Sovereign Palestine will bring peace

Both Israelis and Palestinians are entitled to live with dignity, security and liberty. Only an extremist would disagree with this position. Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal is a good example of such an extremist. Meshaal’s agenda of an Islamic religious state over all of Palestine is unfair not only for Jewish Israelis but for Christian Palestinians as well. On the other hand, does Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offer a reasonable alternative? Under Olmert’s proposal, the Convergence Plan, Israel will never relinquish control over East Jerusalem, and his government will annex the large settlement blocs in the West Bank. In return for ending hostilities with Israel, the Palestinians will receive what’s left of the territories. When looking at a map of the borders under Olmert’s proposal it is clear that the Palestinians will not have a true state. Instead, the Palestinians will have a bunch of unconnected cantons in which Palestinians living in the West Bank will be separated from East Jerusalem, their cultural and spiritual capital.

Imagine if Lord Cornwallace at the Battle of Yorktown offered a similar proposal to General Washington – a sovereign U.S. in which Britain would annex half of New York City and strategic areas elsewhere in U.S. territory? The United States has a vested interest in convincing Olmert’s coalition government to withdraw from all Palestinian territories occupied after the 1967 War, including East Jerusalem. This will allow for the establishment of a real Palestinian state with viable borders. Furthermore, it will drastically decrease Palestinian militant attacks. A sovereign and viable Palestinian state, alongside Israel, would start to make the dream of liberty and security for both peoples a reality.

– Aaron Tenenbaum