The Wall as a Solution for the Palestinians
Roger L Simon Blog
Over two years ago the distinguished Israeli novelist A. B. Yehoshua, on an American book tour, came for brunch at my house in L. A. to which Sheryl and I invited a few friends. Yehoshua, a Sephardic Jew whose family has lived in Jerusalem since the Nineteenth Century and a man of impeccable liberal credentials, is one of the more respected spokespeople for the Israeli peace movement, so naturally we all wanted to quiz him about the “situation.” The novelist’s response even then—we have to build a wall.
Now I’m reasonably certain the precise geographical location Yehoshua had in mind for that wall is not the same as the one Sharon has in mind, but the essence remains, at least in part, the same—as does the motivation. Many have come to the conclusion that the Palestinians (particularly their leadership) do not really want a two-state solution. They could have had one some time ago. They want a one-state solution. And it’s not difficult to envision what kind of state that would be.
At least Hamas and Islamic Jihad have the honesty to admit this publicly. It is their policy. The Palestinian Authority pays lip service to a two-state solution while pursuing the opposite, enriching Arafat and his cronies who make Don Corleone seem like a piker.
This is horrible for the Israeli people who must deal with suicide bombers and other forms of insanity, but at least they have a state. It is even worse for the Palestinians whose society has been decimated for the most part by the policies of their own leadership. They have no economy, no government other than this clique of gangsters and, most repellent of all, a cult of child abuse (six year olds posing as jihadis and suicide bombers) of unparalleled dimension with disastrous implications for their future. In all of this they have had the nearly overt support of much of Europe, which, in its mindless anti-American and Israeli obsession, has become the enablers of this dysfunctional (to put it mildly) society.
Since it has been clear for some time that Arafat has no real (personal or cultural) interest in making peace, the only solution for the Palestinians is, ironically, the Israeli wall. This way the Palestinians will be forced into having that state that their leaders keep rejecting (making this and that excuse—Arafat, as we know, never even made a counter-offer to Clinton and Barak) and will have to build their own country. This will necessitate starting their own businesses, developing institutions that might benefit the people and so forth. Call it a form of “tough love,” because tough love, in this case, seems to be the only thing that will work. Any other solution for the Palestinians will lead to nothing but self-destruction.
Therefore, I believe it is incumbent on Sharon to build the wall as fairly as possible and to give back land to the Palestinians in a manner similar to the proposals at Taba and Camp David. Some perception of fairness on the part of Israel will be necessary (it will never satisfy the many anti-Semitic haters, but still must be done). It is incumbent on the US government to keep the pressure on in this regard. It is hard to know what the administration’s private thinking is about the wall. They make disparaging comments now and again, but I suspect, deep down, they realize the obvious truth that, at least in the present atmosphere, it is the only solution.
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