Thank you to all those who commented on my last blog post which offered up my proposal for settling the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. I truly do appreciate the variety of perspectives you offered, though no one accepted the invitation to submit their own alternative plan.

One very thorough critique helped me clarify my thinking, and I offer some revisions and elaborations to my article.

The easiest clarification to offer regards my references to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (Mohammed Amir al-Husseini) who conversed with Hitler in the early days of WW II. I do not believe that he is somehow solely responsible for the Holocaust. However, the final solution is referred to as final because other solutions to “the Jewish Problem” were considered and rejected, primarily mass expulsion and resettlement. The problem with this solution was that no good options were found for resettlement. No one wanted millions of Jews. Not America, not Britain, not Madagascar, and not the Grand Mufti. No one. So yes, the whole world was complicit in the Holocaust, not just the Arabs of Palestine.

The second issue I’d like to tackle is that of the “right of return.” Here, I offer a link to a fine article by Matt Yglesias (thank you, Emily, for this). Palestinian right of return matters: A central issue in an intractable conflict. The reasons I come down where I do on clearly denying the right of return are these: 

1. People were displaced during the 1948 war for several reasons including fear being in the middle of the fighting; being assured by Arab armies that they could return when they triumphed over Israel; and being forced out of some villages by Israeli soldiers.
2. I’m OK with a state of Israel in which Jews are the majority. Arab Christians and Muslims and atheists in Israel are citizens, can and do vote, can and do hold seats in the Knesset and on the Supreme Court. I’m not aware of any Muslim majority country in which Jews have equal rights. Or women, for that matter. I cannot envision a country in which Arab Muslims, being in the majority operate democratically to the degree that Israel is democratic. 
3. Displacement is common after wars. I am married to a person displaced by WW II. I lived for a brief time with a Greek family in Athens who were displaced by the reshuffling of Greeks and Turks after WW I. Living as I do in a country with birthright citizenship, I tend to fault Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria for not granting or enabling citizenship at least to children born in those countries whose parents were refugees.
4. Focusing on the right of return obfuscates the true goal of obliterating the state of Israel in which Jews can be sovereign and not subject to all of the various forms of second class citizenship (or no citizenship) they have been subject to over the course of their history.

The last issue I want to elaborate on is the matter of settlements. I long assumed that these settlements (Israeli citizens building communities in the West Bank) were illegal. The UN says so, after all. My thinking has evolved, however. For starters, I no longer trust the UN on anything related to Israel. There is such a clear anti-Israel bias in the UN that I don’t accept the judgements or actions of the ICC (International Criminal Count) or ICJ (International Court of Justice) or the General Assembly. It is so clear to me that Israel is not committing genocide that the statement from the ICJ on this matter is just laughable. Why should I trust their pronouncements on other issues?

FYI, the Israeli Supreme Court has itself ruled that some of the settlements (those built on private land) are illegal. However, not all settlements meet this criteria. Some were built on “public” land, i.e. land not owned by individual Palestinians. Are these settlements also illegal? In 2019, the Trump administration said no; Biden reversed this decision. Who gets to decide? 

One of the most thorough explanations of the status of the West Bank and Gaza comes from Natasha Hausdorff (read or watch here via this link). I’m sure that various legal types would quibble with her contention that most of the settlements are legal – because that’s what legal types do, but it’s worth reading to get a feel for just how weird this particular situation is. That said, the points that resonated with me are these: After Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, Jordan controlled the West Bank – as a territory, i.e. it did not incorporate this land into Jordon; likewise Egypt controlled Gaza. In neither case were these areas considered to be part of the sovereign states of Jordan or Egypt. Israel “won” the Six-Day War in 1967 and rather suddenly found itself controlling these areas with large Palestinian majorities. (I put “won” in quotes because even at that time, many Israelis were not excited about the prospects of controlling these areas with majority Palestinian populations.) The question Hausdorff presents is this: Was Israel occupying territory that was part of some other sovereign state? She thinks not, and therefore thinks Israel was free to allow its citizens to move into these areas if they settled on land that was not privately owned. 

I have some sympathy with this view, but, frankly, that is not my main concern about the settlements. Primarily, I don’t believe it is wise, whether legal or illegal, for Israel to continue expanding settlements in the West Bank. It seems to me that these settlements only complicate the possibility of a two-state solution. Granted, after the demise of the Oslo process that was supposed to lead to a two-state solution, and after the rise of the Second Intifada, many Israelis who had hoped for a successful resolution of the ongoing conflict with Palestinians lost this hope; some began supporting the settlements after earlier opposition. And here we are. 

