There's really a very simple answer to the problem of so-called "illegal Jewish settlements" in Israel. And like the answers to previous conundrums that were presumed unsolvable, it has been staring us in the face for years.

The answer relies upon the same formula used by Winston Churchill and the British government when they first created Transjordan (Jordan) out of the mandated Jewish homeland in the early 1920s, thus turning Transjordan into a Muslim-only territory. It's worked for Jordan all these years, why wouldn't it be just as successful for Israel?

To make a long story short, all of Israel, that is to say all of the land remaining from the League of Nations' original mandated Jewish homeland, should be Jewish. From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea; from Lebanon to the Sinai Desert; all 11,000 square miles of the land that remained of the intended Jewish homeland should be owned and/or controlled by Jews. The only exceptions would be international embassies and Christian religious sites. There should be no Arab settlements or enclaves, no Arab Gaza or Arab Jerusalem or Arab Bethlehem or Arab Hebron, and no Muslim religious sites. The only exceptions might be for those individual Arabs currently residing within the aforementioned borders that swear allegiance and peaceful existence with and within an everlasting Jewish state. If they can't or won't pledge themselves accordingly, out they go.

See that, it's a remarkably simple answer. Even the implementation would be relatively simple once a sufficient number of moving vans could be scheduled to assist those Arabs who will be relocating to Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia or Canada. The biggest problem may be in finding enough furniture pads and hand-trucks.

Now I know that there are some people that will disagree with me. They'll think that the answer is not that straightforward or that it conflicts with Jewish tradition and international law. And there are those that would argue that such an action would be un-democratic, as if the establishment of a Jewish homeland was intended to protect the institution of democracy instead of the Jewish people. But their arguments are wrong. It's all very doable, democratic, and follows accepted international and religious precedents.

Let me start from the beginning. A hundred years ago there were no such distinct and independent countries as Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, or Israel. There was just one great big territory belonging to the Ottoman Empire. Regions were identified according to geographical features, Ottoman administrative divisions, or historical and biblical references, but there were no defined national borders. At the conclusion of the First World War in 1918, Great Britain and France (along with a few lesser allied countries) divvied up the nearly 1.3 million square miles of land won from the Ottoman Empire. These divisions established the borders and names for all the countries that make up what we know of today as the Middle East (incidentally, the term "Middle East" was only coined in 1902 by historian Alfred Thayer Mahan). Moreover, prior to the Allied victory, there was no such people known as Lebanese, Jordanians, Saudis, Iraqis, or Iranians. Ironically, "Palestinians" referred to Jews or Christians that lived in the "Holy Land," the area generally relating to historical/biblical Israel.

When an athlete rejects an offer, he or she forfeits the rights and benefits contained in the offer. The athlete can't just show up on game day and expect to go out on the field to play.

As the borders of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt became defined, the boundaries of Palestine were also fixed. Falling under British control, with the purpose of restoring a Jewish homeland, Palestine included approximately 45,000 square miles of territory on both sides of the Jordan River. When the League of Nations was established in 1920, the organization accepted and validated (with minor revisions) the borders, political declarations, and treaties that produced the various Arab countries and Palestine. Without any reservations, the League of Nations adopted the plan and intention to create a Jewish homeland, using the entire 45,000 square miles. The only proviso was that the rights of non-Jewish Palestine inhabitants not be unfairly compromised.

In 1921, Winston Churchill concluded an agreement with Abdullah Hussein, a Hashemite Arab from the Hejaz region of Arabia, to partition Palestine into two parts. The territory to the east of the Jordan River was named Transjordan and would be forever after Arab only: closed to Jewish habitation, immigration, and land ownership. The area to the west of the river was to be reserved for the Jewish homeland. Although neither Abdullah nor any of his family had any claim to the newly-created territory,

February 2003               - 5 -               Outpost