Arens raises the issue but doesn’t really address it. If Israel annexed J & S, the Jews would still represent a 2/3 majority of residents. Citizenship would be subject to stringent preconditions. If Israel had a constitution she could enshrine the notion that Israel is a Jewish state. A super Majority would be needed to amend the constitution. So annexation neither threatens Israel’s democracy or Jewishness.
Check out the One Jewish State
-
Unlike the dire predictions heard so often, Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria would not be the end of the State of Israel, nor would it mean the end of democratic governance in Israel.
Unlike the dire predictions heard so often, Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria would not be the end of the State of Israel, nor would it mean the end of democratic governance in Israel.
By Moshe Arens
All those who morning, noon and night insist that the current status quo, with the Israel Defense Forces policing the Palestinian populated areas of Judea and Samaria, is unsustainable should be desperately searching for other arrangements that might improve on the present situation. If they are hoping that an agreement will be reached between the Israeli government and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that would open the way for such an improvement, they are likely to be sorely disappointed.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, does not recognize Abbas as its spokesman, and as for the Palestinian population in Judea and Samaria, their support for Abbas is questionable. In any case, he hardly seems to be in a position to make any commitments in his negotiations with Israel, or to implement any commitments he might undertake. His reticence to enter direct negotiations with Israel is a fairly good indication of his tenuous position. So if that is leading to a dead end, what then?
The Jordanian option has on occasion been raised as a promising approach. After all, most of Jordan’s population is Palestinian. For 19 years, Judea and Samaria were part of Jordan, its population Jordanian citizens, and the geographic juxtaposition between Israel and Jordan should make delineating the border between the two countries in an agreement considerably easier than reaching a deal on a border between Israel and a Palestinian state that might be established in the area. There is only one problem – the Jordanians won’t hear of it. They don’t want to overload their security apparatus, which has been functioning quite effectively, by including another 1.5 million Palestinians within their borders.
The conventional wisdom, pronounced by many Israelis and Palestinians alike, is that in the absence of an agreement with the Palestinians, Israel will either eventually cease to be a democracy or cease to exist. This calamitous prognostication is worthy of some scrutiny.
What would happen if Israeli sovereignty were to be applied to Judea and Samaria, the Palestinian population there being offered Israeli citizenship? Those who, in Israel and abroad, consider the Israeli “occupation” of Judea and Samaria an unbearable evil should be greatly relieved by such a change that would free Israel of the burden of “occupation.” If the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria are given the right to vote in Israeli elections, like the Palestinians currently living in Israel, Israel would not cease to be a democracy. Nor would it cease to exist, although its demography would change significantly. However, Israel would face the serious challenge of absorbing the Palestinian population in Judea and Samaria into the fabric of Israeli society. Can Israel be expected to meet such a challenge?
CONTINUE
Israeli citizenship should only be for Jews:
Let the Jew-hating muslims join with their fellow muslims instead of adding them to “Jewish” Israel as a permanent and ever-growing fifth column.
If the muslims want to be part of a multi-cultural multi-ethnic society, let them go to Europe or America instead of destroying the Jewishness of Jewish Israel.
Guy Bechor in Ynetnews had an idea so brilliant that it greatly shamed me that it had never occurred to me. He said that if the goyim want to end the Israeli sea blockade of Gaza, then give them responsibity for it. Israel can close off all its crossings with Gaza, stop giving them free gasoline, electricity, and water, and let the Jew-hating Quartet and Jew-hating Egypt take full responsibility for Gaza.
Then, when Gaza resumes shooting missiles at Israel, Israel can repeatedly destroy the Gaza infrastructure paid for by the goyim until they all finally get the hint.