By Bill Narvey
Caroline Glick recently wrote in the JP about the the work done by Ettinger and Wise that revealed the notion of a demographic time bomb has been a fiction created by the Palestinians and swallowed whole by Israelis. It would be a good thing that other Israeli media wrote on this matter as well, though I am not aware that they have yet picked up on the story and run with it.
The fear of a demographic time bomb has certainly been one significant factor that has channelled Israeli thinking towards believing in the inevitablility of a two state solution. It is important that the results of this demographic study become widely known within and outside of Israel. People will need some time to digest and wrap their minds around this reality. They will need some time to appreciate how the fear of a demographic time bomb constrained thinking and just what significance there is to this new reality.
Will knowing there is not and never was a demographic time bomb, free Israelis and pro-Israel advocates from the restraints of conventional thinking to now envision other possible futures that can bring peace to Israel and will any such possibilities look to achieving peace through strength as opposed to peace through the weakness of accomodation, concessions and appeasement which seems to have been the norm until now?
I wonder whether Israelis will think and feel more than surprise at the revelations of this demographic study. Will they feel anger and shame at their leaders, current and past for having been so easily conned by Palestinian lies to then get the Israeli public to accept the lies and thereby guide them to fear that the the path to peace with Palestinians and others in the region could only come about through a two state solution?
Armed with the demographic study results, Mike Wise wrote an article about a year or so ago, advocating a one state solution whereby Israel annexed J & S and incorporated the Palestinians there into greater Israel. For those who wished to stay, I believe he proposed that in order to gain Israeli citizenship they would have to meet certain requirements and if passing them all after I think 15 years, they could successfully apply for Israeli citizenship.
If only the results of this demographic study are put into the mix, then such one state solution would seem to be one natural extention of that finding.
One state solution proponents however, will have to overcome the power and forces of conventional thinking of most of the West, including the current GOI bound up in a two state solution. To say that Israel and the West must undergo and attitude adjustment, hardly covers the bases.
The power of such thinking was again evident in President Bush’s state of the union address when he declared again that a central plank of America’s Middle East policy would be that America would pursue achieving a two state peace solution between Israelis and Palestinians.
In spite of all the haranguing about America is really no friend of Israel as it pushes Israel towards disaster, Americans are the closest people that Israel can call friend and count on for support. President Bush however is desperate for support at home and abroad and he will not be easily moved to rethink his entire Middle Eastern policy to take the results of this demographic study into account, switch gears and refashion his thinking.
The demographic study results however does create a cognitive dissonance which Israelis and pro-Israel advocates might consider working towards augmenting and exacerbating.
I wonder as well whether the results of this demographic study can or should be viewed in isolation?
It was the so called demographic time bomb that was one of the biggest obstacles keeping Jews from being restored to their biblical lands. Israelis and Jews should ask themselves that if they had their druthers, would they want for Jews to be restored to their biblical homes (which incidentally were first promised in the early 20th centrury) and have J & S annexed to Israel?
The results of this demographic study allows at least for Jews to begin to ask themselves this question.
Secondly, Israelis should start asking themselves openly as opposed to whispering or grumbling amongst themselves, if the world will allow Palestinians to have their own state free of Jews, should Israelis not be entitled to no less of a choice for their state as to who is permitted to live there and who is not?
Thirdly, another reality that weighs against Palestinians creating an independent state are the Palestinians themselves.
There are those pro-Israel advocates who have advocated an Israel from the Jordan to the Sea which would peacefully induce by money or otherwise Palestinians to leave and take up residence in neighboring Arab nation or anywhere else they want. The obstacle to that of course is the Arab conspiracy to ensure no Palestinian will ever to absorbed into their nations and given citizenship so that the Palestinians will remain Israel’s problem only.
Regardless of what one state solution camp some Israelis and pro-Israel advocates are in, the Ettinger/Wise study has blown up the demographic time bomb fear as a significant factor in conventional thinking that has tied world and Israeli peace visions to a two state solution. Minds freed from the constraints of fear of the demographic time bomb should be encouraged to wander free to envision other peaceful solutions peacefully achieved or solutions best for Israel that must be achieved through strength and which Israel comes to recognize are in her very best interests and simply cannot be denied.
As a follow up to my comment, a quick internet search revealed further information on the topic of Israeli demographics.
It should be noted that the demographic study and report by Ettinger, Wise and others through their American-Israel Demographic Research Group is not the only recent demographic study.
It is reported in Ha’aretz that there is another recent demographic study by Demographic Professor Sergio Della Pergola. He is an Israeli professor and member of research teams that prepared the Jerusalem Master Plan, commissioned by the Cabinet, and the Strategic Master Plan, commissioned by the Jerusalem Municipality. Prof. Della Pergola , believes that it would be wise to “relinquish parts of the city’s territory in which mainly Palestinian residents live.” The full Ha’Aretz report is found at:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/819632.html
That it was Prof. Della Pergola’s group that was retained by Israeli government departments, it is more than likely that the GOI is going to run with the Della Pergola report and give scant attention to the demographic study and report of the American-Israel Demographic Research Group.
Other articles regarding Prof. Della Pergola are found at:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=533294
http://www.pademographics.com/haaretz-%20aluf%20benn-print.htm
Yoram Ettinger in the Ettinger Report provided further commentary at the following site:
http://yoramettinger.newsnet.co.il/Front/NewsNet/reports.asp?reportId=183052
While Prof. Della Pergola’s study comes to other findings that do not defuse the demographic time bomb, it apparently adds a longer fuse that unfortunately will, he believes explode one day unless presumably a two state solution is found which separates out Israelis from Palestinians. It will just take longer.
Both studies and reports do seem to agree that until those studies were conducted, the Israeli government did put too much reliance on demographic information coming from the Palestinians.
Israeli leaders weren’t conned by the PA, they were conned by the Israeli left wing and media. The media and the left wing have been working hand in hand to push this idea of a demographic time bomb because it makes a two state solution inevitable. This is also why the mainstream Israeli media, which is overall hard left wing has hardly mentioned what should be front page news.
Even if there were many more Arabs, Israel would be under no obligation to give them the vote. Aside from their proven interest in killing off the Jews, there are other countries in which non-majority races are not represented. Short of non-representation, it also is possible to give the Arabs a set number of representatives — but this should be kept as a fall-back position.