RUTHFULLY YOURS

 Is Annexation a Near Term Option?

By Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis). 5 February 2015

On February 3, 2015, Bayit Yehudit (Israeli political party)  distributed a short video describing Naftali Bennett’s plan to annex Area C, the area where Jewish communities are located, while leaving the remainder as a Palestinian autonomy with Israel making great efforts to facilitate improved conditions in the autonomy. Palestinians in Area C would each have the choice of full Israeli citizenship or permanent resident status.

Minister Bennett’s Facebook page introduced the video with the line “Give us 20 mandates”

The end of the video has the line ”Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria today”.

The clip didn’t get much media attention or discussion.

And Bayit Yehudi  itself doesn’t seem to have initiated any follow up (at least as of now).

I hope it does. Because annexation deserves serious consideration. And not just for some far off time.

First a technical note:

Ordinance Law and Administration, 1948
… 11B The law, jurisdiction and administration of the State shall apply to any area of the Land of Israel that the Government sets in an order. That’s right. All it takes is a vote of the Cabinet.

Why later?

1. We are in the process of shifting exports to markets that don’t mix business with politics. The longer we wait the less significant sanctions against Israel for annexing Area C will be.

2. The world will be more accepting if Israel can cite a “casus belli” for the move so we should wait for the Palestinians to do something that justifies annexation.
3. It is always better when facing a problem to kick the can down the road.

Why now?
1. The move now will not spur a war involving our neighbors. They are all involved in other pressing matters.

2. The outcome of the nuclear talks with Iran are being driven by considerations having absolutely nothing to do with Israeli-Palestinian matters.

3. Iran today doesn’t yet have nukes to threaten to use against us for the move.

4. Current oil prices are such that if they do respond for some unforeseen reason to the move its impact on the world will be marginal.

5. The Palestinian leadership is currently fractured with an exhausted street that could very well welcome the relief the program would provide.

6. While the Palestinian presence in Area C today is minuscule, the Palestinian leadership and their supporters around the world are focusing development efforts in Area C with the goal of increasing the number of Palestinian residents to the point that Israel would be deterred from annexing the area.

There are certainly other matters to consider as well.

The important thing is that the concept be considered. Not as something for implementing a decade from now but instead after the upcoming elections.

I daresay that its basically a debate between the kick the can down-the-road frightened herd and those prepared to  face the obvious unpopular necessity of annexation.

II Itamar Marcus, Director of Palestinian Media Watch. 

By Elaine F. Miller

(Concerning the  Palestinian State invention gleaned from Marcus’  translation of internal Arabic Communications)

Towards the end of my visit in Israel, I met with Itamar Marcus, Director of Palestinian Media Watch.   Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) is a monitoring organization whose work includes the translation of the Arabic words of the leaders of the Palestinian Authority, Fatah and Hamas who frequently say things in direct opposition to their English language statements.

PMW is a primary source for the Israeli government, US and European legislators, analysts, commentators, journalists and bloggers. Marcus is a careful, gifted and guarded reporter. Reportage of the often vitriolic Arabic quotations that he and his staff have uncovered has, I think, brought him a certain sadness.

My guess is that he sees Palestinians, especially children, who are exposed to the unrelenting, unbalanced apocalyptic and repressive official Palestinian media, as being denied participation in or the ability to create an open, pluralistic society in which religious, gender and voting rights are guaranteed. (which may be a naive, projected, hope-filled assessment).

It remained unsaid, as Marcus and I spoke, that just across the border, over two hundred thousand Syrian civilians had been killed within the last few years, partly as a result of savage political rhetoric and extremist ideologies.

Marcus described the balance of powers between the three Palestinian organizations. “Who is going to win?” I asked. “Hamas would have already taken over militarily were it not for the Israeli army presence in Judea Samaria – West Bank,” Marcus said. “Now polls taken following the Gaza War this past summer indicate Hamas would win an election again as it did in the previous election.”

In 2006, Hamas won 74 seats of the 132 seats in the PA parliament, while Fatah won just 45. In 2006, Hamas won the elections in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.   Marcus also cited polls and statistics, taken just after the Oslo accords, in which the Arab residents rated Israel higher than the US, France and the PA in human rights and democracy. The polls showed that in subsequent years, under the PA regime which poisoned the Palestinian population with hatred of Israelis and Jews, the admiration for Israel went down.  

Conclusion: Thus, an independent Palestinian State or unilateral Israel withdrawals is indeed half-baked and hinged upon pigs being able to fly.

Compiled by Jerome S. Kaufman

– See more at: http://israel-commentary.org/?p=10749#sthash.VvuOUNxt.dpuf