In April last year I wrote a column noting there will always be intolerable discord between Jews and Arabs until Israel helps Palestine build a free and independent state.\u00a0 This is not a fantasy\u2026fantastic is the continuing belief that current trends will ever lead to peace.\u00a0 Growing numbers of Israeli Jews want Israeli Arabs to emigrate; emigrate where?\u00a0 No one is leaving; this isn\u2019t the late 1940\u2019s when almost a million Arabs lived in what is now Israel; shortly after the end of the first Arab-Israeli war all but one hundred seventy thousand had been evicted and forced to live in squalid refugee camps.<\/p>\n
Building an independent Palestine, I continued, would be an enormous first step in resolving the critical problem of Israeli Jewish settlers living in occupied territory.\u00a0 Those who choose to stay could become citizens of Palestine and vote and run for office, as Israeli Arabs already do.\u00a0 Some day, this would likely result in an Israeli Arab becoming prime minister of Israel and a Palestinian Jew serving as prime minister of Palestine.\u00a0 Furthermore, a peaceful and democratic Palestine would lessen tensions within Israel where more than twenty percent of the citizens are Arabs; that portion will continue to increase.<\/p>\n
This assessment is headed the right way but, as Israel and Hezbollah pulverize each other, it does not reach far enough.\u00a0 Indeed, Israel and Palestine are ultimately going to have to become one nation, one republic unbound by either absolute racial identity or distorted religious doctrines.\u00a0 A Jewish state?\u00a0 A Palestinian state?\u00a0 The very terms are anachronistic and insulting.\u00a0 Arabs and Jews must unite as fellow citizens.\u00a0 This optimistic scenario cannot be impossible.\u00a0 It is possible because it is mandatory.\u00a0 Eternal and growing hostility is no alternative.<\/p>\n
Seminal changes must come before the inevitable state of peace delineated above.\u00a0 Hezbollah, despite its popularity in southern Lebanon, will have to accept a demilitarized zone that removes the danger of missile attacks against Israel.\u00a0 And, ending years of obstinacy, all Arab political entities must declare that Israel has a right to exist.\u00a0 That singular commitment, backed by peaceful steps, should compel Israel to remove every settlement from the West Bank, as it already has in Gaza, and in time defuse much of the tension there.\u00a0 At that point Israel will likely tear down a wall destined to last far fewer years than its unsightly counterpart in Berlin.<\/p>\n
A flourishing, multi-ethnic Israeli democracy would evoke empathy throughout the Middle East and encourage the Syrians to demand more than an oppressive Assad dynasty. A free Lebanon would again enjoy economic and cultural success.\u00a0 And what about Iran?\u00a0 The Persian nation will probably not rush to join the vanguard of democratic nations.\u00a0 But, as its leaders become older in spirit as well as flesh, the young people of Iran in an electronic age are learning about freedom, and shall one day seize it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In April last year I wrote a column noting there will always be intolerable discord between Jews and Arabs until Israel helps Palestine build a free and independent state.\u00a0 This is not a fantasy\u2026fantastic is the continuing belief that current trends will ever lead to peace.\u00a0 Growing numbers of Israeli Jews want Israeli Arabs to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,113,84,114],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n