A COMPROMISE PROPOSAL FOR PEACE IN ISRAEL-PALESTINE

 

To the Reader:

 

     I am working on an update to this file.  The major change I wish to announce is that I now think Israel-Palestine should be limited to the area west of the Jordan River, and not include portions of the “East Bank” where significant numbers of Palestinians have been forced to go.  I am now in favor of some formal cooperation with Jordan in this area.

 

Mike Egger  December 2002.

 

*****

 

     This paper recommends a unified bi-national country called Israel-Palestine.  The world community, and especially the United States must force Israel to allow Palestinian Right of Return to free and equitable participation in a democratic society in the land of their grandparents -- including in current Israel proper.

 

     There will never be peace there until this is accomplished.

 

     I urgently recommend the United States immediately pass a law which gives non-revocable US Citizenship to EVERY Palestinian and EVERY Israeli upon request -- DUAL NATIONALITY.

 

     THINK ABOUT THAT ONE ACT ALONE -- AND HOW THAT COULD LEAD PSYCHOLOGICALLY TO A JUST AND LASTING PEACE.  AND WHY DIDN’T THAT HAPPEN IN NOVEMBER 1938, THE DAY AFTER KRISTALLNACHT???!!!  (This was November 9, 1938 -- which most Europeans would write as 9-11-1938.)

 

     Psychologically, Israelis would no longer be forced to be fanatical imperialists, and Palestinians would have an important safety valve -- an alternative to what could be considered their justified resort to jihad.

 

     I believe this could lead to a new climate where peace and equal rights can flourish.  Everyone gets a Palestinian passport or an Israeli passport, and accordingly votes and pays allegiance to their chosen government.

 

     This means two governments for the same piece of real estate -- with treaty guarantees from the world powers, and creeping zones in current day Israel where Palestinian refugees can return.

 

     I believe the world community, and in particular the big powers, including the US and EC (Europe) and NATO should impose a settlement in this area. I don’t believe Israel and its people have the emotional capability or political will to negotiate fairly with the Palestinians.

 

     I am fearful that the long-term Israeli plan is “annex and expel”. I believe the big powers must interpose themselves between the Israelis and the Palestinians -- in order to have a fair process.

 

     I believe Israel-Palestine should be combined -- to include current Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, the “buffer zone” in Southern Lebanon, and “some reasonable portion” of thee East Bank of the Jordan river -- into what is currently West Jordan.

 

     I believe this is quite important as there are many Palestinians there -- in West Jordan -- who have been forced out of their family homes in what is now Israel proper -- since 1945 or so. I would hope that King Hussein and the people of Jordan would agree to give up some of their territory there in the East Bank as part of a comprehensive peace compromise that might actually work.

 

     Later on in this letter I discuss at some length my idea of a “tri-partite” government for a geographically unitary Israel-Palestine. There will be a Palestinian Government, and Israeli Government, and a 99-year treaty “government” that will address difficulties between individual Israelis and individual Palestinians.

 

A BRIEF DISCUSSION OF WHY A UNITARY GEOGRAPHICAL PALESTINE PROBABLY CANNOT BE MADE FAIR FOR THE PALESTINIANS

 

I need to give some discussion as to why a (geographically) unitary Israel-Palestine is probably the only way to restore and recompense historic justice for the Palestinians.

 

     I used to think that the solution would be to form a new country of Palestine comprised of Gaza and the West Bank. But as we see the so-called peace process advancing, the Palestinian people will be divided and fragmented.

 

     Some Palestinians will be in the East Bank -- in Jordan. Gaza is a squalid refugee camp. Other Palestinians are in Southern Lebanon, also in terrible camps. Many other Palestinians are scattered throughout the Arab world and many other countries as well.

 

     It seems abundantly clear that Palestinians in the West Bank will be in homelands much like the Black Homelands in the old South Africa. Disconnected villages with onerous travel restrictions, business restrictions, etc., etc.

 

     I do not think Israel will ever accept a proper country for the Palestinians. How do we draw the borders? Some time ago I discussed the idea of Berlin type “corridors” -- limited access highways to connect the West Bank and Gaza.

 

     Also, I’ve thought of “an X” connecting Gaza and the West Bank. One line “more or less” from the southern part of the West Bank to Northern Gaza, and another line “crossing like an “X” from Southern Gaza to somewhere in the West Bank, say possibly just south and west of Jerusalem.

 

     One of my reasons for this is to allow some reasonable geography so that some Palestinians could engage in their centuries old practice of herding -- in some kind of nomadic way that their grandparents did. Whether very many Palestinians actually would want to do this, I don’t know, but I have in my own mind “a kind of sentimentality” about this, and so might some Palestinians.

 

     Under a proper peace this would “connect” the West Bank with Gaza, and still connect “North Israel” with “South Israel”. Security could be maintained for Israel in the area of the “X” I believe, but they probably wouldn’t like this idea of the “X”.

 

     The big problem I see with creating a unitary geographic Palestine, is that Israel will demand as small a geographical area as they can -- in particular I am quite sure they would want Palestine to NOT INCLUDE the East Bank. And they will demand a demilitarized Palestine as well.

