Alternative Peace Solutions

Muqata Reader "Jerry" asked a very pointed (though valid) question:

"If the Jordanians would not treat the holy sites entrusted to them properly (albeit not as improperly as pre-1967 because we do have a peace deal with them and presumably there would be some Israeli recourse)- yet a deal that included their sovereignty would bring about true peace between Israel and the Palestinians, would you not approve of such a deal? Is that too big a price to pay if there can truly be peace?"

My answer: Honestly? No. Not even for a promise of real peace. Why? We didn't fight for the existence of Israel to be dhimmi under the protectorate of the Arab world. If I would be willing to disown Jerusalem, I might as well accept the Uganda plan...or live in New Zealand.

Unfortunately, the world believes that the only "just" way for Israel to arrive at a peaceful solution is through territorial abandonment.

Heading off Olmert at the pass, MK Benny Elon is proposing an alternative peace plan; not based on relinquishing what little of a homeland we have left, not based on negotiating with terrorists, and not based an providing endless cash handouts to corrupt mafiosos who terrorize their own local population.

You may find it unrealistic, but since when has "practical" ever been a requirement for a peace deal with the Arabs? The right of Israel to "Hot Pursuit after Palestinian Terrorists" ensured in the Oslo Accords was never practical; even Yossi Beilin said that. Access to Kever Rachel, Kever Yosef, and the Shalom Al Yisrael shul in Yericho are not "practical", yet that never stopped Israel's leaders from including "impractical" details like those.

So MK Benny Elon has his plan:

"The political discourse in Israel consists of old-fashioned concepts and mistakes," Elon said. "The assumptions are that in order to achieve peace, we must relinquish territory; that the Palestinians are a partner; and that Israel is prohibited from dealing with the refugee problem. These conceptions have failed and brought us to the place we are today: No peace, terror, Hamas controls Gaza and is threatening to seize control of Judea and Samaria. We must reexamine all the underlying assumptions that brought us to this current situation, and think differently, 'outside the box.'"

According to the initiative, the West Bank would remain under Israeli sovereignty, but Palestinians would become Jordanian citizens. The plan is based on three main principles: the rehabilitation of refugees and the dismantling of the refugee camps; strategic cooperation with Jordan; and Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank.

Including important issues like humanitarian relief for Palestinians and the dismantling of virulently the anti-Israel, anti-refugee solution organization like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency are important solutions that address the real issues.

Elon said Israel must strive to find a humanitarian solution to the Palestinian refugee problem instead of a political one. He proposed dismantling the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, an organization that he said "perpetuated the refugee problem" and collaborated with the Palestinians to use the refugee issue as a political tool against Israel. Refugees would then be offered permanent housing, citizenship and generous rehabilitation grants.

He cited surveys carried out among the Palestinians that testified that 30 to 50 percent of them were interested in a humanitarian solution in other countries. He said that Jordan and other moderate Arab countries had an interest in cooperating with Israel in implementing such a plan, because of the nuclearization of Iran, the Shi'ite takeover in Iraq and the Hamas coup in Gaza.

"For the first time, a new situation has been created in the Middle East that creates common interests between us, the moderate Arab countries and the international community and turns the plan into a possibility," Elon said. (Read it all here in the JPost)

Of course Olmert won't be happy with such a proposal -- you don't win Nobel Peace Prizes without giving away Israel's homeland.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

Jerusalem: Who is the Real Mother?

Who is the real mother? The one who claims all of Yerushalayim, or the one who has no problem cutting it in half?

Report: Israel and the Palestinians have agreed that the Temple Mount as well as other parts of the Old City in Jerusalem will be under Jordanian control as part of a future peace deal, a Palestinian daily reported on Monday.

We saw what a wonderful job the Jordanians did when they controlled the Old City of Jerusalem from 1948-1967.

Major damage was suffered while the Mount was controlled by Jordan between the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and 1967, with Jordanians using the gravestones from the cemetery for construction of roads and army latrines, including gravestones from millennia-old graves. The late King Hussein permitted the construction of the Intercontinental Hotel at the summit of the Mount of Olives together with a road that cut through the cemetery which destroyed hundreds of Jewish graves, some of which were from the First Temple Period.[1][2][3] Some fifty thousand Jewish graves out of a total seventy thousand were destroyed or defaced during the nineteen years of Jordanian rule.[4] After the Six-Day War, the Israelis painstakingly repatriated as many of the surviving gravestones as possible (from Wikipedia)

Or here's what PsychoToddler wrote when visiting his Great Grandfather's grave on the Mount of Olives:

Many of the graves look new. This is partially because the cemetery is still in active use and new graves are being dug. It is also because the Jordanians overturned many of the graves during their occupation of the area between 1948 and 1967. My great-grandfather’s headstone was one of those that were rededicated after ‘67. How do we know where it was? First, because my Aunt Sara and her husband visited the grave before the Jordanians took over. And second, because the Chevra Kadisha (Burial Society) kept meticulous records going back hundreds of years.


On our way over we passed numerous graves that were still in a state of disrepair. My cousin told me that there were many that either could not be identified or that didn’t have family to rebuild them. In fact we passed one “mass grave” that was constructed from the headstones of multiple unidentifiable graves.

I was told that the Arabs had looted the cemetery, and that the marble headstones were used to make toilets.

Then again, why go back to the ancient history of 1948? Let's see how well the Palestinians are taking care of Kever Yosef, (Jospeh's tomb in Shechem/Nabuls) which was specifically mentioned by the historic Oslo accords...




Or how about what Arutz Sheva's report from the visitors to Kever Yosef over Chol HaMoed a few days ago...

Joseph's Tomb is Shechem's Garbage Dump

(IsraelNN.com) Shechem's Arabs have turned Joseph's Tomb into a garbage dump, Jews who visited the site during Chol Hamoed Sukkot discovered. The group of visitors, which included Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu of Tzfat, prayed at Joseph's Tomb with IDF permission on the second day of Sukkot and was shocked to find that the holy site was in ruins.

Arabs have smashed the domes that capped the structure and the grave's marker. More disturbing, however, was the discovery of piles of freshly dumped, smoldering garbage. The walls of the structure were covered with soot, and it was clear that this was the result of recent burning.

In the past, local Arabs claimed that Joseph's Tomb was a holy site for Muslims.

So the bottom line is; the best way to ensure the desecration and destruction of holy sites in Jerusalem is to give control of them to Jordanians or Palestinians.

Thanks Ehud.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael