The Conceptzia: Two States – Land for Peace

The two-state conceptzia, like other fatal errors in Israel’s history, relies on the delusion that there is a willingness to live in peace with Israel as a Jewish State. Intafadas and multiple Gaza Wars do not deter Israelis who stand by the two-state conceptzia. 

By Dr. Michael Wise, INN     Feb 16, 2024, 3:18 PM (GMT+2)

We have been in Israel for several weeks hoping to help in various ways and to possibly see our grandson who has been in Gaza from day one. Invariably in almost every conversation with Israelis and others the term conceptzia (?????????) has arisen with different definitions.

More often than not it is used to lambast Netanyahu and his team for the abject failures of October 7. Others use it to describe the failures of military intelligence and command general staff. No clear consensus.

The term conceptzia became famous after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Israel was caught off guard by a surprise attack from Egypt and Syria on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. A commission of inquiry later found that Israel’s military and political leaders had suffered from a conceptzia, a preconceived notion or a governing assumption, that Egypt would not start a war it could not win, and thus ignored or dismissed the warning signs of an imminent attack. Since then, the term has been used to describe other cases of strategic miscalculation such as the 2006 Lebanon War and the 2014 Gaza War.

Those who are the loudest critics of the conceptzia of the current and past governments seem to be oblivious to their own widespread conceptzia dogmas that endanger the state of Israel. The delusion that the creation of a Palestinian Arab state will lead to regional peace and prosperity is a conceptzia shared by many in Israel since the Six Day War. Today Secretary Blinken and President Biden and the UN and the Euro community share the conceptzia that a deal whose objective is a Palestinian state will end the Israeli-Arab conflict.

That Conceptzia has a long and bloody history. Back in 1937 the British Peel Commission in response to the violent Arab revolt of 1936 recommended dividing Palestine to achieve peace and prosperity. They offered to set aside less than 20% of what remained of their Palestine Mandate for a nascent Jewish homeland. Ben Gurion agreed but the Arabs totally rejected the plan. They would never accept any Jewish sovereignty. The concept of Land for Peace failed. Similarly, the 1947 UN partition plan was rejected. The Arab High Commission had no interest in the Land for Peace Conceptzia.

In 1967, right after the 6-day war, Israel sought a Land for Peace arrangement with the Arabs. The Arab League, in Khartoum responded with 3 no’s; no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel. They also demanded an independent Palestine. The Arabs had hoped to destroy Israel and “drive the Jews into the sea”. But that did not end the entrenched Land for Peace Conceptzia.

There has never been a peace agreement with Syria. The two-state conceptzia relies on the delusion that there is a willingness to live in peace with Israel as a Jewish State. In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza based on the conceptzia of an ultimate peaceful Palestine neighbor state. Shortly thereafter Hamas won legislative elections in the Palestinian Arab territories with the promise that further terrorism would eventually force the creation of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria and eventually drive the Jews into the sea.

Intafadas and multiple Gaza Wars did not deter Israelis who stood by the two-state conceptzia. They were deaf to terrorists and Israel haters chanting “Free Palestine from the River to the Sea” and to the multiple failures of attempts to reach a two-state agreement. Amos Hochstein of the USA State Department and Prime Minister Yair Lapid demonstrated the most recent example of damage caused by the Land for Peace Conceptzia. Israel unilaterally waived its rights to offshore maritime properties to Lebanon/Hezbollah in hopes for peace. Little did they understand with whom they were dealing!

Remarkably, whenever terrorism flares up, peace-loving citizens of Israel committed to the two-state conceptzia, demand that Israel exchange its land in return for peace and the end of terrorism. They dream of a peaceful Palestinian Arab state in Israel’s backyard. But there are increasing number of leaders who realize the folly of the conceptzia. Before October 7, President Isaac Herzog, who originally supported the Gaza withdrawal, said, “It was the right thing to do, but without a doubt, from a security perspective, the disengagement was a mistake. We failed in our assessment that post-withdrawal Gaza would become the Hong Kong of the Middle East, instead, it has become one big rocket base.”

The promulgators of the barbaric October 7 attack knew that many world leaders and Israeli opinion and media personalities were transfixed with the two state conceptzia. They knew that under the control of the so-called moderate (!) Palestinian Authority huge arms caches were accumulating in Jenin and Tul Karm and Hebron and Shechem. They expected that the October massacre would stimulate a global call for a two-state solution to resolve the status of the Arabs west of the Jordan River.

Not surprisingly, President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, the UN as well as governments in Europe and elsewhere are now demanding a pathway to a Palestinian State. Fortunately, today, after the October massacre, almost all Israelis who were life-time committed to the two-state Land for Peace conceptzia, finally understand that creation of a terrorist state in Israel’s backyard will lead to a catastrophe of epic dimensions. They finally understand that the hate that Arab leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, etc. as well as the Palestinian Authority is not based on a land dispute rather, they are fundamentally opposed to any Jewish sovereignty.

