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November 20, 2009

More support for unilateralism

By Ted Belman

More and more people are rallying around unilateral action by Israel. Ofer Falk, a research fellow at the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, took issue with the plan put forward by Mofaz and recommended the Israel option. He recommends annexing Ariel, Modi’in Illit and Ma’aleh Adumim first, just as I do.

The plan’s main problem is that it is more of same in terms of giving the Palestinians something in return for nothing.

The time has come to change this premise for peace and the sequence of give-and-take.

Israel should start by getting land rather than always giving it away. There is a wide national consensus and a broad international understanding, long ratified by UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 that part of the territories will become part of Israel proper. Mofaz noted 8% in his plan, Binyamin Netanyahu has mentioned much more and Ehud Olmert said that the Palestinians will never receive more than what he once offered them.

Land that is either barren or densely populated with Jews, such as the Ariel, Modi’in Illit and Ma’aleh Adumim areas will be part of Israel proper. The Clinton and Bush administrations recognized it; the Europeans recognize it; the moderate left in Israel recognizes it; and even pragmatic Palestinians acknowledge it. So let’s start from there, instead of continuing the formula of giving something for nothing.

Once the Palestinians see that the process of give and take is a two-way street, it might actually serve as a catalyst for negotiations. The PLO was established well before the 1967 war, but only after Israel managed to settle hundreds of thousands of Jews in the territories were the Palestinians willing to negotiate. Palestinian pragmatism might need a kick-start.

As they have recently stated their intention to declare an independent state and by doing so shut the door on dialogue, Israel’s best alternative to a negotiated agreement is to finally define and draw “secure and recognized” borders based on a national consensus and simple criteria of maximum area, maximum Israelis and minimum non-Israelis within those borders, while limiting the uprooting of residents (regardless of nationality) to an absolute minimum.

Endless – and at times senseless – discussions have been carried out as to whether the Syrian option should be preferred to the Palestinian option or vice versa. I suggest we concentrate on the Israeli option first.

Israel should start preparing for this annexation to take place sometimes in 2010.

Yisrael Harel, Institute for Zionist Strategy, writes Barack Obama’s vision impossible referring to the Saudi Plan.

In the longer run, if there emerges a Palestinian leadership capable of committing all factions to its decisions and if the decision is to go for a two-state solution,

subject to the following minimal conditions. First, the Palestinians forgo the right of return. Second, the settlements remain in place. And third, Palestinians do not receive land inside Israel as “swaps” for the “settlement blocs.”

[..] Both the Palestinians and the Obama administration must recognize that the talk of “time is in the Arabs’ favor” is in fact wrong. When Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Accords, there were around 150,000 Jewish settlers. Today, despite the (incomplete) settlement construction freeze, nearly 300,000 Jews live in the territories. They are determined soon to reach half a million – and they will.

How can anyone believe in the possibility that the “Palestians” will accept such a deal with or without leadership.

There must be a unilateral solution. Michael Freund agrees and says “It’s annexation time”

OVER THE past 16 years, nothing has been gained by keeping the settlements issue on the table. Nor has dangling the possibility of expelling masses of Jews from their homes along the lines of Gush Katif brought the Palestinians any closer to making a deal.

Posted by Ted Belman @ 8:58 am | 6 Comments »

6 Responses to More support for unilateralism

ayn reagan says:

November 20, 2009 at 2:56 pm

If Israel makes no territorial concessions, the Palestinians will become enraged and murder Jews.
If Israel makes some territorial concessions, the Palestinians will become enraged and murder Jews.
If Israel makes all territorial concessions, the Palestinians will become enraged and murder Jews.

It is imperative that Israeli policy makers internalize these three realities prior to reaching any decisions.
Doing so will prevent disaster.
Ed D says:

November 20, 2009 at 8:38 pm

Even a good person can become tainted, either through greed, or power, or mental disorders, or through evil politics. I’m not certain which of these has caused Mofaz to turn on his own country. What ever the cause, he must be ousted from Israel Government.

What I would really9 like to know is the nature of Netanyahu’s game. His power push to negotiate peace with a body who can’t/ wont provide peace. I agree with the need to annex the communities as mentioned immediately. We are never going to please the American government, nor the Uros, nor the Muslims. We can’t move one and a half million Arabs out of the West Bank; therefore, we must take all of the territory that we can and build a wall around the rest. We must, also, stop the subsidizing of the Muslim communities, including Gaza. Let Jordan and Egypt do that. Once they realize what the Israelis do for them is gone, maybe they will come to their senses.
yamit82 says:

November 20, 2009 at 9:32 pm

I�m not certain which of these has caused Mofaz to turn on his own country. What ever the cause, he must be ousted from Israel Government.

