As everyone knows by now, there is a war in Israel, and now the bitter fruits of that horrific attack by Hamas are coming home to Gaza to roost. This should be no surprize and as recently as two weeks ago I mentioned the potential violence in the mideast in an earlier post, though like others I had no idea of how large the size and scope of the violence would be. On a high holy day, Yom Ha-Kippurim, which commemorates the Jews seeking forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God, they were attacked by the terrorist group Hamas and hundreds of Jews and also many non-Jews were murdered in cold blood. Other Israelis were kidnapped or taken as hostages, quite possibly to a certain death. It would be as if Israel attacked the Palestinians on their holy Day of Arafah which accompanies Ramadan. As of now, less than two days after the attack, the butcher’s bill is not yet available. The problem between Jews and Palestinians has persisted far too long and many approaches have failed. My personal belief is that there needs to be a two-state solution for the Levant.1
Around 1920 under the auspices of the League of Nations, the old Ottoman Empire started being carved up. England was given administrative rule over a large tract of land which became modern day Jordan and Israel. England’s interest in Jordan was in preserving the lines and routes of communication to other countries in its empire. The land west of Jordan was called “Palestine,” taken from the ancient Roman term Palestina.2 The people living in that land at the time were likely either British, Egyptian or some other nationality. Lebanon and Syria were administered by France. Some historical sources say that the goal of France in deciding the future of Lebanon was to provide a sanctionary or “safe place” in the Middle East for Maronite Christians who lived among predominantly Sunni Muslims on either side. However, Christians are now the minority in Lebanon which, with Syria, gained their independence in 1943 and 1946.
Countries are rarely born without struggle (witness the American War of Independence.) Jews were not welcome in their ancestorial homeland. I was born only a matter of months after Israel became a nation. I know the stories of the Jewish Stern Gang and the brutality and sheer terror of the Jewish resistance (the Irgun.) I know that in the process of Israel achieving statehood, many Palestinians were unlawfully killed or driven from their land and I understand that many others sold their land to the Israelis by choice. And many Jews died at the hands of Arabs or the British-backed authorities. It cut both ways.
I understand that before Israel became a nation, many Arabs hated the Jews. I studied and have seen the photos of Amin al-Husseini as he chit-chatted with Heinrich Himmler and while he toured Nazi death camps built for Jews during World War II and sowed animosity against Jews. Amin al-Husseini also raised a Muslim SS division to fight for Hitler, a division that had Jewish blood on its hands. This was while al-Husseini was serving as the Grand Mufti (Supreme Muslim religious leader) of Jerusalem. I also know how the Arabs attacked Israel en masse in 1949, 1967, and in 1973. I know how Israel kept control of some of the land the Arab nations used to launch their attacks against Israel from, and now they are asked to surrender this land. The Arab world and other countries as well want the land to serve as a homeland for the Palestinians, who are currently living on the West Bank, or under the iron fist of Hamas in Gaza, or in camps in Jordan and Lebanon or disbursed in other Arab countries. In some countries they have worn out their welcome long ago.
A one-state solution will not work. True, Palestinians almost prospered under Israeli custody during the 1970s until 1987 when the first Intifada began. They had decent jobs, and if they lived peacefully, they had little to fear from the Israelis. In some cases, their land was appropriated, however. Israel took hesitant steps towards peace when it agreed to the Oslo Accords. When at Camp David in 2000 with President Clinton, Israeli PM Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader, Yassar Arafat, a permanent peace was proposed and seemed agreeable to both the Israelis and Palestinians. But Arafat wanted it all and the chance for peace was lost, perhaps forever.
Yet, a nation that is separated into two areas cannot really thrive. How could the Gaza Strip be truly united with the West Bank of the Jordan River? Witness, East and West Pakistan, another anomaly compliments of England.
Terrorism under Arafat and later Hamas became a hallmark of the Palestinian presence and only hardened the resolve and intransigence of Jewish settlers. The settlers reasoned logically that Jews have lived on the land for many, many centuries unless displaced by gentiles or Muslims and they had equal rights to the land as much as anyone. Plus, they had an ancient civilization and documented history (The Old Testament of the Bible) to substantiate their claims. In the past, one might have dug under the Temple Mount and discovered debris from the Temple that existed in Jesus’ time, but the Waqf have been busy during the last ten or twenty years digging up and carting away any signs of a prior Jewish presence.
If there were one state for both Jews and Muslims to share and every one had one vote as with a democracy, the Jews would immediately be outnumbered three or four to one and Israel would become an Islamic Republic overnight. Nor can Israel exist as a democracy for long if it has to police millions of people in Gaza and the West Bank. The current controversy over the judicial branch in Israel is an example of the fruits of the occupation.
The solution I support, which will likely disappoint or anger my Jordanian friends (if I have any at all) is to let Israel be Israel and let Jordan, which is already as much as 70% Palestinian, be Palestine. Call Jordan what you will. Let them have a monarchy or not. Obviously, you would not want to forcibly relocate people here to there. Those who renounce terrorism and respect Israeli law might be allowed to remain in Israel where they may live peaceful lives, though perhaps without full citizenship but with protected status under the law. The Israeli or Jordanian government might offer incentives for Palestinians to relocate. The same with people in Jordan. I’m sure many Palestinians would choose to remain in Israel if they did not have to worry about Hamas, clan violence and Israeli reprisals and if they could get on with their lives going to schools, working jobs and so on. This is a freedom they do not presently have.
As long as Jordan is a de facto Palestinian country, why must there be another. There is only one country in the world that is Jewish. Let our Jewish brethren have their country and let our Palestinian neighbors have theirs. Most of the Palestinians have become Jordanians anyhow and seem to be quite comfortable there.
The holy shrines should be administered either by the Israelis or the Waqf in union with the Israelis, because the Waqf would not respect the religious rights of the Jews. They never have to date. Israel, on the other hand, has bent over backwards to respect the mosques on the Temple Mount (Har haBayīt or Haram al-Sharif) to the exclusion of denying Jews access to their most holy place. Perhaps a committee of Muslims, Christians and Jews might suffice?
Water rights and so forth can be negotiated or managed separately. Desalination plants, solar farms and so forth could help with energy issues. Free trade zones like Hong Kong may be worth exploring as a means of developing prosperity.
Seasoned diplomats will not give serious thought to this. Jordanians will be insulted. But somehow we must change the trajectory of the future.
King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8:
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
For too long people in the Holy Land have experienced the season of weeping, mourning and apartheid Can we not all do our part to hope and pray that the time for laughing, dancing and embracing arrives quickly?
FOOTNOTES
1The word Levant is an unfamiliar term to many Americans. It means “rising” and has been used frequently to describe the lands immediately to the east of the Mediterranian Sea from where the sun rises. Lebanon, Israel, Syria and Jordan are countries commonly thought to be included.
2The name “Palestina” is a bit more complicated and originates from Hebrew. According to the Online Entymology Dictionary, it is derived:
“from Latin Palestina (name of a Roman province), from Greek Palaistinē (Herodotus), from Hebrew Pelesheth “Philistia, land of the Philistines” (see Philistine). In Josephus, the country of the Philistines; extended under Roman rule to all Judea and later to Samaria and Galilee.”
