BBC Analysis (Sunday): Drawing Israel's borders

[Jack Rabbit]

From the BBC Online
Dated Sunday August 14

Analysis: Drawing Israel's borders
By Paul Reynolds
World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website

The Israeli withdrawal from Gaza - and the wider disengagement plan of which it is part - represents a major shift in the political landscape of the Middle East of a kind that is seen only every decade or so.

It remains to be seen whether it also represents an opportunity to clear the way for a final two-state agreement or is an attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to take matters into his own hands and draw Israel's final borders unilaterally.

Given the way that facts on the ground in the Middle East tend to determine the politics, the betting has to be that, without a major push by the United States and major concessions by each side, Mr Sharon's circling of the wagons will be the shape of things to come for the next decade.

Read more.

This seemed like a helpful piece in understanding some of the ramifications.

[Maple]

1. I think he ran into some

demographic realities.


"We cannot hold onto Gaza forever. More than a million Palestinians live there and double their number with each generation. They live in uniquely crowded conditions in refugee camps, in poverty and despair, in hotbeds of rising hatred with no hope on the horizon," he said in the five-minute address.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050815/wl_nm/mideast_dc

[Jack Rabbit]

2. Israel cannot hold on to the OT forever

Not and continue to be at once both Jewish and democratic, anyway.

I like the way Graham Usher, quoting David Ben Gurion, said it in this piece:

"Sharon has confronted the dilemma that Ben Gurion confronted in 1948 and that dilemma Ben Gurion summed up very clearly: 'We either have a Jewish state without the land of Israel or we have the land of Israel without a Jewish state.'

"What Ben Gurion chose was the Jewish state. Sharon believed he could have both. He now realises he can't. That is why he is in the process of repartitioning the West Bank."

The dream of Greater Israel was always doomed.

[caitlyn]

3. The BBC Never Misses an Opportunity to Bash Israel or Sharon

Considering the political risks that Prime Minister Sharon has taken and the opposition from within his own party I give him more than a little benefit of the doubt here. Both Sharon and Ehud Olmert have already given indications that the disengagement is only the first step in a process to end occupation.

The BBC never misses an opportunity to bash Israel or Sharon. This is just par for the course. It's speculation not based on any facts.

When Sharon has policies that deserve criticism I'll be right there criticizing with everyone else. When he pulls out from Gaza and northern Samaria he is doing something both necessary and praisworthy.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. 'northern Samaria'? Are you Israeli?

If yr not, I'm curious as to why you'd use that term in a political context...


Both Sharon and Ehud Olmert have already given indications that the disengagement is only the first step in a process to end occupation

And what are these indications?

[caitlyn]

5. Answering your questions:

1. I hold both Israeli and American citizenship. I am currently living and working in Cincinnati but I do own a home (inherited, from my grandfather) in Netanya. Most of my family lives in Israel and I expect to again eventually.

2. The northern part of the West Bank is called Samaria, or in Hebrew it's Shomron. It's been that way for thousands of years. Not political, just the correct name for the place. I still expect most of Samaria to be part of a future Palestinian state if and when there is a peace agreement.

3. Public statements in the Israeli press from both Prime Minister Sharon and Deputy Prime Minister Olmert. I'll find the articles (Ha'aretz, Jerusalem Post, and/or Yediot Ahranot) and start another thread if you like with an appropriate excerpt or two. I pick those three sources because Ha'aretz is left-wing/progressive (as am I), and the other two are at least moderate.

[Violet_Crumble]

7. What about the southern part of the West Bank?

Do you expect that to be part of a future Palestinian state?

If the excerpts yr going to post are older than two weeks, then you won't be able to start a new thread with them due to the rules of the forum, so posting them here will probably be better. btw, Jerusalem Post is no more a moderate source than our own Daily Telegraph, and both news sources share shoddy journalistic tactics and a conservative slant...

Violet...

[bemildred]

6. An interesting piece Jack.

Uneven in spots, but clear for the most part.

WRT Jabba's intentions, I would think his past performance would be a good indicator of future intentions, although it IS a mistake to speak as though he has some rigid program in process, he is more of a tactician looking for whatever advantages he can construct. This is a very dangerous period.