Once Israel declares Sovereignty and ends the two-state conceptzia, 100+ years of Arab terrorism will have been defeated. Under Israel’s Declaration of Independence all residents will have civil and religious rights and full participation in local civic affairs. Today, Israel’s 20% non-Jewish population of Muslims and Christians, are full citizens and are represented in all walks of Israeli life — as MKs, government ministers, judges, professors and business and community leaders. Some will brand Israel as an apartheid state with these new citizens.

A world that has been blind to true racism and truly violent apartheid states cannot dictate to Israel how to best preserve itself and continue as a democratic Jewish state.

Israel’s neighbors will celebrate victory over the brutal Hamas dictatorship. They will understand what Israel must do to preserve its existence and the expanded Abraham Accords will provide a new face to the Middle East.

Dr. Michael Wise is a founder and investor in numerous technology companies. He is a graduate of YU and holds a PhD .in Theoretical Physics from Brandeis U., is the author of Israel demography study (BESA).and has published numerous articles about Israel sovereignty and demographics in Judea and Samaria. mlwise@gmail.com

February 16, 2024 | 4 Comments »

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  1. Peace At Last

    Steven Plaut 2004

    It was in the year 2008. The Israelis at long last gave up their attempts to resist the pressures of the world. They elected a new government headed by Prime Minister Yossi Beilin, the original promoter of the Oslo Peace Process, in coalition with the Jewish and Arab parties of the Left. They announced that Israel was willing to accept the unanimous proposal for peace supported by every single country in the world, and would return to its pre-1967 borders, remove all Jewish settlements from the territories of the new state of Palestine, recognize Palestine and grant Palestine all of East Jerusalem, that is, all of the city located east of a line running north-south through Zion Square, renamed Jihad Square.

    The world had not seen celebration like this which greeted the Israeli decision since the fall of the Berlin Wall or the transferal of power in South Africa to the black majority. All-night celebrations were held in every city on the planet, but none so enthusiastic as the party held in Tel Aviv in Rabin Square. Speaker after speaker appeared under a banner “Liberation at Last” and praised the decision to agree to the terms of the accord as the ultimate completion of the work and dreams of Yitzhak Rabin.

    The settlers were marched out of the lands of Palestine at bayonet point, with crowds of jeering Israeli leftists pelting them with garbage, as they moved into their temporary transit camps inside Green Line Israel. Liberal Jews in the United States organized a million man march in Washington together with Arabs and the Nation of Islam to celebrate the breaking out of peace and the final settlement of the conflict. “Peace at Last” was the number one pop single. The State Department sent out a message urging Israel and Palestine to conduct good-faith negotiations and round-the-clock talks on all outstanding issues of disagreement still separating the two sovereign states.

    At long last, there were two states for two peoples. Land had been exchanged for peace. Peace had at long last broken out in the world’s most troubled region.

    The morning after the Palestine Independence Celebrations, the message arrived in the Israeli parliament, brought in by special messenger.

    The newly formed government of Palestine had only a small number of issues it would like to discuss with Israel. It proposed that peaceful relations be officially consummated, as soon as Israel turned over the Galilee and the Negev to Palestine. Israeli cabinet ministers were nonplussed. We thought we had settled all outstanding territorial issues by giving the Palestinians everything, they protested. The spokesman for the Palestine War Ministry explained: the Galilee was obviously part of the Arab homeland. It was filled with many Arabs and in many areas had an Arab population majority. Israel was holding 100% of the Galilee territory, and Palestine none at all, and surely that was unfair. As for the Negev, it too has large areas with Arab majorities, but is in fact needed so that Palestine can settle the many Palestinian refugees from around the world in lands and new homes.

    Israel’s government preferred not to give offense and sour the new relations, and so offered to take the proposal under consideration.

    Within weeks, endorsements of the Palestinian proposal were coming from a variety of sources. The Arab League endorsed it. The EU approved a French proposal that the Galilee and Negev be transferred to Palestine in stages over 3 years. Within Israel, many voices were heard in favor of the proposal. Large rallies were held in the universities. The Israeli press endorsed the idea almost in full unison, with only some regional weeklies from the north and south dissenting. Israeli film producers began turning out documentaries on the sufferings of Galilee and Negev Arabs under Israeli rule.

    Sociologists from around the world produced studies showing that these Arabs were victims of horrible discrimination and that Israel is characterized by institutional racism. Israeli poets and novelists wrote passionate appeals for support of the Galilee and Negev ‘Others’.

    When Israel’s cabinet rejected the proposal, the pressures mounted. A Galilee and Negev Liberation Organization was founded and immediately granted recognition by the UN General Assembly. It established consulate facilities in 143 countries. Weeks later, the infiltrations began. Squads of terrorists infiltrated the borders between Palestine and Israel, and suicide bombers produced a carnage of 75 murdered Jews a day.

    The border fences that Ariel Sharon had constructed were reinforced, but to no avail. The US State Department proposed that Israel defuse the situation by considering compromise on the matters of the Galilee and Negev.