 

     Israel will also demand significant Israeli military forces throughout whatever area Palestine would actually be comprised of. And I also think there will be significant Israeli settlements in Palestine that will not be disbanded. Perhaps people can come up with “some proper borders” for Palestine, but I really doubt that.

 

     If my idea of an enlarged unitary Israel-Palestine with the tri-partite government does not come to be, I hope that some of my ideas will be seriously considered -- AND IN PARTICULAR -- my idea for War Reparations to the Palestinians. (More discussion of this later in this paper.)

 

     Israel will almost certainly resist Palestinian Reparations, as they will say the Palestinians will only buy more weapons, creating a greater security threat to Israel. Additionally, Israel will demand that whatever area the Palestinians live in, will remain under Israel’s effective military control.

 

     Later on I discuss the importance of crafting a peace plan that can be acceptable to Hamas. If Israel does not make peace with Hamas, there will be no peace in Israel-Palestine. I call that the bottom line here.

 

     If Israel and the world powers DO NOT work for peace with Hamas, I would have to claim that Israel and the world powers DO NOT WANT real peace. I would claim that these powers, and in particular the United States, WANT CONTINUED CONFLICT to insure we have good reason to continue to use Israel as our forward military position -- making Israel essentially our land-based aircraft carrier. This for the purpose of keeping effective control of the outflow of Middle East oil.

 

     Later on I discuss former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s claim that 98% of the Palestinian people already live in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority -- this the villages and towns, but almost no other territory.

 

     Mr. Netanyahu is out of power now, but I’m afraid Israel will never allow a proper amount of real estate to be controlled the Palestinians.  How do we get beyond the divided and disconnected “homelands” with impossible travel restrictions?

 

     I haven’t seen any suggested maps, but one report a few days ago stated that this additional 13% would give the Palestinians effective control of 40% Of the West Bank. Drawing “these lines” and deciding what will happen in these different areas is going to be a tough job in any case.

 

     My demand here is that the Palestinians have freedom of movement, and freedom of business and a proper amount of water -- throughout their areas without onerous and arbitrary Israeli demands and restrictions. I want to take proper consideration of Israeli defense needs, but I cannot see how that can properly be accomplished without a dis-contiguous, dis-connected, homelands-type Palestine -- refugee ghettos.

 

DISCUSSION OF A COMPROMISE PROPOSAL FOR A UNITED ISRAEL-PALESTINE WITH A TRI-PARTITE GOVERNMENT

 

     This leads me to the idea of a united Israel-Palestine to allow any Israeli or any Palestinian to live anywhere in this “unitary geographical space”. There will need to be financial assistance to allow Palestinian resettlement in what is now Israel proper.

 

     But also, we must remember AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for the fact that current Israel proper was for almost 2000 years the homeland of Palestinian Arabs. There were very few Jews there before the European Zionist movements of 1830, and later the much more substantial influx of European Jews starting about 1870.

 

     Along with this there are some religious Israeli Jews who want to live in some Biblical areas east of the Jordan River. I think that should be accommodated as well. I expect that there will not likely be any large number of such religious Jews who would actually want to move there.

 

     There will be a very much larger number of Palestinians that I believe should have the right to resettle in current Israel proper. And this is, of course, where many difficult problems arrive.

 

     I would propose that this resettlement be done very carefully, gradually over some reasonable time. But absolutely we must have a fixed number or fixed percentage of returning Palestinians in EACH AND EVERY YEAR until we have achieved the Palestinian Right Of Return.

 

     I think we should look carefully at the areas in current Israeli proper where there are Palestinian Arabs who are currently citizens of Israel. Certainly, I would imagine that gradually adding new Palestinians to the neighborhoods or villages would be the best place to start.

 

     I believe that the world powers must demand Israel accept the right of Palestinians to return to full and equal rights participation in a democratic society. Otherwise we must start convincing Israel that we are serious about this demand. We would have to start to shut down military and economic aid and prepare to move Israelis to the United States.

 

     Maybe Israel will threaten to start dropping nuclear bombs on people. We defeated Hitler and Japan and Stalin and Brezhnev. What must we do to restore and recompense the grievous historical loss the Palestinians have suffered? In a very great sense our military -- the United States -- CAUSED that grievous loss to the Palestinians. When does the time come that we will take greater efforts “to do what is right”?

 

     This Palestinian Right of Return will include many Palestinians living in exile, far away. However by including Gaza, the West Bank, the East Bank, and the buffer zone in southern Lebanon, along with current Israel -- we will go a long way towards allowing the Palestinians to unite themselves once again in one country. (We seriously need an accurate and honest census of just who is a Palestinian, and we need this NOW!)

 

     I believe we must allow significant Palestinian resettlement into what is current Israel proper -- SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY. That is a very tough job I understand, but I doubt that peace and security can be achieved in Israel-Palestine unless this is done. I will be discussing some ideas later on as to how to actually achieve that peace and security.

 

     In the beginning of this we should establish a kind of zone system, or target areas, of very carefully chosen places and carefully chosen people -- INDIVIDUALS -- who will be committed to peace with their neighbors.

