Thursday, January 30, 2014

Arabs in Israel? Jews in Palestine? Why not?

First off, I have no time for the ages-old rhetoric about all Arabs having a right to live in their usurped homeland, or it's obverse; all Jews having a right to live where they want in the land God promised them.

With all due respect to the Almighty, as long as He in His wisdom is not physically manifest on this earth directing traffic, I am more than a little suspicious of those on all sides who claim to speak for Him.

Netanyahu recently set off a bit of a shitstorm with the unguarded comment that some settlers might happily choose to remain on the other side of the fence after the two states have been established. (In 3014?)

This comes pretty close to being evidence for a long-held fear; that things are swinging so far to the right in Israel that Netanyahu is now considered a moderate.

But stop being hysterical for a moment and give it some thought. True, it's not been a happy last 65 years or so between the Arabs and the Jews. Then again, you don't have to dial the time machine too far back to witness unparalleled butchery between the French and the Germans, or the Russians and the Poles, or the Poles and the Germans, etc, etc...

And what are they now? Three of the four are partners in the EU and the other is their happy accomplice in commerce.

Ultimately it will not be up to Israel to decide who will live in Palestine, just as it is not up to the Palestinians to determine who has the right to live in Israel. It is the inalienable right of a sovereign state to determine who may and may not live within its borders.

So in the event that an agreement can be reached, and there are settlers who for whatever reason are content to remain where they are, and the PA or whatever leadership entity emerges from that morass is amenable, then why not?

After all, ethnic purity and ethnic cleansing are so last-century.

No comments:

Post a Comment