The Biden administration is trying to pressure Israel to accept its idyllic vision of the Middle East by threatening to recognize a Palestinian state. The Israeli government should answer in the immortal words of actor Clint Eastwood in the “Dirty Harry” films: “Go ahead. Make my day.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should explain what will happen the day after the United States makes its announcement. Israel will recognize “Palestine” and inform the administration that now that the Palestinians have achieved independence, peace negotiations will be permanently ended since there is no longer anything to discuss. The land dispute with the Palestinians would also be officially over, same with the “occupation.”
The territory of the Palestinian state will consist of Areas A and B of the West Bank as defined by the Oslo Accords. All of Gaza, minus a buffer zone, will be part of Palestine. If and when a government capable of ensuring the safety of Israelis across the border is in place, Israel will withdraw completely. Palestinians will need to apply for a visa to cross Israel’s sovereign territory to travel between the West Bank and Gaza, and a corridor with Israeli border controls will be established to facilitate movement back and forth.
Israel will immediately apply sovereignty to all the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Residents can choose to stay in their homes or receive compensation to move. Those who remain will be under the jurisdiction and protection of Israel.
Jerusalem will remain united under Israeli sovereignty. Israel will decide whether the Islamic Waqf may continue to have any authority on the Temple Mount. Christian and Muslim citizens of Palestine can obtain tourist visas for access to their holy places. Jews will have unrestricted access to the Temple Mount, subject to security concerns.
Jewish holy places within Palestine must be protected, and Jews granted access under the same terms that Palestinians are allowed entry to the Temple Mount. Any denial of access will be reciprocated.
Palestinian refugees will have a right to return only to the state of Palestine.
Israel will cease to collect tax revenues for the Palestinians, as well as cut off all water and utilities that are not purchased from Israeli companies. Palestine will have to negotiate trade agreements for the import and export of goods to Israel.
Israel will take whatever measures are deemed necessary for its security, which includes ensuring that the Palestinian state is demilitarized and that it controls the airspace. It will retain its freedom of action for self-defense.
Palestinians living in Area C and eastern Jerusalem will be given the option of becoming citizens of Israel. At most, Israel would have to absorb roughly 100,000 Palestinians, which is the number that founding father and first Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion was prepared to accept after the 1948 War of Independence if the Arabs had made peace. Those who decline the offer would be considered illegal immigrants and deported to Palestine. Israel may, at its discretion, offer permits to Palestinian citizens to work in Israel.
If adopted, this series of events would ironically constitute the unilateral acceptance of the Trump “Peace to Prosperity” plan.
Following the establishment of the Palestinian state, the Saudis and Qataris will no longer have any excuse not to normalize relations except for the king of the former’s rabid antisemitism and the emir of the latter’s support of the Islamist goal of world domination.
Comparisons to South Africa (which are bogus, to begin with) will be irrelevant because Israel will not control any aspect of Palestinians’ lives (no doubt, Israel’s detractors will shift their focus to equally specious arguments about Israeli Arabs).
The Palestinians’ true intentions will immediately become clear to everyone, except perhaps the U.S. State Department when they say they are unsatisfied with recognition. They will insist on a larger state that fulfills their dream of freedom from the river to the sea (unlike many protesters, I know which river and sea they refer to). “Resistance” will continue to be justified until that goal is achieved.
The world’s response to Palestinian demands should be, as we said as kids, “tough noogies.”
Of course, that’s not what will happen. The United States, the United Nations and everyone else will not change their position one iota. Protests around the world will continue. They will back Palestinian demands for an enlarged state, and continue to refer to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as “illegal” and their land as “occupied.”
Just as the U.N. “peacekeeping” force has done nothing to prevent Hezbollah from violating international law, Israel alone will have to ensure that “Palestine” does not become “Hamastan,” and it will be pilloried for any acts of self-defense.
America will have taken us back to square minus one, and the Palestinians will have succeeded only in what they have done consistently: give up a larger potential share of Palestine by their intransigence and cede more land to Israel. But at least they’ll have a flag, and the world will have a 23rd Arab state and 57th Muslim state.