Photo Credit: Yossi Zamir / Flash 90
Naftali Bennett, Education Minister and chairman of Bayit Yehudi party.

“People in Glass Houses Shouldn’t Throw Stones”

The Israeli Left lashed out with scathing criticism of former Yesha Council Director Naftali Bennett’s proposal to create conditions on the ground in the West Bank that would make the ongoing stalemate over the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state considerably more livable and pleasant for Palestinians and Israelis alike.

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Under the plan, Israel would annex Area C – where Jews live – granting full citizenship to the Palestinians residing in the area while at the same time Israel would make the heavy infrastructure investment required so that Palestinians residing in the remainder of the West Bank (under a “full” autonomy subject only to security-related limitations and restrictions on the return of refugees) could enjoy complete freedom of movement within and between those areas.

There are certainly substantive questions and concerns that can be raised about the plan, but when people associated with Oslo, the Geneva Initiative, and Peace Now trash the idea on the grounds that it is out of touch with reality one can only respond: “look who’s talking”.

These folks can repeat their mantra about a sovereign Palestinian state somehow being the key to achieving peace and assuring Israel’s future security, but the repetition doesn’t make that assertion anything more than the ideologically-blinded fantasy that it is.

The overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews don’t buy their mantra. Ditto for the overwhelming majority of American Jews.

And the average American concurs. In a  national poll of 1,000 likely 2012 election voters conducted in August 2011 by Democrat Pat Caddell and Republican John McLaughlin, one of the questions asked:

Do you think that if the Palestinians were given their own state in the West Bank and Gaza they would live peacefully with Israel or continue their campaign of terror to destroy Israel?

14.6% – Live peacefully

74.2% – Continue terror

11.2% – Don’t Know/Refused

Again, there are certainly substantive questions and concerns that can be raised about the plan. But to argue that the only viable alternative is a sovereign Palestinian state is nothing less than advocating -albeit unknowingly- the ultimate destruction of the Jewish State.

 

Originally published by IMRA http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=55829

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Dr. Lerner is the Director of IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis).