One State, Two States, Three States, or …
The two state solution was dealt a mortal blow the day Hamas starting throwing Fatah representatives off the roofs of buildings in Gaza in 2007. Up to that point, Israel’s leadership had been dancing with Mahmoud Abbas the strange dance of diplomacy, twirling around a Palestinian state that would have two pieces, separated by a single, secure Israel.
The Middle East has been carved up, separated, created and re-created dozens of times over the years, and the pie cutting continues to this day.
From the disputed areas of Yemen, to the “wild west” areas of northern Pakistan, to Iraq, outsiders and insiders have been re-shaping that part of the world forever, it seems. Wasn’t it Vice-President Joe Biden who suggested we carve Iraq into three nation states? Iraq is nowhere near a solution to its internal divisions, and I would wager a re-emergence of that argument is destined to make its way back into the international debate over Iraq’s future.
Ever since Israel’s founding in 1948, and especially after the 1967 war when Israel conquered what is now called the West Bank and Gaza, to the aftermath of the nearly disastrous 1973 war, debates have raged about what to do with Gaza as part of a potential two state solution. How do you create a nation called Palestine in two disparate sections? Will there be a tunnel connecting the two? Do you build a “highway in the sky” perched above Israeli land that shuttles residents from one to the other without them entering Israeli property? Do you just open the borders, like other civilized nations? Well, we know what happens when you open borders; people with explosives strapped to them visit coffee shops, restaurants, and schools.
The hope was certainly there earlier in this decade when Fatah renounced the PLO Charter and began to behave like nation builders. Under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority started a campaign of commerce, educational reform, and political repair. Elections were held and elected officials appeared to act like community leaders instead of terrorists. That is, until the elections in Gaza when Hamas gained a majority of the council seats. Hamas then felt emboldened enough to seize all power in a violent and deadly power struggle against Fatah, the recognized ruling government of the Palestinian Authority.
Of course, the “can’t we all just live together in peace” crowd continued chanting for a single entity on all the land. A single nation of Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims and Jews and Christian Arabs all living together under one government is that dream. There are so many absurdities with that notion that it is equally ridiculous to even review them.
By the summer of 2008, Gaza was clearly an Islamic entity, from its leadership to its police to the terrorists masquerading as soldiers, to the teachers and the lower level bureaucrats. The Hamas charter was quoted often in the media. Israel as an aggressor was highlighted frequently in press clippings from Gaza, even when rockets were falling indiscriminately over and into the homes of Israeli civilians throughout the southern quarter of the country, the majority of the press focused on the hungry of Gaza, the poor Gazans being oppressed by big bad Israel. Gaza also broke off communications with Fatah in the West Bank, and promised to work to take over there as well. Abbas and his Fatah loyalists, as well as many civilians in the West Bank, voiced opposition to Hamas’ reign of terror in Gaza.
Maybe, thought some, Gaza should become Hamastan. Fatah has the West Bank. Israel has, well, Israel. Can three states survive? Gaza would self destruct, or be destroyed. The new Palestine in the West Bank may become a fractured society, even with the support of moderate Arab nations. Although Abbas enjoys high levels of popularity in the West Bank, the polls also indicate that many Palestinians consider Gaza part of Palestine, and do not favor Gaza as a separate entity. Clearly, many moderate Arab nations are against another Iran dominated and sponsored nation-state next door. Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinians to name a few will work to topple any recognized Islamic entity in Gaza. Why do you think there is such a silence, in relative terms, coming from Jordan, Egypt, etc., during this recent war against Hamas in Gaza? The moderate Arab world fears Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and the radicalized Islamists.
Israeli President Shimon Peres recently remarked that this period of time, during this current Gaza operation, is Israel’s finest hour. This comes from a man who has been a leader in Israel since before Israel existed. President Peres has witnessed it all, the miracle of 1948 and the UN vote, the victory of 1967, the horror and near defeat of 1973, the tragedy of Sabra and Shatilla, the 1982 war, the intifadas, the Lebanon fiasco, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Why does he say this? According to Daniel Gordis of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, President Peres, former Prime Minister, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, rightly sees Israel once again taking control of her own destiny. When Israel came into being, the Jewish State told the world that no longer would someone else be in charge to tell Jews when to live and when to die. Israel now tells the world, and Hamas, that they will not dictate to Israel by rocket fire Israel’s destiny. Israel’s destiny is in her hands, through the determination of her people, her army, and her worldwide supporters.
