Not to decide is to decide

I am fed up with reading about the nonsense that someone named Peter Beinart proposed. Anyone can propose any sort of "solution" to the Arab-Israel conflict and get media coverage, but his proposal is crazier than most. Do what our enemies want, give up the "settlements," as if Israel has no claim to that land, impose our own boycott on goods and they will like us and make peace with us, what rubbish! There is no rational basis whatsoever for this kind of policy, on the contrary, every concession that Israel has made in the past has only led to more demands and more violence.

Yes, one can compare "one-state," "two-state," "three-state" or four, depending on the fissures in the Palestinian camp. One can balance the demographic danger with the loss of holy land. Surely everyone has their own favorite "solution." Is the current situation so intolerable that we must change it, without knowing the consequences? No one can predict the future, no-one predicted the visit of Pres. Sadat of Egypt to Israel, no-one predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union, no-one knows if we shall have war with Iran. While Syria is in deadly turmoil, Egypt is poised on the brink of chaos and the Arab world is tending towards fundamentalist extremism, now is not the time to be making concessions and adopting liberal-minded policies.

Here is my proposal, as good as any other. Israel should annex the land of Judea and Shomron, but not impose Israeli citizenship on its Arab inhabitants. They should be be given a choice, either pledge allegience to the State of Israel or leave. There are many Arab countries and throughout the huge Arab world there is more than enough space to take a few hundred thousand refugees. Jordan especially is an appropriate Palestinian haven for these Palestinians. Since the Arab world claims to support the Palestinians, in order to bring about peace let them take in the rest of the refugees. But, my "solution" is no more sensible than any other proposal.

Former Israeli intelligence chief Yehoshafat Harkabi suggested that in the final analysis there will be no "solution" to the Arab-Israel conflict, only a possible "resolution." While Israel faces the possibiltiy of a three front war, against Iran, Hizbollah and Hamas, weshould wait to see what transpires in the Arab world, Proposing what looks like rational solutions from 3,000 miles away is characteristic of a group of self-conscious liberal American Jews who are more motivated by their own psychology than by the survival of the Jewish State. Since "not to decide is to decide," in my humble opinion, the best solution, is for now to decide to do nothing.