Try blind ambition.

What I would really9 like to know is the nature of Netanyahu�s game.

To bring Israel to her knees as completely as he can and As Soon As He Can.

The cruel plans and degeneration that Bibi is going to bring on Israel are actually an enactment of Peres and Beilin�s wishes. Not hidden anymore, they are all over the headlines. Peres wants with all his heart to see more Jews expelled from their homes. He feels closer to Arabs than to settlers. He would see it as an ideological victory to break this
Peres wants with all his heart to see more Jews expelled from their homes.
wonderful group of loyal citizens and he uses a weak PM to do so while everyone looks on silently. None of us will be able to say that we didn�t know. “Ketsele”

His power push to negotiate peace with a body who can�t/ wont provide peace. I agree with the need to annex the communities as mentioned immediately.

Any plan or implementation of a plan which leaves the Arabs on the Land will fail and end in disaster.
RandyTexas says:

November 20, 2009 at 11:42 pm

Unilateralism? If the Palestinians get everything and Israel gets nothing, isn’t that in effect basically the same thing as unilateral? I suppose there are some differences, but I don’t get what the big difference is in the outcome is other than it is sanctioned by the loser.
h peskin says:

November 22, 2009 at 4:09 am

Jerusalem Post- November 20, 2009

What we’re seeing now in the West Bank is something the democratic world has been awaiting for a very, very long time: a non-violent Palestinian independence movement.

A supporter of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is seen during a demonstration in Ramallah on Thursday.
Photo: AP
Everything that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salaam Fayad are threatening – a unilateral declaration of statehood, an appeal to the UN for recognition, or, if that doesn’t work, dissolving the PA and demanding Israeli citizenship for Palestinians – are all tactics of non-violence. They’re all meant to force Israel, via international pressure, to give the Palestinians what every country except this one thinks they’re entitled to: a sovereign state based on the pre-Six Day War borders.

Abbas, Fayad and their people aren’t blowing up buses, they’re not shooting anybody – with the notable exception of Hamas gunmen – and they recognize the State of Israel. Isn’t this what everyone’s been asking of them?

The Obama administration and EU have been slow in recognizing, or at least slow in acting on the recognition, that Israel, not the PA, is now the obstacle to peace and has been for over two years, ever since the PA began putting down terror in the West Bank. I’ve felt for a long time that the only thing keeping the occupation going was Palestinian terror; if the PA sticks with a non-violent campaign, I think it’s a matter of time before the West forces Israel to either free the Palestinians or become a pariah state like apartheid South Africa.

Given that choice, I have no doubt Israel would do the right thing – but only in the face of such a choice. So for the Palestinians’ sake and our own, I wish Abbas and Fayad all the success in their unilateral strategy.

MOST ISRAELIS, for their part, are incensed at the Palestinians’ behavior – why, they ask, doesn’t Abbas simply return to the negotiating table opposite Binyamin Netanyahu?

The answer is that Abbas would have to be crazy. Since taking office, Netanyahu has wiped out nine years of progress in the peace talks. Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians about 95% of the West Bank, including part of east Jerusalem, then Ehud Olmert offered them nearly 100%, including a larger part of east Jerusalem, and now Netanyahu has swept all that off the table. The only number he’s prepared to commit to is zero, which is the percentage of territory in east Jerusalem that he’s ready to give up.

The way things stand are that the Palestinians are delivering peace while Israel has gone back on its offer of land; who’s holding up progress here, us or them? Unfortunately, the Americans and Europeans have been too timid to back up the PA, so Abbas and Fayad are threatening unilateral, non-violent actions to embarrass the world – which supports their demands – into acting.

In response, the prime minister and his government are raising the roof. Unilateral actions! What about the Oslo Accords, which this government has always revered? What about the UN resolutions, which this government salutes?

In fact, there are enough violations of the Oslo Accords and UN resolutions by both sides to reach the sun, but the heart of the Oslo Accords, the UN resolutions and every other diplomatic initiative since the Six Day War has been the principle of land for peace – and it’s Israel that’s rejecting it now, not the Palestinians.

You get an idea of how blind this country has become when you hear the sorts of counter-measures the government has in mind if the PA declares independence in the West Bank. In the cabinet they’re talking about annexing settlements, about cutting off the transfer of PA tax revenues.

Brilliant. That’ll really get the world on our side, that’ll demonstrate the injustice of Palestinian independence and make the case for the occupation, I bet.

They don’t see it, and neither do the Israelis who vote for these characters. This country, as a whole, is stone blind to what it’s doing to the Palestinians – even now, when the Palestinians, at least in the West Bank, are finally doing what we’ve asked them to do for decades: end the violence.

