As Israel completes its pullout from Gaza, I find myself with a few questions:
- To what cost must ideology be pursued?
The dream of Greater Israel — all the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan — comes with an obvious demographic poison pill. There are more Palestinians than Jews in the region. Yet, the occupation has continued for decades. This Greater Israel can either be a democracy or it can be a Jewish state, not both. This fact is clear for all to see. Yet, the Israeli leadership has refused to act on it. Until now: Sharon may be hated all over the Arab world for Sabra-Shatila but the man has political courage.
- If withdrawal is this easy, why not pull out from the West Bank?
End the occupation. Unilaterally. With a single stroke, silence the anti-Zionist tongues across the world. Protect the borders, of course, against the occasional Hamas zealot. But no longer will terrorism be created by narratives of national liberation.
- How can two wrongs make a right?
So the Israelis displaced Palestinians to make their homes. But what of the second or third generations, people who have committed no crime and know no other life. Is it fair for them to be displaced for the sins of their parents? Why can’t the Gaza settlers stay in a future Palestinian state? Or, for that matter, why can’t there be one Palestine, complete, for Arab and Jew alike?