 

     I think it will be critical to start small and start right. (I have just mentioned moving these returning people to existing neighborhoods and villages in current Israel proper. Over time we should gradually bring in more people and start to phase out these “target zones” -- ultimately allowing Israelis and Palestinians to live wherever they want in the new enlarged Israel-Palestine.

 

     Before the Zionist influx, many Palestinians lived in nomadic tribes with their sheep and goat herding. I would hope we could restore at least some symbolic practice like that. Is there very much “empty space” in current Israel where this could be accomplished?

 

     You may think this idea to be “a not so important” sentimentality. But here I think about the aggrieved Palestinians that had many many centuries of simple life taken away from them by the Zionist movement and culminated by the mass exodus of European Jews during and after Hitler’s Holocaust. The Palestinians have suffered a grievous loss, and I think that at least some symbolic effort be made to help reduce their angry and confrontational psychology.

 

     I think of this as “kind of like” zones that most US cities have now. But these “zones” I am thinking of will be general geographical areas, and to some considerable extent in open spaces in Israel -- where there may currently be agricultural activities. Some Palestinian areas will need to be in current Israeli cities, but also let us look at where Palestinian villages used to be.

 

     Many Palestinians have old deeds of property where they and their families once lived. This should be used as a guide for renewed Palestinian neighborhoods in current Israel proper.

 

PALESTINIAN REPARATIONS

 

     And now we must recognize a very tough problem. The big powers -- US, EC, Japan et al -- MUST provide fair payment for some property currently owned by Israelis and turning over ownership to Palestinians. The Palestinians have suffered such severe economic dislocation that they don’t have enough money to buy some of this property “in the normal way”.

 

     I believe the United States should pay war reparations of $5-billion per year for 35-years to the Palestinians, and perhaps $1-billion per year to Jordan -- who lose a substantial bit of real estate with my “East Bank” plan.  This should be 49% to individuals and 51% to build infrastructure and housing and businesses.

 

     We should also pay substantial reparations to Lebanon, as this advanced and cultured country has suffered unforgivably.

 

     I would think the Golan Heights should become a multi-lateral military observation area -- looking in all directions.  I’m sure Syria will demand some reparations themselves.

 

     I use the term “fair payment” for the Palestinians very deliberately. Some property in current Israel proper should be returned to Palestinians. There may be some places where “getting the new system to work” will require forcing some Israelis to sell their property. I understand that many Israelis will consider thinking like this absolutely unacceptable. They will call it the Holocaust all over again.

 

But those Israelis MUST UNDERSTAND that they -- the Israelis -- forced hundreds of thousands or even millions of Palestinians out of their rightful homes, including deliberate military attacks against Palestinian villages -- with the deliberate intentional killing of undefended civilian Palestinians.

 

     Former Israeli Prime Minister Rabin stated in his book that years ago he had led such deliberate military attacks against civilians. Israel and its people must take responsibility for what they have done.

I imagine Israeli psychology to be in collective repression and denial. Surely they suffered an incredible collective attack -- but that was Hitler’s Holocaust. This was not the Palestinians’ fault.

 

     Hitler’s Holocaust -- and what I believe to be the deliberate forcing of European Jews to move to Palestine - combined to strongly create this psychological repression and denial. This process turned Israeli Jews into dedicated and even fanatical fighters.

 

     Palestinian Arabs tried to protect their homeland from this invasion of mostly European Jews. But then, Palestinian efforts to defend their homeland forced the transplanted European Jews to transfer their anger and rage and fears of being killed in a continued genocide -- toward Palestinian Arabs as the new enemy.

 

     This I believe, has created the collective psychology in Israeli Jews of repression and denial. Israeli Jews, collectively I believe, now deny that there were any people in the Palestine they invaded and conquered -- greatly aided by the United States. And they repress the truth that they have severely damaged the culture and homeland off a proud and accomplished people -- people who had not previously been their enemy.

 

     In the reintroduction of Palestinians into their historical homes we should at first weight the influx toward areas where conflict can be minimized -- all the while building expectations of non-violence to continue. For instance, there are areas in current Israel proper where there were once Palestinian villages or tribes, but where Israelis haven’t built their own cities. I presume these kinds of “empty spaces” still exist, though I don’t know exactly what are “the facts on the ground”.

 

     Again this must be done slowly, and not every Palestinian can move back to their “old exact address”. My idea here is to reverse some of the damage that Hitler’s Holocaust has caused the Palestinians. This is a matter of historic justice -- without which I believe we can never achieve peace there.

 

     We can do something similar to this for Israelis who want to move to the East Bank. But we must recognize that the number of Palestinians who fairly need to move back to current Israel proper -- will be very much larger than the number of Israeli Jews who want to move to the East Bank.

 

     Palestinian claims to substantial portions of current Israel proper is enormously greater than Jewish claims on that same land. Palestinians lost the land of their parents and grandparents, mostly within the last 60-or-80 years -- forced out by Jewish military forces who had been traumatized horribly by the Holocaust and thereby converted into determined and even fanatical fighters.

