Can terrorism really wipe out Israel?

Published 2007-06-30 at 13:41:20Z under current-events, homepage
Related: Terrorism or Stupidity?

This is perhaps the most profound short piece on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict I've read in a long time. And who wrote it? Scott Adams, the Dilbert
guy.

    I think Israel’s best strategy would be to label their current conflict a
    “War on Stupid.” It wouldn’t be a racist thing, because it only applies to
    the people who think Israel can be wiped out by terror and replaced by
    Palestinians who would live in peace. By any objective measure, that’s
    stupid.

My own solution to this problem?

Part 1

Convert Jerusalem and the surrounding area into a UN trust, managed as a
political body independent of the existing religiously-motivated countries.
Give everyone equal access and this new entity would shoulder the burden of
maintaining the grounds and the structures. Everyone should have a voice in the
way it's run, but prevent any one religious group from dominating those
decisions.

Part 2

Re-solidify Israel's borders. No more of these "satellite settlements". Bring
its borders back to one contiguous nation, minus the area around Jerusalem or
other sites held by the UN.

Above and beyond the normal Arab-Israeli tensions, Palestinians are fighting to
the death because they feel their homes and lands have been "stolen" from them.
There's a tremendous inequity between the quality of life on the two sides that
other Palestinians are resentful. Much of this hostility could be eliminated by
fixing these two issues:

Grant every Palestinian that has a legitimate claim to land or homes seized by
Israel the right to return. They would do so knowing that they would be
governed by Israel, but their lands and homes would be theirs again. Many might
choose at this point to simply sell it. But either way, those that elect to do
this would no longer have cause for grievance.

Those Palestinians that cannot produce such a claim, elect not to exercise it,
or are unable to exercise it (perhaps the land could have been converted to
some use where it's impossible to return it), could apply for an economic grant
to act as direct compensation. This grant could either be based on the relative
(adjusted) value of their land (if they had a claim), or a flat $100k or some
other number. The grant should be sufficient for the applicant to build new
housing as well as a bonus intended as an infusion of capital for business or
community development. The bulk of these grants should come from Israel itself,
with the rest perhaps from UN member nations.

So, the Palestinians that were directly harmed by Israel's establishment and
its subsequent actions can obtain direct compensation. They no longer have a
reason to be hostile. The remaining Palestinians, who fight simply because they
want to fight or feel that it's the "in" thing to kill Israelis, will now be
fighting without the pretense of justification.

Educated readers may be reminded at this point of UN General Assembly
Resolution 194, which set up a similar framework for the control of Jerusalem
and Palestinian right of return over 50 years ago. This resolution has since
been utterly ignored. I say give it another try, but include a grant system so
that those that can't or won't simply return "in peace" will still have
recourse if they want to stay where they are, governed independently.

These lands have been conquered time after time by many different nations. It's
a little ridiculous at this point to say that anyone has the "right" to be
there, but it's a little less ridiculous to suggest that those that are there
should be allowed to stay where they are. Measures like this, though, could
take away the sting of the most recent round of takings, reducing the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict to one of ideology, rather than any legitimate
beef.

π
© 2006-2007 David Nesting. Some rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.
(For spam harvesters and poorly behaved spiders: poisoned addresses)