms in the Russian Empire, or the Holocaust under the Third Reich of Nazi Germany.

Jews are wonderful in almost anything. I say "almost" because they've failed miserably in Statescraftmanship. I won't recite much other than the fall of the Second Temple, the Birobidzhan (Jewish Autonomous Oblast) as a part of the Soviet Union, or Zionism, when perhaps half of Americas Jews slept through the Holocaust and allowed the British to exclude them from Mandatory Palestine while the Dominican Republic under Dictator Rafael Trujillo let them in.

You say, effectively, the Status Quo (let things be as they are). And I believe that you are biased because you are not convinced that (partly German, like Ike, whom we like) President Donald Trump is our American "Bismarck" of the historical moment. For me, there are clues what a Trump "Apprentice" (and there are several teams, competing with one another) will do.

(1) Trump needed decide on territorial Sovereignty because there already are two (2) "entities" (this is the term the Iranians use for Israel, meaning that it exists, but it isn't recognized as a legitimate state). One is Gaza under (Qatar & Muslim Brotherhood) Hamas and (Iranian) Islamic Jihad. The other is the Palestinian Authority with Jurisdiction within 2 out of the 3 (Areas A, B C) established under the Oslo Accords. Let them be, and encourage them to "fight" it out as long as possible. This disposes of the Palestinian State issue.

Next come the Palestinians as Individuals who live in several countries and territories which every other UN country, except the United States, will try to keep under UN "Welfare" (UNRWA). The Trump administration will tray to convert all these so-called "Refugees" into Legal Residents, and Citizens - everywhere else but Israel, or the Disputed Territories.

In particular, there will not (or should not) be an Industrial Park anywhere but (1) on the East Side of the River Jordan in the country Jordan, and (2) in the Sinai, outside the Gaza Strip, in Egypt.

The latter only requires Trump to convince Abdullah II of Jordan and Sisi of Egypt. As you know, the powers of this King of Jordan in 2016 have increased with a Constitutional Amendment making him effectively an Absolute Monarch. Similarly, Sisi's powers have surpassed Mubarack's whose never were as strong as Nasser's; with the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood Egyptian "Democracy" supported by our "Democratic" Obama, Egypt looked to salvation by ridding itself of a Sunni theocracy.

So, whatever "Deal" that Trump proposes, it must take into account Hamas's refusal to make Peace with Israel (not merely the Muslim10 year "truce'). Therefore, economic development should take in Egypt, not Gaza. Similarly, as long as the Abbas, which his various councils, and impotent parliament, refuses to come to the "table" for a negotiated deal, the place to finance the good life of Palestinians should be only in Jordan.

In addition, everywhere the Palestinian "Refugees now reside,Trump should demand on their behalf (a) Legal Residency Status with a Right to Work, and (b) a track to Citizenship. All this should begin with Jordan. however, Greater Syria, as weak as it is, should not get a penny for Reconstruction, unless all its Palestinian Occupants are given a track to full Citizenship of Syria. The same goes for Iraq, where our Troops remain; Iraq was also a cause of the Refugee Palestinian problem when it attacked Israel in 1948-1949. Lebanon too must be made to open its doors to Lebanese Citizenship. And the financial responsibility of Saudi Arabia to this Palestinian Refugee Problems also due to its belligerency during Israel's Civil War for Independence from the British (1948-1949) when all the Arab forces (States and Irregulars) lost.

I think you get my drift - even if I'm omitting much. The last point should particularly interest you. I consider the Palestinians the Arab equivalent of the previously Stateless Jews. No one seems particularly observant of the phenomena that this very statelessness is what gave the Jews perhaps a competitive advantages in trade, commerce, and business. It is arguably the Palestinians who are the most educated, secular, Muslims and Arabs in at least the whole of East Asia and North Africa. If anyone can teach other Arabs and Muslims how to live and thrive in Modernity, it is the Palestinians. But not by granting them another potential Failing (Arab/Muslim)State. Rather, they should settle within those failing states where the currently live, and make a success out of them.

One final point - that everyone misses. Why must there be a Place (Territory or State) that is 100% devoid of Jews? Why must the West Bank be a Pales of Settlement? Isn't Abbas the RACIST because he cannot stomach a Palestinian state with 20% Jewish demography? That's not only Anti-Semitic, but in fact stupid - there is the argument that everyplace where Jews dwell in significant numbers, flourishes, whereas their expulsion signals the beginning of a countries downfall. Visualize Moorish Spain followed by their expulsion when Spain became Christian. That argument was used to convince first Cromwell to let the Jews into Great Britain.

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