http://www.jidaily.com/74143?utm_source=Jewish+Ideas+Daily+Insider&utm_campaign=bd7dec8431-Insider&utm_medium=email
FIRST: MORT ZUCKERMAN CARES DEEPLY ABOUT ISRAEL…I AM NOT BEING FACETIOUS….HE HAS PUT HIS GREAT WEALTH AND INFLUENCE INTO DEFENDING AND SUPPORTING ISRAEL….BUT…..PULEEZ…HAS HE LEARNED NOTHING FROM HIS OWN INVOLVEMENT AND EXPERIENCE? ALTHOUGH IN THIS COLUMN HE WRITES: “Gaza has made the idea of a unilateral pullout widely scorned in Israel. No wonder. Within two years of Israel’s 2005 withdrawal, the Palestinian Authority there was overrun by Hamas militants, who then used Gaza as a launching pad for thousands of rocket attacks on southern Israel. A million Israelis had to go into bomb shelters. Israel was remarkably restrained.”
WHAT HE DOESN’T GO INTO IS HIS ROLE IN THAT FIASCO…HE AND A FEW OTHER MILLIONAIRES BOUGHT THE FLOURISHING AND HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE FARMS AND HOMES AND STATE OF THE ART EQUIPMENT FROM JEWISH SETTLERS OF GAZA TO ENTICE THEM TO LEAVE AND GIFTED THEM TO THE LOCAL ARABS. THEY RETURNED HIS LARGESSE BY TRASHING, DESTROYING EVERY SINGLE HOME, EVERY SINGLE FARM, EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT INCLUDING HARVESTED SEEDS…..RSK
Mitt Romney has put the Middle East back into the election debate on foreign policy, which is where it deserves to be. His speech at the Virginia Military Institute last week was more considered than the off-the-cuff remarks at the notorious 47 percent dinner where he saw “no way” for there to be a peace settlement with the Palestinians. This time he promised to “recommit America to the goal of a democratic, prosperous Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel.” But how to get there?
In fact, an intriguing new proposal has been floated by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the former prime minister. The leadership of Israel has long understood that it is in its supreme interest to promote a peace process with the Palestinians, and Barak has pushed the objective one step further. He agrees with Romney that there is a low probability that a permanent status arrangement can be reached in a negotiation with the Palestinians and that even an interim agreement is dubious. If that proves so, Barak proposes withdrawal from the West Bank and at the same time recognizing the Israeli settlements there as an integral part of Israel. As he put it, “If there is no partner, we have to converge to within settlement blocs, to remove dozens of settlements, and to allow residents who do not want to leave their homes to consider remaining there as residents of the Palestinian Authority.”
The settlement blocs, housing 80 to 90 percent of the 320,000 people, are mostly located near the frontiers of Israel proper. These people, now behind settlement fences, would stay within Israel, and the Palestinian entity would begin on the other side of the fence. The Israelis are determined that their citizens can live in a democratic state where the Jews are the majority and have the Palestinians live in a state with an Arab-Muslim majority. In other words, two states for two people.
Barak understands that fundamental differences would remain to be negotiated. There are the issues of Jerusalem, the right of return of Palestinian refugees who have fled to the West Bank—and cast-iron security arrangements would be vital. Israel would have to maintain a military presence in the Jordan Valley and the Samarian hilltops overlooking Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport.