NEW PAPYRUS

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

How Israel Can Finally Win the Peace

by Marcel F. Williams

After Israel wins the war against Hamas in Gaza it must also do what is necessary-- to finally win the peace.

The winners of wars decide the fate of the future geographical territory under their control. And Israel must configure this territory in a way that insures the safety of its citizens while finally giving non Israeli Palestinians an independent geographical state of their own.

Israel needs to annex Gaza. There will never be peace in the Gaza strip as long as Palestinians live there. Polls show that most people in Gaza approved of the Hamas attack on Israel. So non-Israeli Palestinians there will never be good neighbors for Israel. Palestinians need to be relocated to the West Bank territories.

Jewish settlers also need to be removed (nearly 400,000 people) from the West Bank. Resettling in Gaza could be an option for Jews leaving the West Bank territories.

Israel needs to carve out an independent Palestinian state out of West Bank— with no borders with Israel and only borders with Jordan. That would mean returning some West Bank territory to Jordanian control (new Jordanian territory). Jordan already has a significant Palestinian population, so accommodating more in a region where Palestinians already exist shouldn’t be a problem. Israel already has long borders with Jordan and should recognize this West Bank territory as also Jordanian territory making Jordan fully responsible for any border incidents with Israel.

Palestine and new Jordanian territory

Such a geographic configuration would, of course, make all of the city of Jerusalem Israeli territory and its more than 240,000 Palestinian residents— Israeli citizens. As Israeli citizens some of them would be allowed to move to Gaza or anyplace else in Israel-- if they desired.

If Jordan refuses to accept the new Jordanian territory derived from the West Bank then Israel could make that remaining West Bank territory a refuge for Christian Arabs. It is estimated that there are ten to 15 million Christian Arabs in the Middle East. In fact there were more Christians in the Middle East than Jews before Muslims invaded the area nearly 1400 years ago.

Once Israel has established an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, it needs to apply for NATO membership to ensure that any foreign attack on Israel would also be an attack on all NATO members.

But if NATO is reluctant to add Israel as a member then the US should invite Israel to join an alternate international military alliance consisting of free and democratic states with core members consisting of: the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Such a powerful military alliance might be of interest to nations like Ukraine and Moldova.