Yesterday, I watched David Gregory’s Meet The Press interview with His Majesty, King Abdullah II of Jordan. (I’m obviouslly not Jordanian, but I strive to be polite, hence the use of his title.)
Two things stood out about him, compared with other mideast leaders:
1–His intelligence and calm. In stark contrast to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who denies the holocaust and waxes borderline orgasmic when discussing possible attacks on Israel, King Abdullah II is cordial, fairly soft spoken and projects an air mental stability. There were no rants of ‘death to Israel’.
2–King Abdullah explictly endorsed the so-called ‘two-state’ solution. At the same moment, on ABC’s This Week, Ahmadinejad was the very definition of disingenuity, wriggling like a worm on a hook whenever George Stephanopoulos questioned him about the same strategy for mideast peace.
For those who don’t know, the term ‘two-state solution’ refers to a proposed Palestinian state, independent and equal to Israel.
Close, but no cigar!
I propose a ‘three-state’ solution, in the form of either an Israeli-Palestinian Federation or Israeli Federation
It would take the following form:
1–The State of Israel. Israel without the Palestinian Territories and Tel Aviv as its state capital.
2–The State of Palestine. This Palestine would be different than the present Palestinian Territories.
The map below shows the way things are today, with–in essence–‘West Palestine’ and ‘East Palestine’.
This really untenable. You can’t have a nation divided by another nation between its halves. This situation is what led to the present situation, where ‘Gaza’ Palestine is Hamas controlled, but ‘West Bank’ Palestine is Fatah controlled. They’re essentially two different nations.
In the interest of stability, the following land-swap should occur.
Israel would absorb ‘Gaza’ Palestine, which is only twice the area of Central Park, ceding the blue areas to a unified Palestine with its capital as either Ramallah or Nablus.
In the State of Palestine, all territory–including the settlements, most of which violate international law–would be under Palestinian control.
3–The third state would be the City-State of Jerusalem. In addition to being a self-governing entity along the lines of Singapore, it would also be the Federal capital.
Jerusalem is the third rail of religion, politics and culture. Any attempt to divide it is doomed to failure, just as the Berlin Wall didn’t work.
Jerusalem is indivisible. The only solution is that it revert to its original status as a city-state.
The Federation–Israeli-Palestinian, Palestinian-Israeli or whatever–would have a representative government, those representatives to be determined by periodic census. (Sound familiar?)
The flag of this federation would look nothing like either the Israeli or Palestinian flags. Those flags would belong to the states. The federation would need a completely new flag as part of a completely new beginning.
Before you shoot the idea down, give it some thought. I’m proposing a true compromise…nobody gets exactly what they want, but everyone gets what they need to survive.
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