Wishful thinking

I have a solution to the world's problems, everyone should be nice to each other and be tolerant and democratic and then there would be no wars and violence and everyone will live happily ever after.  That's called wishful thinking.  In this category I place several ideal solutions to the Middle East problem.

The favorite solution of international statesmen is the "two-state solution."   No doubt it will be mentioned a thousand times when Pres. Obama comes visiting soon. However, it was rejected by the Arabs in 1948 when they refused the UN "Partition Plan."  Pres Abbas's attempt to obtain unilateral UN recognition for a Palestinian State recently was precisely to avoid accepting a two-state solution that would include Palestinian recognition of Jewish legitimacy in the State of Israel.  Its a non-starter.

One solution, favored by Martin Sherman, is to pay off the Palestinians to leave the West Bank, which would then be annexed to Israel.  There is certainly a legitimate basis for Israel to claim the West Bank, but I don't see people giving billions of dollars to the "poor" Palestinians in the hope that they will go away. Hamas would kill a few of them and the rest wouldn't go, but they might take the money anyway.

Another ideal solution is to have a confederation between Israel, Palestine and Jordan, as described by a Prof. Uriel Halbreich in an article entitled "What about a Mini-region" by Steve Linde, the editor of the Jerusalem Post (Feb 22)  Of course, this has many obvious advantages.  But, are the Palestinians and the Jordanians, themselves consisting mainly of Palestinians and Islamists, going to agree to such an arrangement.  Not over their dead bodies.  It would be a prescription for more war and conflict.

Then there is the proposal by Mordechai Kedar to establish a series of "Emirates" like the Gulf states on the West Bank, where each city is basically a separate tribal entity.  In this way we would achieve stability and avoid having to deal with a  terrorist-controlled Palestinian State.  But, will Hamas and Fatah stand-by and allow such an outcome. No way!

No, best to let sleeping dogs lie (well not actually sleeping).  There ought to be a law, passed by the Knesset, against anyone proposing any more wishful and simplistic solutions to the Middle East problem.  Let's be real, let's only propose solutions that recognize the rejection of Israel's right to exist by all Arab and Muslim countries, because if they or the Palestinians once accept Israel's legitimacy, then their own claim to the land is nullified and that is equivalent to giving up the struggle and accepting the "end of the conflict."  That would be wishful thinking.