History Forum / General / General Topics / June 2007

who says balkanization is completely bad?

to paraphrase churchill's damning with faint praise re democracy: it's
better 'n others

so, imho, separation may be better than ...incessant civil war helle

seemingly, "gazans" prefer the rigid hamas instead of the compromising
fatah

perhaps egyptian cops-trooops might control-patrol gaza from
aggression erupting, though i wouldn't hold my breath, i
pessimistically predict gaza is  to be a tragic yet vicious bummer-
basketcase, seemingly, consisting of al queada plus hamas plus perhaps
hezbollah co-oping and competing, seemingly forever dedicated to the
nihilism-ugliness of absurdist martyrdom a la iraq

robtcohen@msn.com  MSN Home   |   My MSN   |   Hotmail   |
Shopping   |   Money   |   People & Chat
     Web Search:

Hotmail
   Today        Mail        Calendar        Contacts
 Options  |  Help

robtcohen@msn.com   Messenger: Online
Free Newsletters

 Reply |  Reply All |  Forward |  Delete |  Junk |  Put in Folder  |
Print View |  Save Address

Inbox
Sent Messages
Drafts
Trash Can
interestin...
keep mail
Report Junk E-Mail
Report and Block Sender

Sign in
Sign out

New Instant Message
Add Messenger Contacts
Messenger Options

From :  The Jerusalem Post <jpostoffers@jpost.com>
Sent :  Monday, June 25, 2007 6:39 AM
To :  robert cohen <robtcohen@msn.com>
Subject :  Exclusive: For JPost.com Registered User Only

 |  |  | Inbox

TV News | RSS | Blogs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEAR JPOST.COM MEMBER,
In a world where life is becoming increasingly fast-paced, people are
forced to make choices and prioritize. The Jerusalem Post is a
reliable and respected leader when it comes to news & events happening
in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. The JPost.com team is
proud to introduce exclusive articles made available to only our
registered readers. These articles are selected on a weekly basis by
our qualified editors to keep you abreast of news & events as they
happen.
The Jerusalem Post Internet Team

Jun. 25, 2007
The three-state solution?
Jacob Savage
Separating Gaza from the West Bank makes more historical sense than
forming a unified Palestinian nation.

(AP)
The Hamas takeover of Gaza this month revealed deep fissures within
the Palestinian cause. The Americans, the Israelis and the
Palestinians all might like to think these divisions are temporary,
but the reality is not so simple. To a large extent, residents of Gaza
and the West Bank are two different peoples, and the idea of a three-
state solution - Israel, plus a Hamas-run Gaza and a Fatah-governed
West Bank - makes historical sense.

Gaza was, starting in the early 1800s, culturally dominated by
neighboring Egypt. Though Gaza was part of the Ottoman Empire, a large
number of its residents were Egyptians (and their descendants) who had
fled political turmoil. The West Bank, on the other hand, became
culturally and economically linked with Jordan after the kingdom's
founding in 1921. Unlike Gaza, the West Bank always has had a
prosperous Christian minority, which served as an important moderating
influence.

The two regions' experiences after the establishment of Israel in 1948
also were quite different. In 1950, Jordan annexed the West Bank,
granted its residents citizenship and created a bureaucratic and legal
infrastructure that helped connect the West Bank with the rest of the
Arab world.

The simultaneous Egyptian occupation of Gaza, however, was both
careless and brutal. Gazans remained stateless and were forbidden to
leave the strip. Egypt never created a Gazan civil service, placing
Egyptians in charge of all civil and military posts.

Even today, the two economies are almost entirely disconnected. Gaza
wallows in a poverty that has led to political and religious
radicalization. In 2006, Gaza's unemployment rate was more than 35
percent, compared to 18% in the West Bank. With the exception of the
joint distribution of foreign aid and political patronage, the two
regions have very little to tie them together.

However, the most important difference is the way that refugees who
fled or were expelled from Israel in 1948 have assimilated. More than
a million refugees and their descendants live in the Gaza Strip,
making up more than 84% of the total population - and nearly 50% still
live in camps.

The much larger West Bank integrated its refugees far more
successfully. Only 26% of refugees are in camps there - representing
less than 10% of the total population. Because they have created
familial and economic ties to the West Bank, they are more rooted and
amenable to political compromise.

It is conceivable, for instance, that West Bank Palestinians would
give up the refugees' right of return in exchange for Israeli
territorial concessions. Yet many Gazans, who have lived in refugee
camps their whole lives, are tragically, if understandably, unwilling
to accept such a compromise.

The idea that national identities remain static is a late 20th century
fiction. Palestinian identity has been in flux since the Ottoman
period, and there is no reason to think that it is now frozen in
place. Indeed, after receiving Jordanian citizenship in 1950, many
residents of the West Bank came to see themselves as Jordanian. Yet
following the Israeli conquest in the 1967 Six Day War, they quickly
adopted a panPalestinian identity.

All that was needed for this identity to shift was a single generation
severed from Jordanian power, influence and institutions.
(Acknowledging that his ostensible subjects would never again view
themselves as Jordanians, King Hussein renounced all claims to the
West Bank in 1988.) A similar division has existed for some time
between Gaza and the West Bank. As a result of Israeli travel
restrictions, an entire generation of Gazans has never set foot in the
West Bank, and vice versa.

In light of the current political schism between the West Bank and
Gaza, Yasser Arafat's vision of a united Palestine seems more remote
than ever. It is finally time to seriously consider a threestate
solution.

Israel would be able to treat Gaza as a pariah state and respond to
Hamas's rocket attacks accordingly. Israel could then await Gaza's
further descent into a quarantined chaos or the unlikely emergence of
a more moderate political leadership.

West Bank Palestinians also could profit from such an arrangement.
Indeed, the Israelis are already considering giving Fatah the nearly
halfbillion dollars in tax revenues they've been withholding. Once
detached from Gaza, the West Bank leadership probably could force
Israel to dismantle roadblocks and evacuate settlements. Following a
perverse logic, the benefits might even extend to residents of Gaza.
Freed from West Bank hegemony, Gazans could live in whatever Islamist
dystopia they choose.

A bifurcated Palestine ultimately might facilitate a temporary
solution to the conflict: peace between Israel and the West Bank,
continued fighting between Israel and Gaza. This is an admittedly
partial solution, but it is better than the status quo of no solution
at all. (Los Angeles Times)

Jacob Savage is a graduate fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Advertisement

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As a registered user of www.JPost.com, you will receive occasional
email announcements or offers from The Jerusalem Post and on behalf of
our advertisers. When you registered, you may have indicated certain
preferences. (See Manage My Subscription Preferences below.) If you do
not wish to receive such offers or announcements, you will have to
unregister from our service. To safeguard your privacy, we have not
provided your e-mail address or other personal information to any
advertiser. Please read our privacy policy for more details.
Please do not hit the "reply" button. If you want to contact us
directly, please send an email to feedback.
Unsubscribe  |  Manage My Subscription Preferences  |  Support  |
Feedback

|  |    |  |  | Inbox

  Get the latest updates from MSN
 MSN Home   |   My MSN   |   Hotmail   |   Search   |   Shopping

Feedback  |  Help
© 2007 Microsoft TERMS OF USE  Advertise  TRUSTe Approved Privacy
Statement  GetNetWise  Anti-Spam Policy