Sir, – Perhaps the current pause in the farcical Middle East peace talks will finally mean a dose of reality can be brought into the discussions.
There can never be a two-state solution, not because both people can’t live in peace, although the Arabs seem to have more difficulty with the concept of peace than Israelis do, which is probably because of their jealousy at the success of the Israeli state over the last 60-plus years.
The real reason is because the two-state solution has never been credible but no one has had the honesty to point this out. A Palestinian state can never be self-sufficient or sustainable, even if its political class wasn’t corrupt on a scale that would make their African counterparts blush, because the very notion of what would form that state makes it impossible. No state split in two parts the way the proposed Palestinian state would be can be a success.
However, the elephant in the room that no one seems to want to recognise is that the solution is quite easy. Gaza should become part of Egypt and the West Bank should become part of Jordan, the countries which annexed these areas in 1948 anyway, without any objection from Palestinians then. There is no difference between a Palestinian and a Jordanian: they are both from the same tribe. Then full citizenship should be offered to Palestinians in Egypt and Jordan with a set window of opportunity for anyone who wants to move between Gaza and the West Bank before their citizenship is fixed.
The nonsensical right of return policy for Arabs should end because if Arabs can make such a claim, then it stands to reason that all the Jewish people who have been expelled and had their property seized in Arab countries should also have a right of return and receive compensation for their losses. Jerusalem should then be formally split into two, with half in Israel and half in Jordan.
Both sides will have to suck it up and accept compromises on where that line is drawn, with Arabs losing the chip on their shoulder and dealing with the anti-Semitism that is endemic within their culture and Israelis also giving up a few sacred cows, especially among the settler community. They should also forget this voodoo rubbish that God intended them to live in a certain place.
The international community can stump up the costs involved in moving people and businesses where required and providing grants for new communities. The agreement, which should require an explicit recognition of Israel and the right of her people to live in peace, should be ratified in each country by referendum and formally supported by the UN, EU and the Arab League.
Then western aid, which currently disappears into a black hole of Palestinian corruption and never makes it to the people it is intended to help, together with billions from the oil-rich Arab countries, can be used to provide the physical infrastructure and civil society structures each community will need to bed in these changes.
Solving the Middle East crisis doesn’t need a messiah. It just needs a bit of truth-telling to both sides and someone with the guts to admit that the two-state solution was never credible. It’s time to stop wasting everyone’s time and focus on the solution that is realistic and can work. Yours, etc,
DESMOND FitzGERALD,
Canary Wharf,
London
Sir, – Boaz Modai (Letters, April 30th) feels that the notion of a “right of return” to lands from which Palestinians were forced to flee in 1948 is “absurd”. Obviously this does not apply to the Jewish diaspora, who continue to return each year to their historical homeland, with which many have only the most tenuous of connections. The fact that Mr Modai is writing in his professional capacity as ambassador of Israel indicates that this is an official position.
I think Mr Modai’s letter tells us more about Israeli attitudes to Palestinian aspirations than his diatribe does about Mr Abbas’s attitude to Israel. Yours , etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Linden Avenue,
Blackrock,
Cork