[Sir Taliesin]

Originally posted by Barry the Sprout: quote: Originally posted by Charean: TL, I like that idea of giving Palistine thier own state. That has possibilities if they are willing to give up some of their homeland. Query - wasn't there something in the last summit they had (Israel and Palestine that took place in the States, I think) that Israel was willing to give a lot of concessions to make peace and Palestine said no, they want all the land that the Jews are occupying? I don't remember the details at all, and was wondering if someone else did.

Once again, thats the occupied territories you're thinking of. They were offered a state where all access would be through Isreal, all water supply would come through Isreal, and they would only get back 80% of the Occupied territories. Arafat would probably have gone for it himself as he is quite moderate (hence he can't control his own movement - the vocal ones tend to be the more radical i.e. the people he could never control will never agree with him) but if he had have done then the Palestinian Authority would have completely broken down. A lot of the major groups would have rejected it out of hand. I don't entirely blame them either. The land in question was taken through conquest and the state would only have been a name - they would have gained no independance whatsoever from Isreal. At least give the Palestinians their dignity...[/QUOTE]I believe the sticking point was Jerusalem. The Palestinians demanded it for their capital and the Israelis won't give it up because it is the center of their faith. The logical thing to do would be to make it and open city much like the Vatican, and maybe rotate the leadership there once ever four years or so. They could even hire Swiss Guards to keep order. Or (shudder the thought!) place it under the control of the UN.

No matter what happens, at some point the Israelis will have to pull all the settlers out of the West Bank and Gaza. They can't defend them forever. They could turn over Gaza in a week if they wanted too. There are only a few thousand settlers there.

There are two more things that everyone here hasn't taken account of. One is, how dependent the Palestianians are on the Israelis. The Palestianians have no economy to speak of. What would they live on? they can't go on living like they do now, forever. Just like the Isrealies can't defend the settlements forever. Most Palestianians that have jobs work in Isreal itself.

One more thing. I think a Palestianian state, as Arafat's territory is today (divided between Gaza and the West Bank) isn't very practical. they are divided by Isreal. How do you work around that. If you take land from Israel to bridge the gap, then you split Israel into. Geographically, it's almost unworkable.