Cary might actually be right, it may not be a plan, but it may become a "real politik" situation. After all, the Israeli resettled the same number of Arab Jewish refugees in Israel as the number of "Palestinian" Arabs that became refugees. If the Palestinians do not find a peaceful way (and that means a generation of reeducation of their youth toward peace rather than toward "Palestine from the river to the sea"), life will become unbearable, the land will not be able to support its population and it will slowly disappear. Time is working against the Palestinians, in '47 they were offered a "grand state" with much of what today is Israel as part of their state (Israel was supposed to consist of three non contiguous "cantons"). That they cannot hope to have again. Israel sued for peace time and again, and the Palestinians could have ended up with the West bank and Gaza of pre 1967, the Arab nations, instead, launched few more wars, to get the whole land, from the river to the sea. Two years ago, the Palestinian were offered again a state in most of the West bank and Gaza, and they turned it down again (that last one of course was a much smaller state than what they could have gotten pre 1967), since Arafat would have been killed, so he said, unless he offered, you guessed it: "Palestine from the River to the Sea". In the meanwhile, settlements within the old west bank are thriving, and if the Palestinians wait much longer, these settlements will not be dismantled, they'll be full of people (35, 40 years from now) that have never known another home. If they settle now, there is a good chance that a part of these settlements, at least the younger one, could be removed, but as times marches, these become more a reality on the land, a reality that will not be reversed.
Zeev |