 

     The Israeli fighters were “significantly and sufficiently” aided by many billions of US dollars in economic and military aid. At the same time, the US Government has guaranteed Israel military superiority for the past 50-years. This history imposes on the United States a deep and abiding responsibility to restore and recompense the Palestinian people.

 

     You can talk about God’s Holy Land and all that stuff, but I don’t think Israel was created “just to praise God”. I think the sincere religious feelings of European Jews were encouraged and “guided” (manipulated) because the British Foreign Office wanted a reliable military ally at the crossroads of three continents. And then of course, along comes the discovery of all that oil in the neighborhood.

 

     As time went on Israel became a critical military asset to the United States to insure that we could maintain control of our dictatorships in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Many sincere people may feel a moral and religious responsibility to Israel, but our motives are much more complicated than that. We claim to glorify God, but our real objective is to continue to secure access to Middle East oil.

 

     Indeed, I suspect that THE REAL POWERS in the United States -- and the world -- DO NOT WANT PEACE IN ISRAEL-PALESTINE! Israel is our “cover story” -- our land-based aircraft carrier needed to maintain our dictatorial control in most countries in the Middle East. I think Iraq is not really our enemy, but our scapegoat to insure no one challenges our control of that important part of the world.

 

     Did not April Gillespie, the US diplomat in Iraq at the time, pretty much invite and encourage Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait? I believe the cover story of that incident was to have news reports imply that Saddam thought Kuwait was to be his “payoff” for his terrible war against Iran.

 

     We wanted a weakened and contained Iran, and we got it. We wanted a weakened and contained Iraq, and we got it. We want to continue to have Israel as our forward military position, and we continue to get that. The only losers have been the people of Iran, the people of Iraq, and the people of Palestine. There comes a time when what must be done -- is that which is morally correct.

 

     I would recommend Palestine have some reasonable National Guard and police and such -- but otherwise be demilitarized. I think we have seen this already developing with the Palestinian Authority.

 

     Israel of course will keep its military and their nuclear weapons. The solution to this military imbalance is for the big powers to insert themselves into the equation to insure fair treatment of the Palestinians.

 

     I would think these separate areas I have discussed -- East Bank, West Bank, Gaza, South Lebanon, and Israel proper will need a differing make-up or profile of various kinds of military and security and police forces. There will need to be “big-power” treaty forces in all these areas -- US, NATO, UN and whoever else.

 

     Let’s have all kinds of “observers” everywhere in Israel-Palestine. I think the mix of military people from the different treaty powers needs to be carefully constructed. Let’s have forces from the different “treaty-countries” that will be “psychologically comforting” to the majority of people in these different areas -- depending on whether there is a local majority of Palestinians or a local majority of Israelis.

 

     I would strive to keep the Israeli military forces at a low number in the East Bank. Of course Israeli (and treaty-power) observers should be permitted there to warn Israel if there were some kind of invasion of coming from the east -- that is east of the East Bank of the new Israel-Palestine.

 

     The mix of foreign treaty military forces in the East Bank must be carefully considered here. The majority Palestinians will want foreign troops they trust. But Israel will want forces there that they can trust.

 

     I don’t know exactly how to choose these forces. Egyptian, Turkish and Pakistani forces come to mind. I’ve been reading that Israeli-Egyptian relations are not so good, but “technically correct”. Also there have been reports of increasing cooperation between Israel and Turkey.

 

     I “would think” that Pakistani forces in the East Bank would be acceptable to Israel, though I don’t actually know that. I would expect that Israel will want some US fighting forces in the East Bank -- as well as state of the art US and Israeli observer forces.

 

     We have a tough problem here as the Arab countries in that area may see US and other Western troops there as a continuation and expansion of Zionist aggression. Many will want us all just to go to Hell.

 

     This might be a complicated problem in the East Bank. The Palestinians and other Arabs know full well that Israel has been a venture of European Imperialism (considering the US as “culturally and racially European”).

 

     If we go in and expand European and US forces into traditionally Arab areas, the Arabs there may see my proposed compromise plan as simply more of the same European Imperialism that they have been suffering. The treaty powers must provide a proper counter-weight to Israeli forces -- to protect the Palestinians. AND THIS PROCESS IS PRIMARILY THE POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.

 

     The mix of foreign treaty military forces must be carefully considered here as Israel will want forces they can trust, but Israel might just imagine that my proposal for including the East Bank would be an easy way for them to continue their Zionist expansion east.

 

     I am quite concerned about this. My plan demands that the big power treaty countries intercede between Israel’s tremendous military advantage and a mostly de-militarized Palestine. If we forfeit that responsibility we will guarantee another 100-years of fascist oppression against the Palestinians.

 

     A bit later in this letter I discuss the importance of convincing Hamas to become peace partners. They and the other Palestinian and Arab peoples will demand proper and convincing guarantees of our 99-year commitment. How do we go about convincing them of this?

 

     I would think Israeli “forward forces” should be well represented in the West Bank, but I would hope we could put a proper kind of mix of treaty power forces so Israel can still feel secure relying on good observer positions.

