By Ted Belman ——Bio and Archives--December 6, 2012
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”Even if the E1 area is developed, there will be no obstacle to peace talks that could produce a Palestinian state in almost all of the West Bank except for the major settlement blocs that no one expects Israel to give up. Nor would the Palestinian state be blighted by this project since highways and tunnels could easily be constructed to allow access between Arab areas to the north and the south of Jerusalem. Indeed, Jewish housing in the disputed areas is no more of an obstacle to peace than the far greater Arab housing boom in other parts of Jerusalem.”Of equal importance:
“Though you wouldn’t know if from listening to the UN debate or even to most spokespersons for the Jewish state over the last forty years, the argument about the West Bank is not solely about pitting rights of Palestinians against Israel’s security needs. The West Bank is, after all, part of the area designated by the League of Nations for Jewish settlement under the Mandate of Palestine. It is also the heart of the ancient Jewish homeland to which Jews have historical, legal and religious ties that cannot be erased by a century of Arab hatred.”From Israel’s point of view, she has much more to lose by ceding E1 to the Palestinians, then vice versa. E1 is the gateway to the Israel/ Jordan border and to Maale Adumin. As such for security reasons it must remain Israeli territory. As for the European Governments that voted for or abstained from the UNGA resolution granting recognition of a Palestinians state, they have lost all credibility and respect and disbarred themselves from offering Israel advice or admonition. By doing so, they have aided and abetted a fundamental breach of the Oslo Accords which provides that no party shall take unilateral steps which change the status of the territories. It should be noted that the accords in no way restrict Israel’s right to build on the territories. Israel’s detractors argue that the settlement construction is an obstacle to peace or illegal pursuant to the Fourth Geneva Convention (FGC) . It is far from certain that the FGC applies and even if it does, that it prohibits such construction, In any event the Palestine Mandate gave Jews the right to close settlement of the land. The Israelis are fully with their rights to settle the land, These lands are not ”Palestinian lands”. At best they are Israeli lands and at worst they are disputed lands. They never were Palestinian lands. Res 242 passed by the Security Council gave a right to Israel to remain in the lands until they had an agreement for secure and recognized borders. The resolution clearly did not require Israel to withdraw from all the territories which at the time included the Judea and Samaria (Westbank), Sinai, Gaza and the Golan Heights. To date Israel has withdrawn from close to 90% of the territories and could argue that she has fulfilled her obligation to withdraw from territories. Yet the world led by President Obama insists that Israel withdraw from 100% of the remaining territories and so do the Palestinians. The area of E-1 is less than 0.0025% Judea and Samaria. Israel has no obligation to make peace or to give the Palestinians what they are demanding but not entitled to. If the Palestinians want a state they should compromise. Were Israel to stop construction east of the ’67 lines, the Palestinians would have no need to make a deal. They could wait living on the avails of propaganda til doomsday. Israel’s best shot at bringing the Palestinians to the negotiating table, is to build furiously. Thus time would not be on the Palestinian side. The longer they wait to compromise, the more they would lose. And the West should not give them false hope.
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Ted Belman is a retired lawyer and Editor of Israpundit.org. He made aliyah from Canada in 2009 and now lives in Jerusalem.