The Runback: The Only Solution is a One-State Solution
The only peaceful solution to end the violence is to for Israel to integrate Gaza and the West Bank into their nation
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The Monday Thought
We are in the second week of the Israel-Hamas War. It is clear that it will be a long, bloody war as Israel rightfully fights to eradicate Hamas from the face of the Earth.
There is something else that is becoming very clear: a two-state solution will not work to solve the Israel-Palestine Conflict.
Let us take a look at the various two-state solutions that have been proposed in the Near East:
The Peel Commission
Officially the Palestine Royal Commission, the Peel Commission was created by the British to portion the British-controlled Mandatory Palestine in 1936. The plan created a rather tiny Jewish state, with the rest of the area controlled by Arab Muslims.
Though Israel received only twenty percent of Palestine, that was too much for Arab Muslims leaders in Palestine. The Peel Commission recommendation begat a three-year Arab rebellion in Mandatory Palestine that was not finally put down days before the start of World War II.
The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine
The British had been annoyed with Palestine since the 1936 revolt, and decided to make the area the problem of the United Nations. The UN voted on a partition plan that granted all of the cities and most of the developed areas to the Arab Muslims.
Though the Jewish leaders accepted the plan. The Arab Muslim leaders did not. When Israel declared its independence May 14, 1948, practically the entire Arab World declared war on Israel. Israel of course won and occupied more of the Arab Muslim territory.
The Arab World once again declared war on Israel in 1967. This was the Six-Day War, which is how long it took for Israel to defeat their enemies and occupy even larger swaths of territory.
Then we get to the Yom Kippur War in 1973, which was yet another attempt by the Arab World to defeat Israel, this time with help from even more friends like Cuba and North Korea. Though a more difficult fight, Israel won the war though did return Sinai to Egypt.
For fifty years since then, Israel has been subjected to constant attacks, terrorist bombings, rocket attacks, and more from various Palestinian groups that are looking to inflict pain on Israel. Israel has restrained itself through much of that time. It took something like this, a cowardly and heinous attack by Hamas that killed more Jewish people in one day than any day since the Holocaust, to generate this kind of response.
What people fail to realize is that Israel is and always has been a multi-ethnic state. Arabs make up 21% of the population. Non-Jews make up a quarter of the Israeli population, nearly 18% of which is Muslim. The Israeli Army currently fighting Hamas is made up of all Israelis: Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Druze all side by side protecting their homeland.
The problem here is not Israel. It is the political radicals in Palestine and Gaza that have convinced scores of their brethren that the Jewish people have no right to exist in Israel and that Palestine must be united under Palestinian rule “From the River to the Sea”.
Let me ask you this: how is Israel supposed to survive like this? Why is Israel the only country in the world that is expected to give up their territory to groups that have been consistently trying to eradicate it from the face of the Earth for the last 100 years?1 They have already tried to negotiate a peaceful settlement multiple times, only for Arab Muslim leaders to say “No.”
When will international pressure be put upon Arab Muslim leaders to give peace a chance?
After 100 years of on-and-off war intended to drive the Jewish people of Palestine into the sea, it is clear that Israel and its people cannot peacefully survive in a two-state solution. Therefore, the only solution is for all of Palestine, including Gaza and the West Bank, to become part of Israel. Then, and ONLY then, will peace have a chance in the region.
Hint: Anti-Semitism