 

     I would expect that not many Israelis will actually want to move to the East Bank. They will need police type protection -- but here we must carefully construct the police structure. I would recommend “triple-shadow” -- pretty much in ALL of Israel-Palestine. Every place where you need one police officer, you get three -- one Israeli, one Palestinian, and one “big-power treaty-officer”. Trying to do this sensibly of course.

 

     The government of “Israel-Palestine” should be a tri-partite government. Everyone in this combined area should specify whether they want an Israeli passport or a Palestinian passport.

 

     In legal questions involving Israelis and Israelis, the Israeli Government should be their authority. Likewise, in legal questions involving Palestinians and Palestinians, the Palestinian Government should be the authority.

 

     The third part of this tri-partite government should be fashioned something like International Law and the World Court. These laws and rules should be a 99-year treaty for legal problems between Israelis and Palestinians. I recognize that the process of choosing juries will need to be carefully constructed.

 

     The actual laws of the treaty for problems between Israelis and Palestinians should be crafted mostly “mid-way” between the differing Israeli laws and Palestinian laws for their own people. Again this must be done very carefully so that both sides can consider “the secular treaty laws” to be fair and reasonable.

 

     And I would hope “the secular treaty laws” would include the International declarations protecting universal human rights and civil rights. The United States is already a party to many such declarations.

 

     The Palestinians used to be educationally economically and culturally advanced -- like the Lebanese used to be not so long ago. The Western Powers must take historic responsibility for much of what has happened there -- in Lebanon as well.

 

     There is a special problem with the Islamic religion permitting the amputation of a hand (and the Sudanese may amputate a foot as well) of a thief, though most Islamic countries do not practice that punishment of amputations now.

 

Until recently I knew only of Saudi Arabia and the Sudan that did this. However there have been reports of the new government of Afghanistan practicing that punishment. Perhaps there are other countries that I don’t know about.

 

     For the Israel-Palestine 99-year treaty or perhaps in the Palestinian Constitution I think we should not challenge Fundamentalist Islam directly. In the time of Mohammed, if someone stole someone’s food or property, this could lead the theft victim’s death, but since such harsh economic conditions are no longer true in modern Palestine -- then I think the Koran’s exhortations for mercy should apply.

 

     The idea here is a protection against cruel and unusual punishment, but some future Palestinian Government might come to state that since amputations are permitted in the Koran, that amputations would not be called “cruel and unusual” by Fundamentalist Muslims. I imagine the Palestinians would not want to practice amputations in the first place, but I think we should be very careful about the treaty powers forcing language into the Palestinian Constitution.

 

     Currently, Sudan will amputate a hand and a foot which is permitted in the Koran. I believe this was introduced in the Sudan only 10-or-20 years ago. This practice is used against the Southern Christians and Animists, in part I believe as a war strategy in their civil war. The Southerners are desperately poor and they sometimes steal.

 

     I was upset and angered by the news about the amputation of hands in Afghanistan. And I wonder if the Saudis shared some responsibility for this. During the war against the Soviet government there, Saudi war assistance was given to the Taliban -- the rebels in the civil war there who were the most severely Islamic fundamentalist.

 

     And then I began to wonder if the Saudis themselves could stop amputations in their own country if they wanted to! Or perhaps -- does The Totalitarian Secret World Government FORCE this on the Saudis?

 

     Do not some secret powers WANT THIS in order to add grievous propaganda against Islam? Calling this another example of Islamic terrorism -- useful in promoting the Holy War against Islam? All this actually being done for political reasons in the area of the crossroads of three continents? And of course advancing the US goal of securing Saudi oil.

 

     I don’t believe the Iranians or Iraqis or Libyans practice this brutal punishment. But the fact that the Saudis and a few others do practice this punishment allows “our propagandists” to blur the distinctions between the different Islamic countries -- deliberate propaganda to slur all Muslims as horrible terrorists.

 

     In this way we advance a general “anti-Islam psychology”, and go on to justify brutal Israeli practices against the Palestinians -- imagining all Muslims are terrorists.

 

     The Iranians are “terrorists” because the CIA caused a coup d’etat in the early 1950’s to install the Shah. Before that the Iranians had a reasonably moderate AND INDEPENDENT social democratic government.

 

     But we and the British and a few others were afraid that Iranian Government would try to nationalize the oil under their country. Look at our historical sins and stop the propaganda we practice against others.

 

     Then there was the redrawing of the Kuwait borders (about 1920 or so) far north into “traditional Iraq”. This gave Kuwait 70-100 miles of coastline, but it left Iraq -- the land of the Tigris and the Euphrates with a desperately small coast line -- 7 or 10 miles is it?

 

     We call Palestinians terrorists because they are trying to fight back and recover their lost homeland when we European Christian Imperialists installed and advanced a Jewish state in that homeland. Annex and expel, collective punishment, brutal torture in interrogations. I have to call that fascist. When will this stop? When will the world community force Israel to stop these brutal practices?

 

     But, “Oh no!” Look how bad these Islamic terrorists are! They cut off people’s hands and send suicide bombers -- and we lump them all together in our great and terrible propaganda ploy! We Westerners have to look at our own responsibility. Let us try to do something to restore and recompense Palestinian suffering.

