Bush's Egyptian challenge

[RPG-7]

The only natural expanse for the surplus Palestinian population is in northern Sinai, along the coastal plain south of Rafah until Lake Bardawil and the city of Al-Arish. A new and comfortable Gaza Strip can be duplicated along this strip of coast, comparable in quality to the French and Italian Riviera. The difficulty of course lies in Egyptian sovereignty over Sinai and the concept of the sanctity of land to its owners. The principle prevails here over any benefit.

Anwar Sadat refused to annex even a grain of Palestinian sand to Egypt, not even at the cost of dividing Rafah. Egypt is about one million square kilometers in size - to be precise, it is 1,450,000 square kilometers. The Egyptian coastline is 2,450 kilometers long. Little would be detracted if Palestinians are settled along a small part of it, from where they can give the Egyptian economy a shot in the arm.

The land would remain Egyptian and leased to Palestine or a regional organization for security and cooperation that would work to improve the lives of the 75 million people of Egypt living in desperate poverty, whose population is growing by leaps and bounds. The average life expectancy of Egypt, 70, is lower than that of Gaza by 1.5 years, and on the West Bank the life expectancy is 1.25 years longer than that of Gaza.

A course of action of this kind could win Bush and Hosni Mubarak a Nobel Peace Prize, if Mubarak were to devote the final years of his rule to this matter - demanding an Israeli concession on nuclear disarmament in return. Without it, the good will of even the most moderate of Israelis and Palestinians will not be enough.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=372345

here is what Shraga Elam said of this piece, in a posting to the ALEF electronic discussion forum on 16 December 2003:

One should not overlook and underestimate the 'well' argued plead for 'transferring' the Palestinians by the respected Ha'aretz military expert Amir Oren (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/372345.html).
The well informed Oren, who used to write for the 'Laborite' Davar, reflects very often existing discussions in the Israeli High Command. Such was the case e.g., in January 25, 2002 with his report about the Israeli generals studying from past experiences including those of the Nazis in Warsaw ghetto, this in the fram ework of the preparations for fighting in densely populated area*. This study (together with it updates) was obviously later implemented in Jenin.

It is no longer amazing that a mainstream Israeli journalist and the Israeli military Junta can honestly believe that those responsible for expelling the Palestinians should get a Nobel Peace Prize. Though it just like suggesting that the Nazi faction, that supported the "voluntary" transfer of Jews to Palestine and helped the Zionist project, should get honored by Yad Vashem.

Oren's brings brilliantly in a very concise form a description and a critique of the Geneva Initiative (GI):

"Even if all the refugees return to a demilitarized Palestine, whose government uses its police to force the people to relinquish its dream of a permanent holy war against Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be too overcrowded to contain the population explosion."
Because neither the GI nor the "road map" can solve the 'demographic problem', 'transfer' is according to Amir the only 'peaceful final solution'.
It is obviously no coincidence that such an article appears so soon after Saddam Hussein was caught. It seems that the Israeli military junta believes that the political conditions will become soon more "favorable" for escalating further the ethnic cleansing and they know that there are US circles, including in the Bush administration, that support a "peaceful" and "voluntary" transfer.

Shraga Elam
Zurich, Switzerland

*"In order to prepare properly for the next campaign, one of the Israeli officer s in the (occupied since '67) territories said not long ago, it's justified and in fact essential to learn from every possible source. If the mission will be to seize a densely populated refugee camp, or take over the casbah in Nablus, and if the commander's obligation is to try to execute the mission without casualties on either side, then we must first analyze and internalize the lessons of earlier battles - even, however shocking it may sound, even how the German army fought in the Warsaw ghetto." Ha'aretz 1/25/2003

[bemildred]

1. Interesting post.

The current rulers of Israel are loons, not that that makes
them special in the modern world. Loons seem to be the rule
rather than the exception.

Transfer will not lead to a "peaceful final solution" either.
It's interesting that he uses that terminology so unthinkingly.

[RPG-7]

2. you see it all the time

A Palestinian state referred to as "a dagger aimed at the heart of Israel", a Lebanese victory would allow them to impose a "new order", Palestinians referred to as "lice".

They spend way, way, too much time thinking about the Nazi regime.

[bemildred]

3. Yeah, if bullshit was real, we wouldn't have all this trouble,

would we? :-)