Israel will not tolerate a terror state next door. Hamas cannot be allowed to terrorize Israel’s people. Israel is willing to make peace. Israel is ready to talk with President Abbas and others in the Arab world toward a peaceful resolution of hostilities. Having Hamas on her southern border is unacceptable to Israel.
One state won’t work, Israel would disappear and that is unacceptable. Two states could work, but not with Hamas in control. Three states; never mind – it’s not going to happen.
What if we entertain the notion that Jordan already is Palestine? And what if we also entertain the notion that Gaza, which came out of Egypt, could be returned to Egypt?
Jordan must be convinced that a secular, law abiding nation of Palestinians, many of whom are Jordanian by ancestry, join the Jordanian enterprise, with peaceful relations with Israel and open borders for trade, travel and tourism. Egypt on the other hand, will need considerable help in absorbing the hotbed of Gaza. The world, especially the Arab world, can help finance the absorption. The ideologues of Islamic fundamentalism and the Hamas terrorists, not to mention Hezbollah on the north and Iran further afield, will need some nudging from true Islam to fade into obscurity. It seems impossible, doesn’t it? So did Israel in 1945.
“Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” St. Francis of Assisi is credited with this quote.
We’ve tried what we think is possible and we’ve tried everything else. Now is the time to move on to the impossible. We owe it to our children and the next generation to try.
Neal Elyakin, Ann Arbor, January 16, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Why this war?
The first rocket was fired from Gaza in October, 2001. It was crude thing, landing outside a community over the border from Gaza, hitting no one. In Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) was busy protecting a small number of Israeli settlements in the midst of over a million Palestinians. During the next four years, the Israeli Government moved toward the recognition that withdrawal from Gaza was the only option. Give Gaza to the Palestinians; allow them to govern themselves, begin to build the Palestinian society as a first step toward statehood. The border would remain secure and, hopefully, the Palestinian Authority would focus on building a nation.
More rockets followed. Israel continued to prepare to leave. Many counseled not to. A bold statement was made in the summer of 2005 by the Prime Minister; Israel would unilaterally leave Gaza to the Palestinians. Hamas and other terror groups called it a victory against Israel. Many Israelis hoped against hope that the Palestinian leadership would, for once, use this opportunity to begin the long road toward independence.
On September 12, 2005, the last Jew left Gaza.
They left homes, villages, communities, infrastructure, buildings, roads; ready made for nation building.
The greenhouses were also left intact for the Palestinians; greenhouses worth tens of millions of dollars, producing exportable flowers and produce using the most modern technology in the world.
The Palestinians inherited these greenhouses intact because a group led by a Jewish philanthropist raised, almost overnight, over 14 million dollars to buy the greenhouses so that the current owners wouldn’t dismantle them as they left. The philanthropists turned the greenhouses over to the Palestinians as a gift. The hope was that Gaza would use this to help develop itself into a thriving community, and with a future West Bank, become the Palestine that the world, and Israel, was hopeful would emerge.
By October, 2005, the greenhouses were in ruins. Looters took the pipes, roof tiles, glass, floors, brass fittings, rubber hoses, trays, furniture, equipment, anything and everything. Photos from late 2005 showed utter destruction. By the end of the year, new photos emerged showing tunnels being dug from inside the greenhouses, linking Gaza to Egypt to move weapons and terrorists between Gaza and the untended Egyptian side of the border. The rockets continued.
During the next three years, thousands of tunnels have been dug between Gaza and Egypt. Some are used exclusively for terror operations, and all are under the direct supervision of the leadership in Gaza. There are tunnels under homes, linking together to form a network underground. Tunnels emerge in schools, mosques, government buildings, homes and hospitals. Terrorists set traps for any Israeli soldiers who might fall into the tunnels. Explosives were stored in the tunnels, in the mosques, schools and hospitals. The rockets continued.
In January, 2006 Hamas won a majority of elected seats in the Palestinian Authority’s ruling council. Hamas promptly took control, evicting the Palestinian Authority from Gaza and installing its own gang of leaders, transforming all of Gaza into a religious armed camp. Hamas and its sponsors in Hezbollah and Iran intensified its rocket fire into Israel. By some estimates, over 8,000 rockets have rained down on southern Israel, terrorizing a million civilians in dozens of cities and villages.