 

     I have been thinking about something that could reduce fears and mistrust in both Israeli and Palestinian communities. The 99-year treaty should include provisions that any citizen of Israel-Palestine should receive upon request a non-revocable US passport -- dual citizenship. Also Israel-Palestine should be included IMMEDIATELY in EC -- giving every one of them, both Israelis and Palestinians -- the free right to live and work in Europe -- without condition for at least 99-years.

 

     Additionally I think the US dollar should be the currency of Israel Palestine. I think this is a good protection for them -- and beneficial to the US and the EC as well.

 

     The treaty powers (the US Federal Reserve, the Bundesbank and new EC Bank, Japan’s Central Bank, etc.) can easily provide the financial help and trade circumstances without the Israeli-Palestinians having to meet all the stringent budget and debt requirements that are currently required by the EC.

 

     Additionally, as many other countries in the world that will agree, should provide -- again upon request -- permanent, non-revocable residency visas or dual citizenship passports for all Israeli-Palestinians. I think South American countries should participate in this as well as Australia, New Zealand, Russia, etc., etc.

 

     I think achieving in the 99-year treaty a huge area in many different countries where Israelis and Palestinians will be free to live and work -- upon request and without conditions -- would be an important and essential “emotional safety-valve”.

 

     Maybe there wouldn’t be huge numbers of individual Israelis and Palestinians that would actually want to move away, but just having this option would help people WHO WANT TO STAY IN ISRAEL-PALESTINE feel more secure in their personal safety and help relieve some of their personal fears and misgivings -- if things do turn bad, they have someplace to go.

 

     I think this safety-valve would be an important and maybe even ESSENTIAL aspect in confidence building between the people in the radically different Palestine. I think it is appropriate here to recall that many European Jews were turned away from the United States and many other countries when they tried to escape Hitler’s Holocaust.

 

     I stated some time ago -- in my Internet files (www.libt-social-dem.org) -- that I refuse to believe that Roosevelt (FDR) and Churchill did not have spies in Germany telling them what was going on there. I continue to believe that our refusal to accept Jewish refugees was deliberately planned -- as a political strategy to create Israel as our land-locked aircraft carrier.

 

     Planned. Not just by Hitler, but also by Roosevelt and Churchill and the illegal secret government. The circumstances of the Holocaust caused tremendous psychological changes in the new residents in Israel -- turning them into dedicated and even fanatical fighters.

 

     I discuss my theory of “the third level of the conspiracy” at great length in my Internet files. We owe a tremendous debt to Israel, but we do not owe them a screw job against the Palestinians. The United States has given Israel great amounts of money and has guaranteed Israel military superiority for the past 50-years. What must we do to restore and recompense Palestinian rights?

 

     The big powers, in particular the US, Germany, and Japan should pay War Reparations to the Palestinians. I’ve written before that we should IMMEDIATELY begin determining just who is and who is not “a Palestinian”. (I think we should trust the Israelis to continue essentially their current policy of Jewish immigration.)

 

     The US should pay $5-billion per year for the next 35-years.  Europe in particular has a similar responsibility. The Palestinians too are victims of Hitler’s Holocaust. And also Japan should do the same. They benefit greatly from US military protection of Middle East oil.

 

     This would not cost some prohibitive amount of money. I don’t know the number of Palestinians there are, but let us say there are 10-million. Once again, a proper Palestinian census must begin IMMEDIATELY. This cannot be perfect as the Palestinian have fled to many places in the world. But you people who like to do things in secret MUST ADDRESS THIS PROBLEM -- STARTING NOW!

 

     The United States spends tens of billions of dollars every year providing military protection of Middle East oil lanes. Japan and Europe are much more dependent on this oil than is the United States, and I think we can rightfully demand that they pay “a little bit of real money” to help achieve peace in this critically important region in the world.

 

     Of course there will be some considerable investment “up front” as we build the infrastructure -- for business, government, schools, universities, water and sewer facilities, trash collection, etc., etc. I think the Palestinians have the historical right to demand all this.

 

      (I think the current government of Israel already takes proper care of its people who need help. Certainly the treaty powers can be called upon to relieve Israel at least somewhat -- the bottom line being assisting Israel to provide a proper utilitarian taking care of the needs of their poor. Exactly how to do this I don’t know, but the US provides very substantial aid to Israel already. I don’t think this will be any great burden for the treaty powers to help provide peace in this area.)

 

     Additionally, these War Reparations should include the construction of proper homes for any Palestinian that needs it -- to allow them to escape the refugee camps they have been forced into over the past 50-years. Also I would specify proper and free medical and dental care for the Palestinians -- again for 99-years. I think we should have a substantial force of US military medical people to help the Palestinians.

 

ANOTHER DIFFICULT PROBLEM

 

     Along with amputations the Muslim practice of allowing a man to have up to four wives might be a problem. Perhaps again it would be better not to challenge Islam directly on this issue.

 

     If we “push and push” on this we risk an increasing probability that too many men -- especially poor men -- will feel so aggrieved and personally affronted -- that they will react against the whole peace process and retreat to radical fundamentalist Islam and jihad holy war.