The next point I will elaborate on is my contention that UNWRA must end. I opt out of the challenge of proving this or that contention with regard to UNWRA, and rather focus on why Palestinians continue to claim refugee status 75 years after the establishment of the State of Israel. As I said in my comments about the right of return, this is simply unjustifiable today. UNWRA  exists only for Palestinians and can only be contributing to the refusal of Palestinians to accept a two state solution. If there are legitimate claims to refugee status today based on displacements caused by the current conflict, they can be handled by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR. 

Finally, I want to address my apparent lack of sympathy for the Palestinian cause. As you know, campus protesters rely on the depiction of Israelis as settle-colonialists to justify their objection to the state of Israel. I know this whole settler-colonialist framing is common now, but I reject it, especially in this setting. The history of Israel simply does not fit the narrative. If you favor this framework, please explain your thinking to me via a comment.

Basically, Arabs living in the region referred to as Palestine today will not accept the existence of a Jewish state. I do. Yes, over the past century, some Muslims have openly supported Israel. However, those involved the current conflict support leaders who want to extinguish Israel. They support Hamas; Hamas uses civilians as human shields. They behave as barbarians when they have the opportunity to do so. I believe that Israel tries to avoid civilian casualties but also needs to render Hamas impotent which involves destroying supplies of weapons, destroying tunnels, and sadly, killing civilians. Hamas could end the war by returning all hostages and accepting the right of Israel to exist. 

Further, it is easy to find Jews with dissenting opinions on any issue. Their culture seems to thrive on debate. Meanwhile, we have an organization called Ex-Mulsims of North America, which was created to help Muslims who want to leave the faith find ways to do so safely – yes, safely. Here. In this land of religious freedom. There is no comparable organization for Jews. But apostasy is a crime that merits death in the thinking of Islamic extremists, and yes, there are Islamic extremists here, the USA. Are there moderate Muslims here: Yes. In Palestine? I want to believe that there are. Are they free to express their moderate views? If so, please, I want to hear from them. Are you one of them? Please write a response to my articles. 

I am not Jewish. Why do I care so much about Israel? Perhaps because I grew up in a small city in a neighborhood with many Jewish families. I had Jewish friends. I learned about the Holocaust sitting next to them in our high school social studies class. I couldn’t look them in eye, I was so horrified. I have always been sensitive to signs of Jew hatred, and I find it hiding just under the surface here, today. I know that many Jews prefer to live in the diaspora, and I welcome them. I want them to feel safe here. But especially now, after the horror of October 7, I also want them to feel that Israel is a safe haven, that it is secure.

So, once again, I offer my solution. If you have a better one, please, please offer it to me. I would love to see an end to this conflict before I die, and I’ll be 80 in August. Not that much time left, folks, to resolve this situation within my lifetime.

1. Israel is here to stay – as a Jewish state.
2. There is no right of return.
3. Palestinians no longer have refugee status based on claims from 1949; UNRWA ends today.
4. The war ends when all hostages are released (no prisoner exchange) and Palestinians accept the right of Israel to exist as a democratic Jewish state.
5. If Palestinians want to govern themselves in the West Bank and Gaza, they must agree to live in peace beside a Jewish state. 
6. Israel stops building settlements inside the West Bank. Jews living in existing settlements may stay in the West Bank if they wish to live in the new Palestinian state, or if carved-outs are agreed to. If not, they will be re-settled in Israel. (Note: I do not think that the settlements are necessarily illegal given the absence of a Palestinian state prior to this agreement, but I do think they are unwise.)
7. Religious sites will be accessible to all. If necessary, an international authority will control contested religious sites.
8. International assistance will be provided to the new Palestinian state to assist with creation of governing structures and state services.

Suggested sources for books, videos, articles:

Henry Abramson: A scholar, not a rabbi, but his series of videos on the history of the Jews, and his comments on the current conflict are well worth spending some time with.

Benny Morris: Israeli historian who bases his thinking on documents rather than oral histories. He admits to Jewish atrocities, but supports existence of a Jewish state. Many books and publications; many videos available.

Natasha Hausdorff: see link above. Lots of work on application of international law to the situation in Israel/Palestine

Oren Kessler: Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict Oren Kessler. Note: this book actually covers most of the 20th Century, though its focus is on the pre-WW II years.

Sandy Tolan: The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East. Tolan conducted extensive interviews in this narrative about a house owned in succession by an Arab family, then a Jewish family, and the conversations that occurred between these families after the Six-Day War.

Einat Wilf: former Israeli politician and Cabinet Minister, currently speaks about Israel to foreign audiences.

Sapir, in particular: Root Causism: The long-running obsession with single ‘root causes’ will never solve the problems of the Middle East by Susie Linfield