A ridiculous vision

Notion of Palestinian declaration of independence should be met with laughter

Hagai Segal|Published: 02.06.10 , 15:14

Without us noticing it, Mahmoud Abbas’ term in office expired two weeks ago. On January 24th he completed a term of five years as Palestinian Authority chairman.

Without general elections, there is no longer a legal basis for the continuation of his term. Indeed, Abbas continues to serve as chairman only because of circumstantial pressures and inertia, rather than because of a democratic decision.

Similarly, the Palestinian parliament’s term in office had also expired. Its honorable members did not put themselves up for re-election, and will not be doing so in the foreseeable future.

And so, an extremely brief democratic tradition had been cut short. There is no longer an elected parliament in Palestine or an authorized president. The whole thing is falling apart. All that is left are two cantons embroiled in deep divisions, Ramallah and Gaza. US Special Envoy George Mitchell is not even trying to bring peace between them; meanwhile, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has already despaired.

Nonetheless, pretend-Prime Minister Salam Fayyad festively announced at the recent Herzliya Conference that the Palestinians will be declaring the establishment of an independent state within two years, regardless of what happens in that time. He is unable to properly maintain an autonomic entity, yet he threatens us with a state.

No way of creating ethnic separation

Amazingly enough, the audience in Herzliya responded with whispers instead of bursting out in laughter. Defense Minister Ehud Barak even expressed general support for the idea. Barak is of course opposed to unilateral moves of independence, yet he believes that the establishment of a Palestinian state is an immense Zionist challenge. The ancient demographic fear paralysis him to the point of clinging to an impossibly foolish idea.

Even theoretically speaking, if we put aside for a moment the Palestinian difficulties in ruling themselves and the security problem, it would be very hard to crowd two states in the tiny area between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea.

God did not carve out a natural border in the midst of the land, so there is no technical possibility of creating ethnic separation between the two population groups. A million and a half Israeli Arabs will continue to live and reproduce amongst us. The abstract vision of a Jewish and democratic state will remain abstract.

In any case, we cannot ignore the security problem. The wave of explosive barrels this past week proves that our neighbors will not be sitting by idly after we converge into the Green Line borders. They will find a way to continue to harass us. Without IDF presence deep in their territory we will not be able to prevent them from doing so, just like we cannot save Gilad Shalit. Indeed, the Herzliya Conference in 2020 will have to be held in a bomb shelter.