There Will Never be Peace Ever

I have written about this before but someone I felt the need to express m thoughts on this again.  I keep seeing the talk about the 2002 Arab Initiative.  This plan is very simple.  In fact it's too simple.  It essentially calls for Israel to return to pre 1967 borders in exchange for normalized relations with 22 countries.  Let's take a look at this for a second.  We Israel would have to give away all of East Jerusalem.  This includes Pisgat Zaev, Neve Yaako, The Old City, a large part of Armon HaNztziv, Mountain of Olives, Gilo, Har Homa, Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, Hadasa Mount Scopus hospital, Ramot, Ramat Shlomo, AND Har HaBayit (The Temple Mount).  This is simply not acceptable.  On top of that that will require the giving away of hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens living in Judea and Samaria but not in Jerusalem including 3 large cities of Ma'aleh Adumim (~40,000), Ariel (~20,000), and Efrat (10,000).  This does not even consider the fact that after such an agreement, the Arabs could easily continue the struggle even though they said they won't.  There is a precedent for this.  Before 1967, their goal was to eliminate Israel.  Once we beat them in such an embarrassing way they all of a sudden wished they had just the 1949 borders.  It's funny how perspective can change.  Have you ever been to a Casino up $100 and thought about quitting but decided that you would like $200.  Then you are down $200 30 mins later and all of a sudden that $100 doesn't sound  so bad.  You say to yourself, well if I just get back to up $100 then I will quit then.  Of course when you get there, you don't quit and try an go for more again.  Same thing with the Arabs.  They say it now and they mean it.  However, once they have that land (G-D forbid), they will want more and will continue fighting.  On top of that they will still want the right of return even into pre 1967 Israel and they will not recognize us as the Jewish state.  To be honest, their test was Gaza.  We gave them some land.  Instead of building something special, they used it as a launching pad for attacking Israel.

So what now?  Well there really can never be peace.  If you just take a step back and look at it objectively you can identify a number of issues that there is room to move on both sides but there are three issues that neither side will ever budge on.  They are:

1.) Jerusalem-After Ehud Olmert came back from the Annapolis accords, rumor has it that he reported to the Knesset behind closed doors that he had come to an agreement with the Pals but that we had to give away East Jerusalem for it.  Essentially he was denied being told that aside from it being wrong, if the Knesset were to agree to this, the political careers of all involved would be over.  That was the last we ever heard about giving away East Jerusalem.  On the Arab side, all I ever hear is Palestine with Jerusalem as it's capital.  I don't know much more than that but it seems that the Arabs are also not willing to give up on Jerusalem for any price.  Essentially this is a stalemate and I could end right here and we should never have to talk about peace but there are 2 more.
2.) Refugees-Whether you accept it or not (I don't) there are lot's of Palestinian refugees both in Israel (including Judea, Samaria, and Gaza) and in other countries.  There are more that don't have refugee status anymore but still the PA considers them refugees.  They demand right of return to their original homes on ALL refugees (even those not officially refugees and even those that would return to areas inside a theoretical final State of Israel) and they are not willing to budge.  For Israel to accept these refugees would be to commit suicide since we would basically be the minority after this.  It's worthy to note that the Jews in Israel were once refugees
3.)Recognition as The Jewish State and the National Homeland of The Jewish People-Many people have belittled this but in reality this is essential.  It's closely connected with #2 but basically without this, the Pals could try and immigrate and just vote us out of Power.  Additionally any Arabs living here could try and turn this into an Arab state.  If they are legitimately interested in peace then this shouldn't be an issue.  Certainly in any peace deal we would recognize an in theory Palestinian state as The Palestinian State and the National Homeland of The Palestinian People.

Are you convinced?  Do you get it?  Do you understand now that there will never be peace?  There should never ever be talk of giving up any land or settlements ever again until you can resolve these 3 issues.  The reason is that if you believe that peace has no chance then you we are giving away land for nothing.  Not for some sort of agreement but just to make people happy.  Once those 3 issues are resolved then we can talk about little things.  I assure you as an Israeli that I am not willing to budge on even one of them and I believe I am the majority.  Furthermore, I believe the Arabs are just as steadfast.

Ok so now what?  Well I don't offer any solutions for some final state.  The issues are known.  If we were to make a single state then Israel wouldn't be Jewish.  We would have to not allow the Arabs voting rights.  Internationally we really couldn't do it.  The status quo is problematic because while we are not officially occupying them, (because there never was a state in the areas) we do have a situation where we are military controlling a population.  It can't go on forever.  I propose this.  Essentially there is already a Palestinian state.  Well there are 3.  There is One in the south which covers a large area including Hebron and Bethlehem.  There is another one which covers Ramallah and Jenin in the north.  Then finally there is the Gaza Strip.  Those areas more are less are what as known as areas A and B from the Oslo Accords other than Gaza.  They are already governed by the Arabs.  They are self sustaining.   Israel should Annex area C which includes basically the settlements.  That is it.  It's not  solution but it is the best case scenario.  We won't have peace.  We should however be able to coexist and that is enough in my eyes.