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Part Seven - The Diplomatic Plan - Making Israel a Jewish State
Background to the Diplomatic Plan (1/2)
"The purpose of the Jews in the Land of Israel is to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, and the goal of the Arabs in the Land of Israel is that the Jews not establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel."
–February 1947, British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin explains the basis of the conflict in the United Nations
Introduction
As an introduction to the political plan, we must define for ourselves what its purpose is. Without a proper definition of the goal, it is impossible to derive solutions for achieving it. It is common to think that the main political goal of the State of Israel is to achieve "peace," and that the problems we face are the security and demographic problem, the problem of Palestinian nationalism competing for the same piece of land, and the problem of international and especially American pressure. Some add to this an economic problem. However, even a rather superficial examination shows that these are not the problems that have pushed us into a process of concessions within so-called "political negotiations".
"Peace" can not be defined as a state's goal. The definition of peace as a goal led to the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, and allowed Nazi Germany to launch a world war. Peace exists only if neither side thinks it worthwhile to fight. World War I began when all of Europe was linked by peace agreements. We have no reason to assume that our peace agreements will be more stable.
Security is not the problem, since the more we progress in the "peace process" – the level of security declines. The official statistics of the number of terror victims, murdered and wounded, in the National Insurance Institute data, clearly show that since the beginning of the "Oslo Process", their number has soared. Bombing of buses and restaurants by suicide bombers and missiles on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were unknown here before the "peace process" of the Oslo Accords. According to accumulated experience, the desire for security should keep us away from any diplomatic process. If we continue to suffer casualties "for peace" – the security issue is probably not our main problem.
Demography is no longer a problem either. The woman of Tel Aviv no longer has a lower birth rate than her neighbor in Ramallah, rather the contrary. According to the American-Israeli Institute for Demography AIDRG:
"The continuation of the current trend, with the reasonable addition of half a million immigrants over the next 20 years, could upgrade the Jewish majority from 66% to 80% in 2035."
In other words, without any political process, the Jewish majority between the Jordan River and the sea, including the Arabs of Judea and Samaria, could reach 80% within 20 years. Political upheavals and economic crises may well accelerate the process. The IDF also reported to the Knesset that it has no idea how many Arabs actually live in Judea and Samaria, and that the IDF simply believes in the figures of the Palestinian Authority, even though they are clearly greatly inflated. The only statistic the IDF has given is the size of the wave of leaving the West Bank, about 12,000 to 16,000 people every year through the Allenby Bridge crossing alone. Most of those leaving are young.
The problem of "Palestinian" nationalism was created artificially in response to Zionism. There is no "Palestinian" problem in the territories of the Land of Israel, where there is an "Arab" sovereign, ie, Jordanian, Egyptian, Syrian or Lebanese. If Israel were, God forbid, to disappear from the map, then "Palestinian nationalism" would disappear at the same time.
Nothing has changed since the British minister's thorough explanation. There is no real "Palestinian" nationalism. There is an Arab nation that does not accept Jewish sovereignty in any part of the Land of Israel. Therefore, the solution of the "Palestinian problem" will not solve the basic element of the conflict, that is, their opposition to any Jewish sovereignty at all in the Land of Israel. This is also the reason why a "Palestinian" state has not yet been established and will never be established, even though no group has ever had a state presented to it on such a silver platter. A state – it's just not what they want.
"International pressure" is also not the problem, since it always rises in direct proportion to Israel's entry into political processes. The economic boycott, which was mostly an Arab boycott before we recognized the existence of the "Palestinian" people and its right to the heart of the country, became a boycott with a European emphasis after the Oslo process began. On the eve of the Oslo Accords, there was a big question mark over the legitimacy of the PLO and its leaders: no such question mark hovered over the right of the Jews to a state of their own.
Today, after 20 years of 'diplomatic process', the situation has reversed. We recognize them, they do not recognize us, and the Americans are not willing to oblige them to do so as a condition for opening negotiations. In other words, a diplomatic process increases the pressure rather than reducing it, and therefore pressure can not serve as a pretext for its existence. Also, every time in the past when Israel stood with reasoned determination for what was essential for it and its security, it was the US that finally withdrew and did not force us to act differently. The world does not lift a finger against the ongoing massacres and displacements in the Middle East. A Europe flooded with Muslims is busy with its own troubles. And now Israel exports not only oranges but the best technology needed for the world to continue its prosperity. If there is "pressure," it will be of a kind that Israel will be able to withstand more easily than in the past.
There is also no "economic" problem that requires a political process to solve. On the contrary. As reported by the Research Division of Zehut in "The Oslo Report"[1], the Oslo Accords cost about 10.5% of the state budget each year, more than a trillion (1,000,000,000,000!) shekels since they were signed, excluding items that cannot be calculated, such as the effect of the process on housing costs.
In recent years, Israel has been moving towards the status of an economic superpower, not because of the political process, but despite it. The state budget for 2016 is NIS 347 billion, and if it were not for the political process, there would be three years of budget reserves (!) in the public coffers, which is two and a half times the cost of the American Apollo project to reach the moon.
[1] This report is presented at the end of the platform as an appendix.
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