Whereas a Zen saying affirms that one hand cannot clap
alone, the same does not apply to Jewish haggling. In fact, David Makovsky is
demonstrating that a single Jew – absent an interlocutor – will take it upon
himself to haggle a subject to death so as to maintain the status quo that he
and others like him worked hard to establish.
The author takes the solo flight in an article he wrote
under the title: “Beyond 'One
State
David Makovsky, and a number of other “soloists,” found it
necessary to pull off this kind of performance having been alarmed by an
exchange that took place during a joint press conference between President of
the United States Donald Trump and Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu.
What led to that specific moment was Trump's assumption that
a problem created by Jews would be based on rational reasons, therefore
resolvable like any normal problem. He thought that in the matter of the Jewish
occupation of Palestine , the way to end the
occupation would be for Israel
to withdraw its troops, in which case there will be two states. Alternatively, Israel might wish to annex Palestine , in which case there will be one
state.
And so Trump advised Netanyahu that any choice would be
acceptable to the United
States if it were acceptable to the
Palestinians. Evidently, Trump could see that either plan would be easy to
negotiate between the parties and easy to implement … thinking that the
Judeo-Israeli culture were rational enough to lead to such outcome.
Unfortunately this was never the case. Like all matters
handled by Jews, the situation in Palestine
was contorted like a pretzel that received a few extra twists. Citing the fake
excuse of security, Israel
started building homes for settlers in the occupied territories decades ago.
When told this was illegal under international law, Israel assured the world that what
goes up can come down, and will. It promised that as soon as a peace treaty was
negotiated with the Palestinians, the settlers will vacate the West Bank .
Instead of this happening, however, the number of
settlements kept increasing, and the peace accord kept getting more elusive.
Unable to continue with the con game of reassuring the world that the settlers
will eventually evacuate, Israel
finally admitted that the settlements were a fait accompli that shall be made
permanent with or without a peace accord.
That's when the question arose as to what will be the fate
of the Palestinian population. Because the Jews want the West
Bank more than anything that anyone can offer them, they plan to
keep it come hell or high water. Because they cannot maintain the Palestinian
population under occupation forever, they will have to give the Palestinians
full citizenship, in which case Israel will cease to be majority Jewish. This
being something they will not countenance, they are probing a third alternative
they call the “situation.” It is a demonic scheme they will not discuss
publicly because it is as depraved as it is criminal under international law.
The plan is a wild fantasy brewing in the heads of sick
people who scheme to turn the West Bank into a
place so unlivable, the Palestinians will flee it “on their own accord.” By the
time very few Palestinians or none at all will be left in the territory, Israel will
annex it, expecting to suffer minimal opposition internally, and minimal
condemnation from abroad.
This is what's expressed in the Makovsky article. It is done
in a way that's so subtle; no one is expected to sound the alarm. For now, the
author is advocating the maintenance of the status quo, which entails the open
construction of new settlements under what he calls the George W. Bush formula.