Posted by
Always To The Right on Thursday, January 08, 2009 11:16:37 AM
Daniel Pipes offered his solution
to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict yesterday in a column that could
just as well have been titled, “Back to the Future.” Pipes suggested
that Gaza should go back to the Egyptians and the West Bank to the
Jordanians, where they were before successive Arab invasions into
Israel left the Israelis in charge of the territories. It’s not the
first time this has been suggested, though, and the real question is
why either nation would want them back
Not unless the Gazans themselves think of themselves as Egyptians,
which they clearly do not. The problem with Pipes’ plan is that it
does nothing to address the nationalist movements in each territory,
especially Gaza. What Pipes suggests is trading Israeli blockade for
an Egyptian occupation and swapping border concerns.
Nor would that solve Israel’s problem in any case, because the issue
in Gaza is not just nationalism, but a hatred of Israel. Hamas would
launch its rockets into Israel with Gaza under Egyptian control, not
because they resent Egypt but because they exist explicitly to destroy
Israel and take its land for themselves. Changing flags in Gaza won’t
solve that problem, but it would create another big problem for Israel
and Egypt: any military response to missile attacks would become an
attack on Egypt, and that would unravel one of the pillars of stability that has managed to endure for 30 years.