Gaza , of course, is a different story, and I sincerely hope it remains politically separate from the West Bank, that there is no reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, because that would fly in the face of the PA’s non-violent, two-state strategy. The world can and should support Mahmoud Abbas and Salaam Fayad against the Netanyahu government’s policies; it cannot and should not support Hamas.

Yet if Abbas and Fayad fail, it stands to reason that Hamas will be their successor in the West Bank, just as it was in Gaza. If non-violence fails, it stands to reason that the Palestinians will return to violence. Israel can’t see this, doesn’t want to see it. So it’s up to Obama and the West to make Israel see.

What are they waiting for – an explosion?
yamit82 says:

November 22, 2009 at 4:18 pm

What are they waiting for – an explosion?

Nov 18, 2009 22:23 | Updated Nov 19, 2009 10:04
Rattling the Cage: Go for it, Abbas!
By LARRY DERFNER [Recent columns]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1258566461569&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull#

Peskin when you finally attempt an effort to be relevant you pick the most hated leftist writing for any Israel Newspaper and we have some far out pieces of dew here. The JP keeps him around because he so elicits the venom of most normal readers to the JP. You could be his clone and probably for the same reasons. You bring out like he does all of our pent up hate and frustrations. That in it self is not bad what is though are mutants like you and Derfshit. At least he has an excuse he is getting paid for his tripe. Maybe you are as well as I see no positive or productive reason to having restored you to the sane world of normals.

THE SAMPLE TALKBACKS ARE UNIFORM AND ABSOLUTELY NEGATIVE FROM 1-67, AND NOBODY CAN TODAY ACCUSE THE JP OF BEING RIGHT WING. Most of the writers and columnists could easily fit into HaAretz seamlessly.

What I did pick were commnents picked at random from the latest downward and this is the case week after week. I stopped commenting on Derballs columns when you started commenting on Israpundit One is about all my digestive system can handle at a time.

64. #42 Randy.Derfner must not have seen my post,he’s still looking for his foreskin
Hey, Derfner you must be going senile, there’s nothing there to attach your foreskin to, you lost it at your last job at the Harem, remember ?
GOLDEN NUGGET – Australia (11/20/2009 10:11)_______

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67. liberalism is a mental disorder
harold – usa (11/20/2009 15:22)
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53. How long would we Jewish Israelis last (physicaly) if Derfner had his way
Lets assume, hypothetially and graphically, (simply in order to understand the matter) that Derfner was PM of Israel with extra powers to actually decide on all matters regarding Palestinians. Palestinians get a sovereign state which includes East Jerusalem and all the Jewish settlements on land taken after 1967. I ask readers to say honestly: in that case how many days, months or years would it pass in actual reality before Jewish residents (who would be an ethnic minority in the new Palestine) were massacred by Palestinians activists and the Hamas men living in the West Bank?

G.A. – Israel (11/20/2009 01:37)
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57. You go, girl
Since Abbas will resign, Larry should run for Palestinian president.He is more radical than the Palestinians
Nimrod Tal – IL (11/20/2009 04:52)
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59. We must not forget that …
the Movie with WB cannot be done unless they are gone – if you remember the title of it, mentioned to you several times.
M.D – (11/20/2009 04:59)
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60. Come on, folks !…
Have pity! Both Messers.AbouMazen & Derfner need shelter and meals. And only Israel can provide for them.They only do what they do best to earn their living.Woud you want to see Mr.Derfner at Haaretchz? He would be swamped to death by the k0mpeti0n and nobody will read his k0lumns anymore since they all write the same there,like Aladdin with his magic lamp in djinnrealm.And p00r Ab0uMazen,one shudders just thinking of his fate in such k0mpany as Haniyeh,Mashaal und Nasrallah.Would you deprive beggars of their pittance ?
jonah – (11/20/2009 05:48)
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62. 1960s
This is so sad. Derfner really does not have even a basic understanding of Arab politics. He thinks this is America of the 1960s.
Shel Zahav – Israel (11/20/2009 07:30)
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63. Do I throw Larrie peanuts or a banana?
Nothing good can come out of this marxist pen! Larrie ought to just stay in the cage and shut up.
Mark – (11/20/2009 08:03)
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51. The Derfmister: A man of reason
Larry for President of the democratic state of Israel and Palestine!
Osama – Canada (11/20/2009 00:42)

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47. What to do..some commentator are not very intelligent. Some do not see well. Some do not understand what they do see.
Poor, poor Derfner. He tries and tries. He tries everyone’s patience.
Cedric – USA (11/19/2009 22:25)