    Six months later, the victims of Jewish discrimination in the Galilee and Negev decided to escalate their protests. Gangs of Arabs lynched Jews throughout the disputed territories. Roadblocks were set up, and entire families of Jews were dragged from their cars by the activists and beaten to death or doused with flames. The EU sent in observers, but warned Israel that there is no military solution to the problems of terrorism and violence. When Israel arrested gang leaders from the riots, the General Assembly denounced Israeli state terrorism against Galilee and Negev Arabs. French universities gave the pogrom leaders honorary doctorates.

    Meanwhile, boycotts of Israel arose throughout Europe. Professors at the US Ivy League colleges demanded a total embargo and divestment from ties with Israel until it ended its racist apartheid regime.

    The leaders of the Reform synagogue movement supported the State Department and demanded that Israel end its obstinacy, redeploy out of the Negev, and formally acknowledge gay marriage.

    Israel’s own leftists launched a Movement against Apartheid, and the foreign press reported that 400,000 protesters attended a rally by the Movement in Rabin Square. Cars around Israel had bumper stickers that read “My Son Will Not Die for Nazareth” and “Peace Now”. The Israeli Left urged people to refuse to do army service outside metropolitan Tel Aviv. The Israeli Labor Party proposed erecting a series of separating barriers throughout the Galilee under the slogan “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors”.

    But Palestine could not sit idly by. Barrages of rockets and mortars drenched Israeli cities. The death toll rose to 7,000 Israelis per month. The White House and State Department threatened to cut off all supplies from Israel if it dared to launch reprisal raids against independent Palestine. Large cargo ships from Egypt laden with advanced arms entered the port of Gaza. Thousands of volunteers streamed into Palestine to assist in the campaign to rescue the Galilee and Negev Arabs from Israeli oppression.

    On the afternoon of Yom Kippur, tank columns cut Israel in two just north of Tul Karem. Palestine offered to withdraw in exchange for transferring the Negev and Galilee to its control. An Israeli newspaper and the Israeli Peace Movement proposed transferring the disputed areas to EU control until things could be settled.

    Synagogues in Belgium and France were torched. Teach-ins for the Negev and Galilee were held on US campuses. A new conference was called in Durban to denounce Israeli apartheid. The White House insisted that Israel not expel the invading Palestine troops who had divided the country, for it was a matter for negotiations and dialogue. The President invited both sides to Camp David, with observers from the Negev and Galilee militias present.

    Increasing numbers of Israeli politicians urged that Israel respond to the situation by granting limited autonomy to the Negev and the Galilee. When the government proposed to withdraw from Safed, right wing inciter web sites broadcastnon-stop protests against the move.

    The government then passed a bill that shut them down. The owners of these web sites were thrown in jail as inciters against peace. The Americans offered to send in ground troops to protect the remaining Israeli territories, if Israel decided to accept the proposal to give up the Negev and Galilee. Let’s at long last have peace in the hills that Jesus roamed, suggested the President.

    Jews living in the Galilee and Negev were under siege everywhere and the roads were unsafe. The road through the Negev to Eilat was cut by Arab gangs in four places. Leftist Israeli professors officially joined the Arab militias fighting for liberation. Two of them blew themselves up on a Jewish school bus to show their solidarity with the oppressed Arabs. Ahmed Tibi, head of the largest militia, insisted he was doing everything possible to stop the suicide attacks on Tel Aviv and Haifa from the Galilee, but the Americans demanded that he do more. The UK demanded 100% effort to stop the violence. The PLO proposed, as a compromise, that instead of being annexed by Palestine, the Negev and Galilee be allowed to form a separate state. The Arab League endorsed the idea.

    CNN broadcast a series of specials on the plight of the Negev and Galilee Arabs, and the BBC started referring to Tel Aviv as illegally-occupied Arabian Jaffa. Netanya and Beer Sheba were described by them as illegal colonial settlements. When the carnage exceeded 10,000 a month, the New York Times, for the first time, expressed regret in having promoted the peace process and ran as its lead headline “Oops”. The Washington Post, however, urged more Israeli flexibility and concessions.

    The Negev and Galilee liberation organizations raised their flags over their towns and proposed that the Jews living in their territories be resettled elsewhere. The Palestine War Ministry was shipping them guns and explosives. The first word came of a detention camp north of Nazareth in which Jews expelled from their Galilee homes were being concentrated, with a second camp opened in the Negev near Rahat.

    Strange black smoke rose from the chimneys…

    http://www.acpr.org.il/english-nativ/06-issue/Plaut-6.htm

  3. Excellent article regarding Conceptzia. However I don’t quite see how Israel with 40% Arab minority can be livable.

    Most importantly, I don’t know how to cure people from this “land-for-peace nonsense.

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  4. Israelis who stand by the two-state conceptzia

    Put them on the front lines for a while, or put them in Mortuary Service, recovering the remains of terror victims.

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