The Jewish Solution
... and the shame of Western civilization
The post in which I finally answer the question I am asking from just about anybody commenting on the Israeli Hamas conflict: what can we do to solve the problem?
I am quite seriously jaded by this whole subject. The Jews and the Arabs are fighting and the whole world around them cheering and jeering the performance. I don’t blame the Jews and I don’t blame the Arabs; they are just like the circus animals prodded to perform for our entertainment. The pawns on the board of the geopolitical chess-game.
There is a conflict ever since the state of Israel was created over 75 years ago. The Arabs of the region made it absolutely clear that they will not tolerate the existence of the Jewish state. The Muslim states refuse to accept Palestinians as immigrants. In Syria (for example), there is no birth-right citizenship. If you were born to ‘refugees’, you will be treated as a refugee for your whole life. So will be your descendants for many generations.
It could be argued that all of this is by design. That the Jews were never really given a chance to succeed and have peace. That the Muslim Arabs were destined to stay ‘refugees’ in perpetuity. That Israel was destined to be a permanent conflict zone. All of it for profit, power and control. At whatever cost. The US alone spends about four billion dollars a year on Israel, while also giving support to the Palestinians.
If we add to this the money given to them by the EU, some individual EU countries and the neighboring Arab states, support for the two sides is roughly equal.
All of it is quite disgusting. Keeping the Jews in a permanent state of war and the ‘Palestinians’ in a forever welfare limbo.
Who is paying for it? You and I, to the tune of billions every year.
Who is benefitting from it? Not you, not me, not the Jews and not the Arabs. The only interest this serves is that of politicians, weapon manufacturers and the global Western hegemonic order.
What I find the most disheartening is how alone I feel with my position arguing for a permanent solution. I have several Jewish friends subscribing to this blog, yet not one stood up to give me their perspective.
I challenged
, and to offer a vision of what they would consider a solution. No reaction.Caitlin is too consumed by her vehement anti-Israel sentiments; John is just defending the Western hegemonic status quo and Slavoj is just his relativist self.
After all this frustration, here is MY answer to the question: what would I consider equitable, feasible and humane? What would I consider an acceptable (and ‘final’) solution?
The answer is one state with defendable borders, from the river to the sea.Â
Without Palestinians. Coexistence was tried for 75 years and it didn’t work out. It is time to try something else.
Palestinians in Gaza, Judea and Samaria should be given a deadline (let’s say three years) by which they should sell their property and move.
Every family/person should be given some compensation (let’s say one to two years of average income in the country they are moving to.)
Arab countries should be incentivised to accept them as permanent residents with a path to citizenship. Cutting all foreign aid by the Western world if they refuse would be a good incentive.
Instead of spending money on arming Palestinian terror groups, the Arab countries should spend that money on resettling them.
Instead of spending money on arming Israel, The US should spend that money on compensating Palestinians for leaving.
Although I did not find proper data about the ‘aid’ provided to ‘Palestinians’, I believe that the cost could be recouped in a few years from the savings on the military expenditures alone.
It does not have to be ugly and it cannot possibly be uglier than it already is.
Unfortunately, the whole world seems to want ugly. The uglier the better. Brutally murdered Jews and blown up ‘Palestinian’ children. Because that’s entertainment! Manipulative and propagandistic; talking to our emotions, feeding our anger and righteous indignation, but above all, feeding our deep-seated racism and/or antisemitism.
The level of antisemitism in the Western world is appalling and, in the end, providing a perverse justification for the actions of Israel. The hatred directed at them reinforces the need for a defendable country of their own. Since the world shows no interest in a decent solution, Israel has no choice but to do it the ugly way, which in turn feeds back to the same emotions, righteous indignation, etc. etc.
It would be a lie to say that I am all alone. The idea of the ethnic Jewish state is slowly percolating into the public consciousness.
Netanyahu is advocating it, Bill Maher mentioned it and some commenters of Zizek, like @socraticpsychiatrist stand for it.
The two-state solution idea is dead. The only question is whether the transition will be decent or bloody.
I am not very optimistic. There is too much money and power at stake. If the Global hegemon, after losing Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine, would lose control over the Middle-East as well, that would be the end of its hegemonic position.
My guess is that they will do anything to hang onto it. The military industrial complex will do anything to hang onto its profit.
The preconditions of peace in Israel are the following:
International acceptance of the concept of an ethnic Jewish state.
The renouncement of the unrealistic (and genocidal) dream of a Palestinian state.
International support for the resettlement of all ‘Palestinians’ from Gaza and the West bank.
The options are either this, or endless terrorism and state violence. The change starts with people like you and I recognizing that ending the violence is the only truly moral choice. Â
So, where do YOU stand? Let me know in the comments.
An email comment from a friend who wants to keep his anonymity:
My views on the Israel Solution/Middle East are not researched nor extremely well informed; however, following are some of my thoughts:
1. For me, the largest aspect which is a root cause of the problem is the lack of communal responsibility by Arabic countries to accept Arabic refugees - "They were not born here". This aspect can also be seen in Dubai which will not allow any settlement of their country by those from outside of it/not born there. S former colleague of mine moved there from India to operate a business. They had no national status in Dubai. They could never acquire national status in Dubai, and they had to pay 30% of their gross earnings to the Dubai government who would then distribute these funds collected from all "outside" companies to the citizens of Dubai. It is a sort of "guaranteed income".
2. Based on #1, it would seem to be ok for the rest of the world to accept Arabic refugees. Canada being one of the largest acceptors (if not the largest). When the Syrian refugees came to Toronto (via Ottawa's "largess"), the City turned out all of the homeless in City-operated shelters and gave them one-way bus tickets elsewhere - with a great many coming to my city, as my city has a full range of shelters, food, clothing, and social services - both Regionally-operated and through volunteer groups. Mayor Tory said they did not do that. He was "not completely telling the truth". I have colleagues in the YM/YWCA in Toronto who can vouch for this, as they operated several shelters.
3. Why does Ontario need to build 1.5 million homes? Some because of citizen growth, but some/many because Trudeau upped the refugee (and immigrant) intake from 225,000 + 50,000 refugees per year - which has been in place since 1953 - to 500,000. Historically, 60% come to Toronto and now the GTHA. 5 years x 300,000/year ...
4. It was precisely why no country wanted to take all of the Jewish refugees after WW2 that the "Israel Solution" was developed and put into place. The rest, as they say, is "history".
This is just one perspective. I'm sure there are those who say the Jews are not blameless. Correct, but if you were surrounded by potentially/actual hostile nations, what would you do?
I find it somewhat hypocritical that nations who, themselves, had their "colonial period" will somehow chastise Israel for expanding its borders to ensure a defensible perimeter - and to accommodate the growth in citizenry. The Gaza situation is a result of all of the above: moral turpitude on behalf of Arabic countries and their response to Arabic refugees; Israeli expansion, and refugee citizenry growth.
Just my view, at this point.
Convincing the Palestinians to leave would be the easy part, given how horrible life has gotten for them. Getting someone to open their doors for them would be the hard part, and I quite simply do not see it happening. No-one wants the Palestinians. And, as you said yourself, the Arabs of the region do not want a Jewish state there. I don't see that changing. In the end, the problem will be "solved" (if you want to call that a solution) via a Jewish exodus from the region. Getting a few countries to accept Jewish refugees (I'm looking at you, Canada) would be significantly easier than getting anyone to take in the Palestinians. At least for now. That might change as Israel's reputation takes a nosedive. Even then, though - there's some serious human capital in Israel, worth importing if you get a chance.