Tag Archives: Palestine

Middle East Options

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The joy of being a nobody is that I am free to think and write whatever I want because no one could do anything to me even if they could figure out who I am and where I am. So here are my Middle East Options.

Option 1: Move Israel Somewhere Else

Even though one goal of Hamas is to convert the entire world to Islam, I think they’d take a break from this goal if they could just get the Jews out of  Israel/Palestine. They (and their fellow jihadis) have been banging this drum ever since they first heard that Jews wanted to come to Palestine to create a Jewish state more than a hundred years ago. 

Usually population transfers are from one area to an adjacent area. Everyone grumbles for several decades, but if they realize they are not going “home,” they go on about their lives. Think Greeks and Turks after WW I, think Germans and Poles after WW II, think Indians and Pakistanis after the “decolonization” of the sub-continent. Or, according to Wikipedia, think of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 900s BCE. People have used population transfers for millennia, it seems, to solve one problem or another. 

The movement of Muslims and Hindus post WW II involved 32 million people. Just imagine. So, if you think 7 or 8 million Jews could not be moved out of Palestine, you just need to stretch your imagination a bit more. Of course, there is one problem that India and Pakistan did not have: there is no adjacent territory that wants the Jews or that the Jews want. Yet, it’s something to think about. And in fact, people did think of alternative places for a Jewish homeland – for about five minutes. Aside from Antarctica, there just aren’t many open spaces left on earth. 

Except, perhaps, Nevada. Or the vast plains of North America, or the Gobi Dessert, or the “stans” of Central Asia, or the Amazon. Let’s face it, except for some sites with religious significance, Palestine didn’t have a lot going for it a hundred years ago, and honestly, I don’t know why people are fighting over it today. But people are, so the Jews could consider moving. Again. Perhaps another millennia-long diaspora, just waiting for people to learn to get along?

Option 2: Move the Palestinians Somewhere Else 

This idea has a lot going for it. There are many adjacent countries that could absorb the 7 or 8 million Palestinians living in Israel/Palestine. The primary downside to this plan is that the Palestinians have made themselves unwelcome in countries that have accepted them in the past. Jordan kicked them out. Egypt regards them as troublemakers; things didn’t work out so well in Lebanon; Syria has its own problems. Frankly, I suspect that if the Jews left and Palestinians had all of Palestine to themselves for a decade or two, they’d soon kill each other off. It’s not as if the Arabs/Palestinians are good at “getting along.” Perhaps the Jews, instead of resettling elsewhere, should just go on a very long holiday after which they return to Israel/Palestine to pick up the pieces. 

Option 3: Learn to Live with a Two State Solution

AAAARGH!!! Why can’t this be the answer??? Neither the Jews nor the Palestinians want to be “second-class citizens” in a country ruled by the other. (Never mind that 20% of Israelis are actually Arabs/Palestinians who are not racing to the exits.) Personally, I’m so peeved about the settlements that I wouldn’t care if they ended up in a Palestinian state even if they are technically legal according to someone. Then Palestine would have a minority of Jews in their precious state, and there could either be a population exchange, or everyone could treat their minorities with respect. Ha.

Option 4: The One State Solution. 

Yeah. OK, so either Hamas defeats Israel, or Israel defeats Hamas – and then every other jihadi group. Or maybe the UN rethinks its 1947 solution and gives all of Israel/Palestine to one side or the other. And internal terrorism continues until the end of time if Jews were awarded control. Or there is massive out-migration of Jews to America and any other country that would accept them, and the Palestinians are left to fend for themselves, something they are not especially good at. So they’d come begging to the UN and the US and the EU, and especially the UK for support because, well, just because. Personally, I would expect Israel to treat its Arab/Palestinian residents (citizens?) better than I would expect the Palestinians to treat the Jews, but please, surprise me.

That’s right. There really is no Option 4. War until the end of time? Seriously, that’s not much a solution, is it? 

Israel Solves Our Problem With Israel?

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Israel. Aargh! My sixth grade social studies teacher (this was 1955) told us that he expected the problems in the Middle East would set off WW III. Basically, for my entire life, it has seemed as though he would be vindicated any day now. You might be thinking that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would be the most likely location today for the outbreak of a new world war. But I would remind you that Putin and Netanyahu are an interesting pair of leaders; they are frenemies in a way that keeps everyone guessing about where their relationship will go next.

A column by Tom Friedman in the Jan.17 NYT urges Biden to make it clear to Netanyahu that the US will not be Israel’s “useful idiot.” Why is he so vexed right now? He sees a political situation in Israel that could dramatically change the nature of the “only democracy in the Middle East.” He worries that Netanyahu will support ultra-conservative partisans in order to avoid the consequences of his own corrupt behavior. The fallout of adopting policies that further privilege orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jews over conservative, reform, and sectarian Jews, plus non-Jewish citizens of Israel, could precipitate a crisis within Israel that would force the US to seriously re-evaluate its relationship with the Jewish state. 

I’m fascinated by Friedman’s confidence that Biden is the one person who could prevent Israel from going over this cliff. Perhaps he could talk some fundamentalist Islamic states into backing off their extremist policies while he’s at it. Meanwhile, we are left to watch from a distance and hope that Israel pulls back from the cliff of extremist policies. 

But wait! What if Israel doesn’t pull back? Maybe there are some positive aspects of that scenario. At present, many people throughout the western world are concerned about the fate of the Palestinians in territories controlled by Israel, namely the West Bank and Gaza. A few decades ago, Americans still remembered that at the time Great Britain divided the area into Israel and Palestine, the Arabs in and around the territory refused to accept the division; most continue to reject the division today, yet many Americans continue to hope for a two-state solution to this now hopeless conflict. So: what if Israel doesn’t moderate its internal conflict? Might moderate Israelis leave rather than live within Orthodox constraints? Might the country simply implode with some version of a civil war? (That would be interesting because the Ultra-Orthodox do not serve in the military; they might wish they had taken basic training.) Might Israel’s supporters outside of Russia pull back and say, no, we’re not dragging ourselves into this conflict?

Is it possible that Israel will solve our problem for us? If it ceases to be the only democracy in the middle east, it could also cease to be our concern. Where would moderate Israelis go? I’d welcome them here. Most countries love moderate immigrants. Is another diaspora on the horizon?

While I don’t want Israel to disappear, I also don’t want to see it become an extreme religious state. I want Palestinians and other Arabs to support a two-state solution rather than continue to want Israel wiped off the map. I want the vision of a two-state solution to be viable again. Or maybe let’s just bring back the Ottoman Empire. Jews were accommodated in that era, and maybe that’s the best we can hope for. 

If you’re interested in some short histories of the Jewish people and of Islam, here are some links:

History of Islam in 10 Minutes

All Jewish History in Under 18 Minutes