Reality Check

A Facebook friend of mine posted something about what he termed “the ridiculousness of a future vision of Israel based solely on maintaining a Jewish majority.” Along the way, in the comments, one of his friends posted, “It’s why a two state solution is so necessary.”

My response, of course, was “Never.” To which he replied, “Lisa Liel, I disagree. I think barring creating an artificial jewish majority, a two state solution is necessary.” He followed up with “You’re not going to bait me, so I suggest you stop. Thank you.”

I thought about that, and realized that maybe a one word response (“Never.”) could be seen as baiting, so I decided to write a more detailed and specific explanation of the flaw in his thinking, rather than further bait him. I’m presenting it here:

What you don’t seem to be understanding is, all “baiting“ aside, that if they get a state, they will do exactly what they did with Gaza when we pulled out of that. It’s naive, if not insane, to imagine they’d do anything else. Remember, Hamas was not elected by the Arabs of Gaza alone. The voters were the Arabs of Gaza, Judea, Samaria, and the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. They chose Hamas. They are not unwilling subjects of Hamas.

Back before Oslo, there was an argument about the PLO. The PLO claimed to be “the rightful representative of the Palestinian [sic] people“. Pre-Oslo, the government of Israel rejected this. So did almost everyone else. I never rejected it. It was obvious that they were their representatives. With all that implies about them and their responsibility for PLO atrocities.

Hamas is the representative of the Arabs of Judea and Samaria, even if Mahmoud Abbas refused to accept the results of that election and is currently in the 12th year of his 4 year term.

Judea and Samaria have a land mass of 20 times that of Gaza. Imagine 20 Gazas. Now look at a map and see those 20 Gazas protruding into the center of what’s left of Israel. More than that, look at the length of the border between Judea and Samaria and the rest of Israel. Do you think there’s any way in the world we can actually control that border?

Maybe you think we can get international guarantees. From the US or the UN or the EU or some such. Like the UN peacekeepers in Sinai who left as soon as Egypt ordered them out before the war.

You’re talking about the absolute destruction of the State of Israel. And the murder of most, if not all, of its citizens.

I recognize that this isn’t your goal. This isn’t what you want. But when you talk about two states, that is what you’re talking about, and you need to look at it clearly. You can’t just have some utopian idea of two states living side by side in peace without looking at the reality. You need to look at the facts. There is not one, single, solitary instance where Israel has made a concession to the Arabs where it was not immediately followed by an increase in the violence. I know it’s common to ascribe their violence and atrocities to “hopelessness“. But the truth is, what spurs them on is hope. So long as they hold on to hope that they can remove any Jewish polity whatsoever from the Middle East, they will work towards that end. To the extent that their hope increases, so will the violence. This is not my “theory“. It is what has happened, as a point of verifiable fact, for decades. Ignoring it won’t stop it from being so.

This is not me “baiting“ you. I’m treating you right now as a sane and rational adult human being who deserves to be confronted with the reality of the consequences of what you’re saying. You can choose to dismiss it as “Meh, just a fanatic“, or you can take it into account and come to, perhaps, a better conclusion.