Israel and Palestine, an Alternative Approach

Case study: Israel and Palestine, an Alternative Approach
Sixty years after the creation of Israel, the issue of Israel’s existence, the rights of the Palestinians, the issue of a western power on Arab land, and the issue of Arab and Jewish Diasporas financing their respective sides; continues to create a dangerous stalemate in the Middle East.

Every new American president seems to have to address the issue of resolving the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians and the Arab world on a broader scale.

The situation is getting worst rather than better with Israel being recognized as a Nuclear Power, Pakistan having nuclear capabilities, Iran attempting to develop same, and at some future date countries such as Egypt, Syria, Algeria, or Iraq having the wherewithal to develop their own weapons of mass destruction.

We have a situation where Israel is perfectly happy with the status quo, and its foreign policy is focused on destabilizing the Palestinians; maintaining its military supremacy over Egypt, Syria, and Jordan; and ensuring that regimes in other parts of the Arab World do not challenge its nuclear hegemony in the Middle East.

The Palestinians have split into two groups; a radical Islamic Fundamentalist wing (Hamas) with no intention to compromise, and a more docile group, the remnants of the PLO (Fatah) willing to look at a 2 state solution. Moreover, the rest of the Arab world may soon become more radicalised and split between Islamic Fundamentalists and pro Western regimes.

We have the makings of a powder keg with fires rising and falling all around it.
There appears to be no way out. The Israelis will not concede an inch as long as they have military superiority and the backing of the USA. The Palestinians and every other Arab state somehow would like to see Israel magically disappear from Arab lands, just as the Christians did after the Crusades.

This impasse is important for the world to resolve as it resembles somewhat the Balkans prior to the beginning of World War I. For the moment, at least, there is no one to challenge the Israeli/ USA axis. This will not remain this way for long, as world economic and military power shifts, and oil politics change alliances, countries such as China, and Russia may be back on the stage to challenge the Israelis and Americans.

So there is no time like the present to produce some form of lasting peace based on mutual respect and justice. The Israelis cannot be expected to be reabsorbed back into Europe, and the Palestinians will never give up their right to live in their ancestral lands, Palestine.
To solve this situation, radical solutions are required; International negotiations with give and take on both sides can go on forever, unless some basic principles are established as a starting point. These principles might look something like this:
1) There will be only one state and not two, and the state will be secular.
2) Each community will have the right to mange its own cultural and religious affairs.
3) There will be an international tribunal composed of 10 leading jurists agreed to by the International community, and not appointed by either Israel or the Palestinians.
4) Israelis will be able to maintain their current land holdings, but where there is a clear ownership title by Palestinians; they will receive an appropriate compensation from the Israelis or return the land to the rightful owners.
5) The country will have a single constitution focused on individual freedoms and a justice system that is secular.
6) There will be specific protection for minority rights in any constitution, to prevent one group from dominating the other.
7) Both sides will give up the right to bear arms.
8) For a time the defence of the new state will be through UN forces.
9) The new state will focus its internal defence forces in a similar manner as Switzerland or some other small European state, or it will join NATO.
10) All Jews and former Palestinians will have the right to immigrate to this new state if they so wish.
11) Private property will be the bases of land ownership; the state cannot own land unless it’s for infrastructure to facilitate commerce.
12) Religious sites will be apportioned to the appropriate cultural communities and trade and visiting rights negotiated.

Something like this could create a solution to the existing stalemate. How would one get both groups to accept it? One would have to return to pre World War I power politics where the major powers would essentially mandate it. That might get tremendous resentment on both sides.
The alternative is for the US to propose an impartial commission composed of various groups to come up with something based on these principles, and then try to sell it to both sides, by applying International pressure to get the 2 groups to commence to think of a different world, not based on ethnic and religious differences, but on human principles of democracy, justice, and individual freedoms.
A two state solution will never work because both sides will continue to demand access to each others lands. The state of Israel will continue with its destabilization policy; while the Palestinians will continue with their rallying cry of evicting the infidels from their ancestral homeland.