Time to Declare a Victor in the Middle East? And move on…

The single thing that has characterized the Israeli Palestinian conflict is how intractable it has been to solve. People on the different sides have ascribed this intractability to “The Other Side” not willing to compromise. Other parties from the West have taken a higher ground and blamed both sides equally for their problems. I think assigning blame is a good exercise for historians to ponder when there aren’t such political or national interests at stake. Where the people are concerned, however, what really matters is an expedient solution that allows both sides to live and enjoy the maximal amount of well being. This might not be a “two State Solution”. Maybe to end the conflict, it should be done so on one party’s terms. Maybe that means a one-state solution, but only for one party. And a “No State” solution for the other. Is that possible?

As the saying goes to the victor goes the spoils. The Jews being the consistent victors in the various wars waged against them (or by them, depending on which history one might believe), should get Israel or Palestine, or whatever one might want to call the land west of the Jordan river. And the Palestinians get Nothing. Instead, the Palestinians should relocate to live in Arab countries. They would be relocated and patriated as citizens of those countries. Each country can take as many Palestinians as their economies or societies can absorb. For me, this is the solution that will maximize the welfare of both peoples. Israel has already taken a share of Arabs, it is time for the rest of the Arabs to step up. Sure, some have Palestinians in horrible refugee camps. For those countries, they should just make those refugees citizens. One may ask though: What about justice?

I am writing this on the eve of the opening of the American Embassy in Jerusalem and the deadly violence that has taken so many Palestinians lives. So how can this “solution” be with the justice and the rights of those who have lost so much? (some will argue that the Jews lost so much in the Holocaust, and they have, but that wasn’t perpetrated by Arabs, wasn’t it? I am talking about Palestinians here).

Well, it is simple, Justice must be put aside to accommodate this highly utilitarian solution. Yes, despite all the flaws of this philosophical theory (basically the greatest good for the greatest number of people, means that the minorities be damned), I am suggesting it here.

From a purely practical perspective, if the two states are to exist as independent states they cannot do it within the borders they had in 1967. Israel is too narrow in some places and susceptible to attack. Palestinians are too numerous for the land they are allotted. Israeli politicians like Benjamin Netanyahu have said it and argued for a demilitarized Palestinians state and border controls. Well, that’s not independence is it now? Other Israeli politicians who have been more open for a two-state solution, like the late Simon Perez were also avowed globalists. In a 2006 interview with Charlie Rose, Perez expanded on a vision where the borders between the Israelis and Palestinians would only exist on paper, and people could roam freely while belonging to their respective states. He prefaced this vision by saying that “The stone age did not come to an end because we ran out of stones” and that the time of borders is at an end. Well the election of Donald Trump in the USA shows us that borders still matter. And so they need to be viable with an absolute sovereignty within them for the nation-state.

Obviously, this would be the dream of many Israelis, but what would the Palestinians get? Nothing less than freedom and citizenship. They will get the opportunity to live and work and have normal lives within the Arab states. And being dispersed among them they will form an Iron chain to link Arab nations together and maybe help achieve the dream of a united Arab Nation State. In exchange for this, the governments of the world will guarantee all Arab nations that they will go to their protection should Israel ever try to expand outside of its borders. The Arab nations can either have a peace with Israel or the international guarantee will give them peace of mind and military peace. Or they could form a pact to protect one another should Israel ever attack one of them.

Of course, from the beginning of this post, the words “Ethnic cleansing” might have been lingering on your mind. And well, this is where I need to justify myself a little. I am not calling for the Israelis or Arabs to forcefully remove the Palestinians. I am calling for the Palestinians themselves to make a formal request to the Arab league and (why not?) western government to be relocated. The United Nations created the modern state of Israel, so a request to the UN is valid as well. And here lies the crux of the dilemma, those who have lost so much, would they be willing to lose more? Even if that means gaining peace and prosperity for their people? Or would it spell the end of the Palestinian people?

If we are to ask regular Palestinians, I imagine that they would be willing to give up their home, should they find another home. They probably won’t admit it, but deeply this is something that would conceivably be possible. Maybe. Yet this is not the real problem with the argument. The problem is that Arabs are not willing to host the Palestinians. In fact, they mostly mistreat those Palestinians that have lived as refugees in their own countries for the past 60+ years. Some like Lebanon, claim to have good reasons for that (after all they fought a bloody civil war against the Palestinians).

Looking back at the history of the region, if there was a United States of Arabia in 1948 (or an Arabian Khalifate?), the Palestinians would have simply relocated into it a long time ago. There would be no Palestinian struggle or refugees or whatever. The Arab unity or Arab label that the western world sometimes like to paint all the non-Jews living in the middle east hasn’t existed ever really. It has been paid a lot of lip service by the politicians, from which come a lot of misconceptions.

So yes, it would be ideal to find the Palestinians another home, but the problem is that they don’t have any other options for a home. Indeed, the lands and homes they occupy in the West Bank and Gaza are all they have. And hence there are no other solutions than the two-state solution.

Israel has been a victor since 1948. The American move of their embassy to Jerusalem is another victory. Yet the reality is the Palestinians have no other place to go. So maybe just stay and demand their political rights. Maybe just embrace non-violence and ask from Israel for the rights to live, work and vote there. Learn Hebrew and see how fast a two-state solution with “viable boundaries” will come about.