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Pathetic attachment. Livni
Photo: Tal Shahar

Tzipi still believes

Kadima chairwoman among few people who still believe in two-state solution

In Moscow’s Red Square, what is left of the believers of bolshevism still rally sometimes, under the faded red flags and Stalin’s portraits. They remind me of Tzipi Livni’s staunch, pathetic attachment to the notion of a Palestinian state.

 

Even Professor Shlomo Ben-Ami, who was a leftist back when Livni was still a rightist, recently claimed in an interview that the notion of two states for two peoples is no longer relevant or attractive to both Israelis and Palestinians. He added that negotiations with Mahmoud Abbas were akin to “dialogue with a ghost,” noting that he only represents the “Oslo clique.”

 

Today, there is no longer a Palestinian national movement, Ben-Ami added. There are two camps, a non-existent PLO and the Hamas majority; and Hamas does not accept the two-state notion.

 

Meanwhile, former Mossad Director Efraim Halevy reached the same conclusion from a different angle. In a recent interview he presented the minimal terms that must be imposed on a Palestinian state: Disarmament, ban on signing international agreements, control over the aerial and electromagnetic space, and monitoring of water sources.

 

Halevy bases his assessment on American intelligence estimates whereby it is possible to have a rule over “territories” that is not a state entity. Netanyahu has a similar list, in addition to Israeli monitoring of such “state’s” entry and exit points.

 

It is clear that the Palestinians won’t adhere to even one of these terms, which would make their “state” a joke, and the entire world will support them. As usual, instead of scoring some points for concessions over our historical homeland, we shall be hit with condemnations over our abuse of the nascent poor state.

 

Encouraging demographic developments

Livni must be aware of the new position of Kadima Knesset Member Ronit Tirosh: “The experience of disengagement taught us that we should not rush to hand over territory.” The foreign minister must have certainly been sent copies of position papers produced by senior Scandinavian officials, who have despaired of the vision of a Palestinian state. They claim that the notion of partition can no longer be realized and that the chance of a diplomatic breakthrough in line with the traditional approach is hopeless.

 

Meanwhile, the “leftist’s last resort” had also been deflated – the demographic demon. It is impossible that the foreign minister did not receive the exciting information showing that the Arab figures which the scary demographic prophecies were premised on were false: The number of Arabs residing in Judea and Samaria is 1.5 million (rather than 2.5 million) and together with Gazans they make up 2.7 million (rather than 4 million.) Arab birthrates are declining, while Jewish birthrates happen to go up.

 

In 1995, Jewish births in Israel constituted 69% of all births, yet by 2006 the figure rose to 74%. Meanwhile, the fertility gap between Jews and Arabs, which stood at six children per woman (within the Green Line) in the 1960s, is now down to only 0.7 children per woman. Finally, in the area between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River (not including Gaza,) the Jews constitute a 67% majority (60% if we count Gaza.)

 

The question that remains is, when the facts go against her, and when facing a people who voted against the “two-state vision,” how can Livni still stand there at “Palestine Square” and stubbornly rally under the faded PLO flag and portraits of the “Oslo clique”, as Prof. Ben-Ami characterized it? How pathetic! 

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.24.09, 00:09
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