Friday, November 30, 2012

The Two State Solution

geoffff




Here's a modest proposal

Seven steps to a fair and reasonable peace that might even satisfy the Gareth Evans/Bob Carr/Bob Hawke school of solving the problem of Israel.

For the benefit of readers outside Australia, my country has decided to abstain on the vote that admits "Palestine" to the same status as the Vatican at the UN. It probably already has by now.

There's something strange and unnatural about that,  don't you think? Something vaguely threatening in the air for the future of civilisation. A bad omen. Like when Gandalf gets word that the bad guy wizard in the next tower is experimenting with mixing the seed of men and orcs to get a better class of warrior.

I am not of course talking about how Australia voted in the UN. I'll get back to my gutless country in another post. In particular to those three gentlemen. For now it is perhaps enough to quote my old dad word for word when he heard our Prime Minister had been rolled when she tried to stand by the US and Canada and stand up for Israel on such an important principle.

I feel diminished as an Australian

 "Palestine" in the same pew as the Pope?

If it were the Protestants you could perhaps more easily understand.

The most consistent thing you hear from the Israel critics in the West after they run out of everything else is Israel is the strongest party. Solve it. Otherwise it doesn't want peace. Go away.

Often they mean that literally.

OK. Why not do what they advise? Israel has the "power". Use it.

Step One

Israel annex Judea and Samaria and declare the borders where they are and at the river with Jerusalem the eternal capital of the Jewish homeland.

Step Two

The entire population of the Land of Israel are declared citizens with equal civil and political rights guaranteed irrespective of race, religion and sex. All rights of Israel's secular liberal democracy are available to all of her citizens.

The right to hold, buy and sell property without coercion and to whoever irrespective of race or religion prevails over all commerce.

Step Three

Israel is relieved of all responsibility for the population of Gaza.  The role of feeding them and providing all other services goes to the Australian Council of Churches, the British Methodist Conference, the Republic of Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Elvis Costello and Malcolm Fraser.

Step Four

All countries committed to the international rule of law recognise the new borders and move their embassies to Jerusalem with all due ceremony and celebration. Each guarantees the peace of Israel by bilateral treaty and commits to solving the problem of the "refugees" once and for all

Step Five

All these countries cease funding UNRWA forthwith. It is an obstacle to peace. It gets in the way. So do all people wearing blue helmets. Besides these countries are going to need the money. (See Step Four).

Step Six

Israel acts immediately to enforce the law across the land

Step Seven

Israel works towards a constitution with a bill of rights that protects all citizens. Education is compulsory and is the exclusive  responsibility of the state as are all branches of civil law such as marriage law. Any form of forced marriage and marriage of minors is outlawed.  Religion is free and the right of citizens to move between or abstain from religion is enshrined. Religious practices and education that encourages violence or racist or religious incitement are outlawed just as political violent incitement.

...


We can't expect this to be done and dusted in one day. Obviously it is a big ask. However by 31 October 2017 would be nice, The one hundredth anniversary of the taking of Beersheba by the Australian Light Horse from Turkey and her German allies two days before the one hundredth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.

International Law Rules! OK?





What is wrong with this plan?

Demographics? I don't buy that.

There could be as many as one million fewer "Palestinians" in Judea and Samaria than official UN figures.

For sure the "Palestinian Territories" have among the lowest death rates in the world.  Much lower  than Israel or Australia but there are two things that drive that apart from living under relative peace and prosperity with free quality medical services on tap, especially  in Judea and Samaria.

The first is the high birth rate, again among the highest in the world.  Over five births per woman which is as about as high as anywhere in the impoverished Third World.. This is because females are forced into marriages at fifteen instead of going to school hence ensuring a life of drudgery and dependence.

The other is the strong material incentive for people not to die. An UNRWA card carries with it benefits for the individual and the number on issue is important to the  group. Why would a mere death get in the way of that?

Before the Islamic Revolution the women of Iran were among the most liberated in the Muslim world at least in the cities. They began to go to universities and have careers just as in the West. As a  result the birth rate fell.  That comes with prosperity, freedom and women's liberation. This is why the Iranian regime has moved to restrict female access to higher education. With a measure of freedom comes fewer babies.

In a generation Muslim  young people of Judea and Samaria will look less like this:



... and more like Ceylan Ă–zbudak

Mark my words.

Then would Gareth Evans decide that he and his colleagues (and Israel, United States and Canada) are back on the right side of history?

Any better ideas Gareth? How about you Bob? Either of you?


cross posted Israel Thrives






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6 comments:

  1. Small problem: the Jewish folk of Israel would not support any of that, especially not the ones who are supported by the state to simply be orthodox (they breed a lot too, since they don't need to work) - an ever increasing number of them (refer back to breeding comment.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The one thing they do not have is a replacement problem.

    There were maybe 700 000 of them in 1948. About 100 000 fewer than the Jews expelled from Muslim lands most of whom ended up in Israel.

    Today some "Palestinian" advocates claim there are 10 million "Palestinian refugees" worldwide. All with the "right of return".

    Caz, this is not about religion or culture for me. I'm Australian . Seriously about as Australian as you can get. It's about civil rights.

    I am quite serious about that. It is my overriding principle and once you put it in that context I am pro-Israel for precisely the same reason that my Australian family were outspoken advocates for civil rights in the South in the sixties.

    When I look at an Al Quds rally or a BDS march in Sydney I could not be more disgusted than if it was a march by the KKK and for exactly the same reason.

    Civil rights used to be a left/liberal issue. Not any more. For me Gareth Evans may as well be George Wallace and Governor of Alabama circa 1964. Not quite the KKK demanding a boycott of the blacks. Just a real asshole is all

    On the wrong side of history

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I read those musings during the week Geoffff. My most loathed phrase of this decade: on the wrong side of history.

      Grrrrrrr.

      Meaningless, an assertion of moral authority and accurate crystal ball gazing (hello Tim Flannery!).

      Makes me quite tetchy.

      Delete
  3. Those coming to this blog foe the first time may like to know it is set to US west coast time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I want to be very clear about this.

    This is a world that tolerates the tossing of mortars and missiles on to Jews in the Middle East and the occasional vile atrocity beyond all description in exactly the same way as the world accepted blacks could be spat on and stoned and often publicly and cruelly lynched all over much of the South in our lifetimes.

    It took until the killing of the head killer in Gaza for the ABC to even report that Israel was under attack in this way.

    This blog is a record of that if you interested. We followed it from the start and it and the other blogs predicted exactly what would happen from a week before Pillar of Cloud. Including what the Islamists would use fake dead kid pictures even if they had to use kids they killed thenselves.

    And these would be picked up and used in the MSM.

    and it happened

    ReplyDelete
  5. and there is another form of demographics which is at the heart of this

    With freedom comes a free market. Anyone can just sell up and move next to Mike Carlton. I have on excellent authority that some of those mansions around Ramallah would put the shady end of Toorak even shadier

    ReplyDelete