 

     I think the best solution would be to allow a woman to divorce her husband -- for whatever reason. I don’t know how Muslims currently practice what will happen if a woman wants to divorce her husband,, but I think this must be allowed for the women. Hopefully we can come up with some good way to do this.

 

     I don’t know how to handle the divorce problem if the husband demands the children -- this in the case that he does want a 2nd wife. I do not know what the Koran says about that or what the Palestinians might want. Again we need delicate wording here in the Palestinian Constitution (or 99-year treaty).

 

     The most important thing here is to provide Palestinian women an alternate choice with economic dignity and sufficiency. But here is the crux of the problem. How far can we push this direction without alienating the Muslim Fundamentalists? Let’s think for a minute about poor and radical Palestinian men, likely allied with Hamas.

 

     THIS IS A CRITICALLY IMPORTANT GROUP. I believe these are the men that are more likely to want to take more than one wife. If the western powers force constitutional language forbidding more than one wife, this group very well might set about to destroy the peace settlement.

 

     I believe that amputations are not practiced in the areas where most Palestinian men are currently located. So I would think this important group would not be so greatly upset by careful language -- that does not directly contradict the Koran.

 

     But if we confront these poor radical Muslims with DEMANDS that they not take more than one wife, they might consider this such a terrible affront that they would reject the peace process. This practice varies from country to country in the Muslim world, and I do not know just exactly the circumstance of this in the Palestinian community.

 

     We must think about the psychology of these men. They have their families, and not much more. They gain self esteem from their families. And their family takes on a much greater value in their psychology because they are so poor. Their idea of their family includes the idea, if not the actuality, of more than one wife.

 

     Again I don’t know “the facts on the ground” of how many Palestinian men have more than one wife now. But I certainly imagine that this occurs “around them and about them” (this in contrast to the fact, I imagine, that amputations do not much occur “around them and about them”). Even if many men have only one wife, they consider it their God given right. This is in the Koran, and has been deeply ingrained in the Muslim culture for a very long time.

 

     We may want to decry male supremacy, but large numbers of these poor men are allied with Hamas, and they do not have much else. We must consider the psychology of the people we want to make peace with -- including the Hamas.

 

     In saying this, I claim the highest priority MUST BE the greatest possible acceptance of the peace plan, and the best way in this very complex process to advance women’s rights -- is to provide women with the power to divorce AND STILL HAVE PROPER ECONOMIC SUSTENANCE.

 

     I have already discussed Hamas and our need to work with them. I’ve seen and read news reports that Hamas performs quite a lot of assistance to poor Palestinians -- economic and social aid. This is what should be built on.

 

     You folks of power should think about that VERY VERY SINCERELY! Then start to think about my idea of War Reparations for the Palestinians. I think we must make peace with Hamas. How can you convince Hamas that some particular peace proposal for Israel-Palestine is the right thing for their people -- their poor and oppressed?

 

     To a great degree the Palestinians’ suffering IS OUR FAULT. The United States has guaranteed Israel military superiority for these past 50-years. This military superiority has been used for grievous oppression of the Palestinians -- collective punishment, torture as almost a general practice in Israeli interrogation of suspected Palestinian “terrorist-freedom-fighters”. Arbitrary and severe restrictions on business practices, freedom of movement, etc., etc.

 

     I don’t blame individual Israelis, given their traumatization during and after Hitler’s Holocaust, but the Israeli Government does have a responsibility NOT TO ENACT SYSTEMATIC WAR CRIMES AGAINST THE PALESTINIANS. And it is because of this terrible history that the people of Israel-Palestine have suffered, that I believe the big powers MUST impose a settlement.

 

     I don’t believe that Israel has the collective will to make an honest peace. The world community must intervene to force Israel to live up to the Balfour Declaration -- to treat Jews and Palestinian Arabs equally.

 

     I believe it was about Spring 1980, former US Senator Fulbright gave a speech at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia at the University of Petroleum and Minerals. In this speech he said the world community MUST IMPOSE a settlement.

 

     If I remember correctly, he called for a Palestinian State in the areas of the West Bank and Gaza. I thought that was a good idea at that time, but now I feel that if we draw a border at the Jordan River, we divide the Palestinian people, and I think that would be bad.

 

     Additionally, Israel will demand so many restrictions and occupation forces that the lives of the Palestinians will continue to be as bad as they are now. Israel will demand significant military forces in the West Bank, whatever peace settlement comes to be. And I sincerely doubt that Israel will ever dismantle their settlements in the West Bank.

 

     Another big problem will be allocation of scarce water resources in the West Bank. It is very unfair what Israel is doing now.

 

     Looking at “how things seem to be going” I think we have to consider what is really meant when Israel says that the Palestinian Authority ALREADY controls 98% of the Palestinian population. And then saying that outside this area -- defined by this area of the 98% population -- was mostly only EMPTY SPACE.

 

     I have to call that claim racist. “Empty Space” does not equate to “people who have been there thousands of years” -- people who used to have an agrarian culture. Palestinians now have been forced into dis-contiguous “Palestinian Homelands”“ -- just about exactly the same as the previous Black Homelands in the old South Africa.

