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Brit Tzedek v'Shalom
Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace
Chapter Activities
Connecticut
Jewish Ledger
Jan. 28, 2004
Reaction to a dismissal of the Geneva Accord in Jewish paper
To the editor:
I am puzzled by your position on ending the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. You dismiss the Geneva Accord. You criticize President Bush's road-map to Middle East peace, because the plan envisions a viable Palestinian state on the West Bank and in Gaza alongside a secure Israel. You also seem to oppose the removal of settlements that would make the formation of a Palestinian state. So, what do you propose?
Do you want Israel formally to annex the West Bank and Gaza, something it has not done since 1967? If so, the over four million Palestinians living in these areas would then become citizens of a democratic Israel. Israel would lose its identity as a Jewish state, and in some time, given the different birth rates between Jews and Palestinians, Jews would not even be the majority of the population in "Greater Israel." Is this what you propose?
Or do you envision a Greater Israel where the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza would be denied full-citizenship and the vote? If so, Israel would be no longer be a democracy and would come close to modeling the political situation in South Africa, under apartheid.
So what do you propose? Keeping things the way they are? Israelis from Sharon to Beilin seem to agree that the present state of affairs is intolerable. Do you think there could be a Palestinian state, but one on only 50% of the West Bank, cut up into enclaves, with movement between the enclaves at the whim of the IDF? (This is what current plans for the security fence would seem to forecast, as do many remarks made by Sharon.) Of course, the Palestinians won't accept this, and have hinted that if the security fence continues along this path, they will dissolve the Palestinian Authority, and give up their aspirations for their own state, and we are back to "Greater Israel," with nearly half of its population Palestinian.
So, what do you propose?
Philip Bennett
Hamden
back to main Newhaven's main page
Jan. 28, 2004
Reaction to a dismissal of the Geneva Accord in Jewish paper
To the editor:
I am puzzled by your position on ending the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. You dismiss the Geneva Accord. You criticize President Bush's road-map to Middle East peace, because the plan envisions a viable Palestinian state on the West Bank and in Gaza alongside a secure Israel. You also seem to oppose the removal of settlements that would make the formation of a Palestinian state. So, what do you propose?
Do you want Israel formally to annex the West Bank and Gaza, something it has not done since 1967? If so, the over four million Palestinians living in these areas would then become citizens of a democratic Israel. Israel would lose its identity as a Jewish state, and in some time, given the different birth rates between Jews and Palestinians, Jews would not even be the majority of the population in "Greater Israel." Is this what you propose?
Or do you envision a Greater Israel where the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza would be denied full-citizenship and the vote? If so, Israel would be no longer be a democracy and would come close to modeling the political situation in South Africa, under apartheid.
So what do you propose? Keeping things the way they are? Israelis from Sharon to Beilin seem to agree that the present state of affairs is intolerable. Do you think there could be a Palestinian state, but one on only 50% of the West Bank, cut up into enclaves, with movement between the enclaves at the whim of the IDF? (This is what current plans for the security fence would seem to forecast, as do many remarks made by Sharon.) Of course, the Palestinians won't accept this, and have hinted that if the security fence continues along this path, they will dissolve the Palestinian Authority, and give up their aspirations for their own state, and we are back to "Greater Israel," with nearly half of its population Palestinian.
So, what do you propose?
Philip Bennett
Hamden
back to main Newhaven's main page