Israel should annex the disputed territories

THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA

An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IV, Issue # 51, May 12, 2002
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor

Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity

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ISRAEL SHOULD ANNEX THE DISPUTED TERRITORIES
By Chuck Morse
U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), recently appearing on an MSNBC talk show, was half right when he stated that Israel should annex East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza and that the Palestinian Authority should leave. Armey said, "There are many Arab nations that have many hundreds of thousands of acres of land and soil and property and opportunity to create a Palestinian state. I happen to believe that Palestinians should leave."
To quell an incoming storm of indignation over his suggestion that an entire population be expelled, Armey, rightfully, modified his position and suggested that "peaceful Palestinian civilians should not be forcibly expelled," that only those involved in subversive activity should be expelled. Much of the indignation he would've faced would've no doubt emanated from quarters supporting the racist and apartheid idea of expelling 200,000 Jews from the disputed territories, leaving the area Judenrein.
Either way, it's high time, in light of the mass murder campaign deliberately launched against the Jews of Israel these past eighteen months under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority, that consideration is given to the contention that partitioning an area about the size of Massachusetts into two hostile mini-states is a recipe for continuous war and violence. The demands of the Palestinian Arabs and their oil-rich Arab and Islamic allies hasn't changed one iota since the 1967 six-day war. They still demand that Israel withdraw to the untenable Armistice lines of 1949-1967, abandon Jerusalem, and give the descendants of Arabs driven out in 1948, numbering in the neighborhood of three million, the right to return to Israel.
Dr. Hussein Ibish, spokesman for the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, has accurately stated that a Palestinian state on the West Bank and in Gaza would be a "Bantustan." Israel itself, if confined to the pre-1967 bonders, would also, in fact, be a Banstustan. Pre-1967 Israel, existing within what Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban callrd "Auschwitz lines," actually would look more like Congressman Marty Meehan's Massachusetts congressional district than a nation-state. A small corridor would connect Tel Aviv to the outskirts of Jerusalem, a swath of land would ride up the coast connecting the Galilee region, and another swath would connect Tel Aviv to the Negev Desert, which would make up about half of the total land. The bottom line is that any division of this tiny area will result in two Bantustans. After 50 years of bloody strife between the two Palestinian populations, one Jewish and one Arab, and the obvious religious, ethnic, language, political and cultural differences, it is obvious that two such states or Bantustans will lock into a death struggle.
Israel acted in good faith when it tried the two-state solution in 2000 and the experiment failed miserably. To risk such a venture again would be the equivalent of committing national suicide. No sovereign state should ever be placed in such a position. The last such partition, that of Czechoslovakia in 1938, didn't turn out too well. Common sense dictates that a partition is impossible and utopian.
Israel should immediately annex the disputed territories and allow for the development, over the longterm, of a semi-autonomous Palestinian Arab administration on the West Bank and in Gaza. Israel should maintain security control and provide for the safety of Israeli citizens in the region. Arabs who are willing to live in peace should be afforded the maximum benefits of political and cultural autonomy. Investment and economic development should be encouraged.

Subversive activity, such as the smuggling of weapons, building of bomb factories, planning of mass murder campaigns, collaboration with enemies of Israel, or development of clandestine militias, all of which took place under Yasser Arafat, should be handled swiftly by the Israeli justice system. If a person is convicted of crimes connected with such subversion, then Israel would be acting within its right, and in accord with international law and custom, to exile such a convict, if it chose this approach. Israel would not be expelling a person for being an Arab, but would be expelling a convicted criminal. Such a policy should be applied to Jew and Arab alike.