By the summer of 2008, Hamas, now firmly in control of all of Gaza, continued to support the firing of rockets into Israel. Israel held back major responses. Israel continued to use diplomacy, along with moderate Arab states and the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, to alleviate the situation in Gaza for the people without direct contact with the Hamas terrorist group. A lull in fighting was agreed to in June, 2008 for six months. Many said that this was a mistake, it would give Hamas time to re-arm, to fortify the tunnels, the weapons, the rockets, with the help of their sponsors in Iran. Israel accepted the lull, and for several months a reasonable quiet settled on the south of Israel, interrupted from time to time by a rocket.
Humanitarian aid to Gaza, in the form of food, medical supplies, etc., has been an ongoing exercise in futility. A Jordanian convoy of aid trucks entered Gaza, unencumbered by the Israelis, in July of 2008. After passing the border, the Jordanian drivers were removed from the ten trucks, laden with food and medical supplies and the trucks were taken to separate warehouses controlled by Hamas police and military. The contents of the trucks never made it to the hospitals or aid stations.
Earlier in the year, in January, a shipment from Turkey destined for Gaza, was stopped at the Kerem Shalom border crossing. Over 2 tons of explosives were found to have been added after the shipment left Turkey and hidden in the trucks.
On December 27, 2008, after almost eight years of rocket attacks, after incursions from Gaza into Israel resulted in the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, after Hamas made it clear that their goal remains, as it is written in their Charter, the complete destruction of Israel, and after seeing an escalation of the rocket technology such that 1/6 of the whole of Israel is potentially under threat of rocket attack, Israel said enough is enough.
I have no illusions. Israel will not destroy Hamas. You cannot kill an ideology.
I have no illusions. Gaza will still be there, the Palestinians will still live there, and Israel will still have cities and villages just over the border.
I know that hundreds of Gaza residents have died. I know that many non-combatants have died. I know that schools and mosques have been destroyed.
I blame Hamas. Hamas cynically uses children and civilians as shields. Hamas stores rockets in schools and mosques. Hamas hides in tunnels, popping out in the midst of civilians, dressed as civilians, to shoot at uniformed soldiers of the IDF. (It has been discovered recently that Hamas ordered all fighters and even the police not to wear uniforms). Hamas has spent millions of dollars, some donated by generous countries, to fortify tunnels with concrete meant to build roads and hospitals. Hamas has kept their own loyal terrorist fighters well fed and cared for while civilians go without and then Hams cries out that the people have nothing. Instead of focusing on building a nation, Hamas has steadfastly kept to the ideology that all efforts must be made to destroy Israel and kill Jews.
I mourn the loss of life during this terrible war.
I am distressed that so many parents are mourning the death of a child.
I want this war to end.
I also want Israel to be safe. Until the rockets stop, I will continue to mourn the loss of life. Until Hamas ends its campaign of annihilation against the Jewish people, I will continue to be distressed by every death and every grieving parent. As much as I want this war to end, I will support Israel in her campaign to keep her children free of terror, away from the bomb shelters, and secure in their own recognized country.
Neal Elyakin, Ann Arbor 1-11-09
The first rocket was fired from Gaza in October, 2001. It was crude thing, landing outside a community over the border from Gaza, hitting no one. In Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) was busy protecting a small number of Israeli settlements in the midst of over a million Palestinians. During the next four years, the Israeli Government moved toward the recognition that withdrawal from Gaza was the only option. Give Gaza to the Palestinians; allow them to govern themselves, begin to build the Palestinian society as a first step toward statehood. The border would remain secure and, hopefully, the Palestinian Authority would focus on building a nation.
More rockets followed. Israel continued to prepare to leave. Many counseled not to. A bold statement was made in the summer of 2005 by the Prime Minister; Israel would unilaterally leave Gaza to the Palestinians. Hamas and other terror groups called it a victory against Israel. Many Israelis hoped against hope that the Palestinian leadership would, for once, use this opportunity to begin the long road toward independence.
On September 12, 2005, the last Jew left Gaza.
They left homes, villages, communities, infrastructure, buildings, roads; ready made for nation building.
The greenhouses were also left intact for the Palestinians; greenhouses worth tens of millions of dollars, producing exportable flowers and produce using the most modern technology in the world.
The Palestinians inherited these greenhouses intact because a group led by a Jewish philanthropist raised, almost overnight, over 14 million dollars to buy the greenhouses so that the current owners wouldn’t dismantle them as they left. The philanthropists turned the greenhouses over to the Palestinians as a gift. The hope was that Gaza would use this to help develop itself into a thriving community, and with a future West Bank, become the Palestine that the world, and Israel, was hopeful would emerge.
