I was a chest-thumping, flag-bearing, Eretz Yisrael HaShlemah for years. And in an ideal world, that is still what I believe is just. Judea for the Jews, Arabia for the Arabs. There is no historical precedent for a Palestinian people or a Palestinian state - why should it be created now at the expense of the most oppressed people on Earth?
All of that is nice on an ideological level, and it is what I truly believe. But sometimes, ideology has to take a backseat to practicality. The fact is, there are now millions of Arabs concentrated largely in certain sections of the Land of Israel who DO have a distinct national consciousness, regardless of whether such identity is historically justified or not. And that population, by and large, is hostile to Jews or Jewish national aspirations for a number of very firmly entrenched historical and religious reasons that will not change any time soon.
The ONLY practical solution to this endemic problem that is separation. |
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