 

     I think it is undeniably obvious that this “so-called Empty Space” is now targeted for new Jewish settlements. And the Palestinians will face severe restrictions on their freedom to travel from one dis-joint homeland to any other dis-joint homeland. And they suffer arbitrary closing of their businesses and onerous restrictions on what kind of business can and cannot be done.

 

     Many Israelis claim that all of Palestine was “empty space” before the Zionist immigrations of c.1830 and c.1870. There is also the problem of “where Palestine was”. The Ottomans (Turkey) and later the British drew various lines on the map for their administration purposes.

 

     Sometimes we have had “Trans-Jordan” including the current Israel-Palestine and much of current Jordan -- east of the Jordan River. Israeli supporters who “claim there were no people there”, also usually claim that historical records -- which are not at all good -- say all the Arab Palestinians “were east of the Jordan River”.

 

     I read one report that Arabs started moving there (to Palestine west of the Jordan River) only after the Jews came and began agricultural and other business activities, saying Arabs were coming because they could get jobs. European Jews brought money with them, and this expanded employment opportunities -- for Palestinians who were already there, and other Arabs as well. But this cannot be used to deny that Palestinian Arabs had been there west of the Jordan River, and had been there for many many centuries.

 

     I heard a more interesting claim about population politics when I began my campaign for the US Congress in 1996. I wanted to talk to the Rabbi at Lubbock, Texas (where I was living at the time) to explain my position on Israel-Palestine. I thought it would be a proper courtesy to look him in the face when I discussed with him my position in support of Palestinian rights.

 

     I telephoned him to make an appointment, and we spoke briefly about my support for Palestinian Rights. He told me that Palestine “was empty of people” before the Zionist movement began in the 19th Century, and that Arabs started moving there because they were jealous of the arriving Jews. I believe this is war propaganda -- repress and deny -- annex and expel.

 

     We made an appointment, but when the day came -- just before I was about to leave to meet him -- he telephoned me and said he was feeling badly and needed to cancel the appointment. I told him I would telephone him again after a few more days.

 

     But within just a few days, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin was murdered, and I didn’t have the heart to call the Rabbi again. Within a few months I believe the Rabbi went into semi-retirement and moved somewhere north, possibly to or near Amarillo, Texas.

 

     The first time I talked to him on the telephone, we briefly discussed my position on Israel-Palestine. This was mostly a plan of despair saying until someone came up with a better plan to restore and recompense Palestinian rights, that I would work to “move Israel to the United States” -- businesses, universities, temples, etc. I don’t remember exactly that telephone conversation. He of course did not agree with that!

 

     In my Internet files (www.libt-social-dem.org), I briefly discussed the possibility of a “democratic secular Israel-Palestine”, but I stated I thought it was already too late for that, saying it would be better to move Israel to the United States rather than continue the current situation.

 

     The problem with a “one-government” Israel-Palestine that unites the Palestinians is that Israelis would fear that they would be “overwhelmed demographically”. I don’t know that that would actually be true, but that idea must be considered a valid hypothesis -- and that is one of the reasons I think we should advance the “tri-partite” government.

 

     The claim that the Zionist movement and the creation of Israel did not displace any Arabs, I believe is collective repression and denial -- in the psychological sense. I really can’t blame the Jewish people here, but finally they must overcome the psychological damage the Holocaust has done to them -- as a people. Their government has a different kind of responsibility -- first of all to stop their brutal actions against the Palestinians.

 

     It is exactly this claim of “empty space” that must be carefully studied, though it seems that there is not much of any good historical record of the population there. Some sources include much of current Jordan in what they called Palestine. There was a British census there sometime in the early 1900’s, presumably about 1920 or so, but I cannot remember exactly my source for this. It seems like someone did a census about 1900, but I’m sorry I cannot remember my source for this.

 

     This census -- exactly whenever it was -- is greatly advanced by Zionist interests, in part I am sure, because it shows a majority of Jews in Jerusalem in the early 1900’s. What had happened is that many new Jewish settlers in the 1800’s moved to what is now Western Jerusalem. This in addition to Arab East Jerusalem, which was rigidly defined as it had a wall constructed around it. Before the 1800’s “Arab East Jerusalem” was in fact “the Jerusalem”.

 

     When the Ottoman Empire controlled Palestine they conducted censuses from time to time, but there is not any kind of good historical data there. These Ottoman censuses were used for taxes and military conscription -- which most sensible people tried to avoid when they could.

 

     Additionally, many people were nomadic with their sheep and goat herding and such.  In the History of Israel (Alfred A. Knopf, 1979)  Howard M. Sachar states (p.23) that there were about 400,000 people in the area that is today mostly “Israel/ Palestine and Jordan” in 1840, and about 5,000 to 6,000 Jews in 1800.  And he says, “by 1856, the Jewish population of the Holy Land exceeded 17,000.

 

     The Rabbi’s complaint of Arab jealousy against arriving Jews -- causing Arabs to move into “the formerly empty Palestine” is a complaint against “population politics”. Stalin certainly practiced “population politics” by moving people from the Bal