Since October 7th especially, I’ve been silent about the situation in the Eastern Med, except to express my abject horror. My heart has screamed about the injustice there ever since I became aware of it as a teenager. This latest event causes premonitions of a calamitous war getting out of hand and drawing in the whole world, and this has completely put me on edge.
I do, however, have a response to those who feel a “two state solution” is a valid compromise. The fundamental issue at hand is the manner in which Israelis treat Arabs in general, and Palestinians specifically. Whenever I hear stories about how Arabs in Israel are treated, I’m repeatedly reminded about the worst excesses of the Jim Crow era in the Southern US. Constantly demeaning, devaluing, and detouring, Israelis have been driven to abuse and oppress, torture and kill their Arab neighbors. It’s clear the Israelis don’t even see Arabs as fully human.
Thus, I don’t believe there is a situation where any Arab would be allowed to thrive and grow in an Israeli state, nor would a Palestinian state be allowed the stability or resources to support its own people. The Israelis would do anything in their power to undermine a Palestinian state, even if they had agreed to one in public. There is no situation where an Arab would be safe in or near Israel until the Israelis make some major shifts in cultural consciousness – and it would be seriously out of character for them to do so.
If I were in charge (and gratefully I’m not) I would move every last Palestinian remaining out of the Levant and move them to a Gaza strip-sized area of South Florida that they could have as their own sovereign state of our greater union. I’m sure the Jewish communities there would appreciate the irony of having to move from their homes to make way for Palestinians and happily abandon their townhomes, orange groves, and beach-front properties.
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