By October, 2005, the greenhouses were in ruins. Looters took the pipes, roof tiles, glass, floors, brass fittings, rubber hoses, trays, furniture, equipment, anything and everything. Photos from late 2005 showed utter destruction. By the end of the year, new photos emerged showing tunnels being dug from inside the greenhouses, linking Gaza to Egypt to move weapons and terrorists between Gaza and the untended Egyptian side of the border. The rockets continued.
During the next three years, thousands of tunnels have been dug between Gaza and Egypt. Some are used exclusively for terror operations, and all are under the direct supervision of the leadership in Gaza. There are tunnels under homes, linking together to form a network underground. Tunnels emerge in schools, mosques, government buildings, homes and hospitals. Terrorists set traps for any Israeli soldiers who might fall into the tunnels. Explosives were stored in the tunnels, in the mosques, schools and hospitals. The rockets continued.
In January, 2006 Hamas won a majority of elected seats in the Palestinian Authority’s ruling council. Hamas promptly took control, evicting the Palestinian Authority from Gaza and installing its own gang of leaders, transforming all of Gaza into a religious armed camp. Hamas and its sponsors in Hezbollah and Iran intensified its rocket fire into Israel. By some estimates, over 8,000 rockets have rained down on southern Israel, terrorizing a million civilians in dozens of cities and villages.
By the summer of 2008, Hamas, now firmly in control of all of Gaza, continued to support the firing of rockets into Israel. Israel held back major responses. Israel continued to use diplomacy, along with moderate Arab states and the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, to alleviate the situation in Gaza for the people without direct contact with the Hamas terrorist group. A lull in fighting was agreed to in June, 2008 for six months. Many said that this was a mistake, it would give Hamas time to re-arm, to fortify the tunnels, the weapons, the rockets, with the help of their sponsors in Iran. Israel accepted the lull, and for several months a reasonable quiet settled on the south of Israel, interrupted from time to time by a rocket.
Humanitarian aid to Gaza, in the form of food, medical supplies, etc., has been an ongoing exercise in futility. A Jordanian convoy of aid trucks entered Gaza, unencumbered by the Israelis, in July of 2008. After passing the border, the Jordanian drivers were removed from the ten trucks, laden with food and medical supplies and the trucks were taken to separate warehouses controlled by Hamas police and military. The contents of the trucks never made it to the hospitals or aid stations.
Earlier in the year, in January, a shipment from Turkey destined for Gaza, was stopped at the Kerem Shalom border crossing. Over 2 tons of explosives were found to have been added after the shipment left Turkey and hidden in the trucks.
On December 27, 2008, after almost eight years of rocket attacks, after incursions from Gaza into Israel resulted in the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, after Hamas made it clear that their goal remains, as it is written in their Charter, the complete destruction of Israel, and after seeing an escalation of the rocket technology such that 1/6 of the whole of Israel is potentially under threat of rocket attack, Israel said enough is enough.
I have no illusions. Israel will not destroy Hamas. You cannot kill an ideology.
I have no illusions. Gaza will still be there, the Palestinians will still live there, and Israel will still have cities and villages just over the border.
I know that hundreds of Gaza residents have died. I know that many non-combatants have died. I know that schools and mosques have been destroyed.
I blame Hamas. Hamas cynically uses children and civilians as shields. Hamas stores rockets in schools and mosques. Hamas hides in tunnels, popping out in the midst of civilians, dressed as civilians, to shoot at uniformed soldiers of the IDF. (It has been discovered recently that Hamas ordered all fighters and even the police not to wear uniforms). Hamas has spent millions of dollars, some donated by generous countries, to fortify tunnels with concrete meant to build roads and hospitals. Hamas has kept their own loyal terrorist fighters well fed and cared for while civilians go without and then Hams cries out that the people have nothing. Instead of focusing on building a nation, Hamas has steadfastly kept to the ideology that all efforts must be made to destroy Israel and kill Jews.
I mourn the loss of life during this terrible war.
I am distressed that so many parents are mourning the death of a child.
I want this war to end.
I also want Israel to be safe. Until the rockets stop, I will continue to mourn the loss of life. Until Hamas ends its campaign of annihilation against the Jewish people, I will continue to be distressed by every death and every grieving parent. As much as I want this war to end, I will support Israel in her campaign to keep her children free of terror, away from the bomb shelters, and secure in their own recognized country.
Neal Elyakin, Ann Arbor 1-11-09
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