According to the recent Pew poll on the thread asking American dopers if world antipathy to Bush makes Americans like him more, I believe 80% of the Palestinians polled do not think it’s possible to co-exist with Israel. Those polled also trust bin Laden more than any other world leader.
Therefore, let’s pretend that one day the Palestinians get what they really seem to want in their heart of hearts - a Palestine free of Jews.*
If that were to happen, three questions come to mind:
1. What would be the nature of the Palestinian state? Islamic theocracy? Secular dictatorship? Jeffersonian democracy? Military junta? Maoist? Communist? Capitalist?
2. Would a civil war b/t Palestinian splinter groups ensue to determine the nature of the government?
3. Also, if it came to that, should Europeans accept a Jewish right of return to their former homes in Germany, Poland, Russia, France, Spain, etc.? Or should America be the chief absorber of Jewish refugees? (Somehow, I kinda doubt that those Jewish refugees who originally came from MENA countries would want to go back to their former homes.)
*I hope the knee-jerkers won’t rip me a new one for this statement. I also believe most Israelis, if you gave them truth serum, would prefer Eretz Israel to a two-state solution. I suppose if there is a key to peace, both parties have to abandon their fantasies, embrace pragmatism, and face the reality that the other party ain’t going anywhere.
My question, not meaning to impose here…
has always been
What if the palestinians and israelis are left solely to fight it out…a civil war type thing.
Wouldn’t there then be a ‘winner’, and then go from there…or would that just be going in circles.
The winner could decide the fate…isrealis stay or go.
In Canada the french kept a whole province to themselves after a civil war, and we aren’t blowing each other up now. There was a clear winner.
I’ll answer your questions but Israel is not simply going to cease to exist, a peaceful solution would be a return to the 1967 borders with Israel taking in some areas of East jerusalem such as the approach to the wailing wall and the Hebrew University.
You’d have to assume that Fattah would be the dominant political entity in a Palestinian state, so it’s a difficult one as the single word that describes there politics is “revolutionary”, so after the ‘revolution’ how what would their politics be?
Well, Fattah are avowed secularists (though not anti-Islamic) and Palestinian Nationalists. Though they have significant leftist allies and leftist factions within Fattah itself the dominant political forces are conservative. Arafat, the leader of Fattah is also authoritarian and autocratic and though it is unlikely he would reject a democratic government (there would be little point as he has enough support to win democratically), you would see these tendenacies reflected in the government.
2. Hamas and Fattah have an uneasy relationship, which would almost probably lead to war esp. as Hamas is dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian State, but Hamas lack the popular support to seriously challenge Fattah in a civil war.
I think this is a dead issue not really worth discussing.
MC Master of Ceremonies, obviously, Israel is not going to cease to exist. I agree with your conditions for a peaceful solution. The whole OP is theoretical.
Interesting. Who are the Palestinian refugees living in the Palestinian diaspora loyal to (Fatah, Hamas, other)? What is the loyalty based upon (economics, religion, ideology)?
I ask because it seems like they’ve been fed fantasies their whole lives about returning to their former homes in Israel proper, and if their dreams actually came true (not gonna happen, I know), what then? Are they more motivated by nationalism (which means they might align with Fatah), religion (which means they might align with Hamas), money (which means they might ally with whomever they feel they will prosper under).
Is there tension between Palestinians living in occupied territories and Palestinian refugees abroad?
Also, do the Palestinians suffer from religious disunity (between Sunni and Shiite, or between Muslim and Christian)? Do they suffer from class division? Or, if given a state, will they be capable of some sort of consensus?
Why is it a dead issue? What would become of Jewish survivors? I doubt they’d stay in the Palestinian state, if they could help it. Where would they go? Who has the responsibility of taking them in?