Deputy Transportation Minister MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) said on Sunday that it was time that the Israeli government take steps to annex Judea and Samaria, even if it comes with the price of giving citizenship to Arabs residing in these areas. Estimates of the number of Arabs in the area vary from 1.5 to 2.4 million.
Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Hotovely said that offering citizenship to Palestinian Authority Arabs would be a small price pay for ending the status quo which brings international criticism of Israel, viewed as an “occupier” in Judea and Samaria.
“Some think that the way to go is to divide the country. We do not belong to this group,” she said. “Therefore we need to understand that every decision has a price, and therefore if we do not adopt the annexation plan, we will pay the price through pressure and boycotts of Israel and Judea and Samaria.”
Hotovely noted that the reality in which the Israeli right does not provide a clear answer regarding the question of the future of Judea and Samaria causes more people to fall for the idea of a two-state solution. “When we clearly declare that these areas are not up for negotiation and that we are going to apply sovereignty over them, we can come before the public and say in a clear and loud voice that these lands are ours and we are prepared to pay a demographic price for this,” she said.
According to Hotovely, Israel should begin by annexing Area C, which is under full Israeli control, and thus present a statement to the world that Israel is moving towards full Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
“Israel should say it is headed towards applying sovereignty. It makes no sense to leave this in the air for 45 years,” she said. “Leaving it up in the air sends a message that we have no connection to these places.”
The difference between her plan and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett’s plan, explained Hotovely, is that Bennett only says that sovereignty should be applied in Area C where only 4% of PA Arabs live – and all of the Jews – and gives Areas A and B to the Arabs. This, she said, perpetuates the Oslo Accords.
As for possible condemnations by the international community if Israel carries out such a move, Hotovely said, “The world will accept anything that sounds like a solution. Currently it wastes all its money and resources on a failed solution, because there is no Palestinian willingness to give up Jerusalem or the ‘right of return’. The world tried to promote peace with a specific formula, and if we begin to repeat the truth that Judea and Samaria are not bargaining chips for negotiations and an alternative solution begins to emerge, the world will be convinced.”
watsa46 Said:
FIFY
The most, a green card.
CuriousAmerican Said:
What’s wrong with ethnic cleansing? I was ethnic cleansed, but nobody demanded or cared if I became enfranchised or compensated you and your christian friends didn’t or rush to aid and help our struggle against the government. Ditto for those from gush Katif and Shomron.
I say this to you when you demand the nearly million Jews we took in and assimilated them all into Israeli society get fair compensation and all Jewish communal property returned to legal owners and or fairly compensated then you can rant all you want about the poor maggots who have become the worlds affirmative action pets and obviously yours as well.
I suggest any we don’t kill to be put on cattle ships and have them all transferred to chile en mass. I would make them an offer, for each missionary they behead in S America, we will pay them a special bonus. They need not take scalps just film the beheading.
On paper, it may sound good. There are 6 million people in Jordan. 1½ million in Gaza. About 1 million in South Lebanon. And gazillions of Egyptians between the Negev and the Nile.
So 2) questions:
1) When you annex these areas, do you intend to enfranchise these Muslims?
-or-
2) Or are you planning even larger ethnic cleansing operations?
Deal with the Arabs in Judea and Samaria first.
Either
1) Enfranchise them
-or-
2) Pay them to leave.
Let’s stick with the best and safest way to handle what most of us want to see as the complete restoration of Eretz-Yisrael permanently in the hands of the Jewish nation and the Jewish state. This must be a step by step process:
1) Annexation by the State of Israel of all of Area C of Shomron and Yehuda, which comprises 72 per cent of the territory of those ancient Jewish provinces; and most importantly, forms a secure eastern border for Israel along the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.
2) Immediately upon annexation, assign administration of what had been Area C to civil Israeli authority, and especially to the local Jewish regional councils established for just that purpose after the Six Day War. The role of the military in these areas would be confined to guarding the Jordan River and Dead Sea borders against any and all intrusions from Trans-Jordan.
3) Working throgh the local regional councils and private development contractors, initiate a program to boost the Jewish population in the Jordan Valley and its uplands to the West, enlarging small towns such as Ma’ale Efraim into cities of 15,000-20,000 and greatly expanding Jewish-owned industrial development and agriculture suitable for Israeli and international markets and available water supplies.
4) Offer a choice of citizenship or permanent residency solely to the local Area C Arabs, who number not much more than about 30,000. “Citizenship” means they will be compelled to share Israel’s relatively high tax burdens and will also be responsible for state service to be determined by the State of Israel. “Residency” means they will not be able to vote in Israeli national elections and will not have available to them Israel’s social services. And for any of them who turn to crime or terrorism, the only punishments will be immediate and irrevocable expulsion from Israel; but no imprisonment. Jails are expensive to maintain and create minor martyrdoms which can be avoided by case-by-case expulsions.
5) With Area C irrevocably annexed and with a permanently growing Jewish population, the PLA will become meaningless and its territorial authority broken by the post-annexation boundaries. It can be expected with great certitude that each of the large Arab cities in Shomron and Yehuda will be taken over by strictly local Arab family-based leaderships. These will be dependent upon Israel for their long-term stability. The Arabs resident in these local autonomous cities will be left in peace, but with the stipulation that they shall not interfere with Jewish settlement nor with Jewish administration and control of transportation routes and the countrywide water supply. It is not unlikely that some of these communities will petition Israel for incorporation into the Jewish state, under some municipal status which would allow them form of elected representation. such as a separately-elected body of local councils.
Te steps described above, if carried out in accordance with good local and regional planning, might even help in reducing local tensions in relationships with the Arabs of Shomron and Yehuda.
But even that will not succeed in changing the nature or ferocity of hatreds in the Middle East between the two main bodies of Islamic religion — Sun’a versus Shi’a; nor in what may prove to be the perpetual intent of Iran to re-create their ancient Persian Empire that controlled all Southwest Asia from the borders of India to the Western Desert of Egypt.
To defend Israel in the face of such regional neighbors, Israel must ultimately expand possibly repeatedly deep into Trans-Jordan, to the north at least as far as the Litani River Gorge, to the southwest as far as Suez or even the Nile River, and southward into the Red Sea coastal strip of Arabia. That will also provide living space for future Jewish populations of 12 million or in 35 hears and double that number well before the end of this century.
Annexation yes. But make a good plan, and stay the course.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
What citizenship? Weren’t they all Jordanian citizens before the king decided one day that they were no longer? How is it that Israel owes these murdering death worshipers citizenship? Send them to Jordan. Send them to Gaza. Or better yet build a large raft and cast them off into the Mediterranean. They are the darlings of the world and should have no trouble being welcomed with open arms by the enlightened west!
Stupid idiotit!
No citizenship for barbarian Jews murderers. Send them packing!