Shimon Peres doubts Israel can win Permanent war or Survive Annexation of West Bank

[marmar]

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – –

Former Israeli president Shimon Peres, 92, gave an interview with the Associated Press Monday in which he spoke bluntly about the mistakes of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, without naming him.

Of the Greater Israel project of the country’s right wing, which aims at annexing the Palestinian West Bank while keeping the people there stateless, he said,

“Better to have a Jewish state on part of the land than have the whole land without the Jewish state,” he said. “Israel should implement the two-state solution for her own sake because if we should lose our majority, and today we are almost equal, we cannot remain a Jewish state or a democratic state . . . That’s the main issue, and to my regret they (the government) do the opposite.”

That is, Peres thinks that the Likud Party and its partners are living in a fool’s paradise if they believe they can annex the whole of Palestinian territory without getting the Palestinians as Israeli citizens eventually. And then, Peres says, no more Israel as a Jewish state.

Netanyahu is willing to live by the sword more or less permanently in order to accomplish his annexation of the Palestinian West Bank. Peres thinks this approach foolish and dangerous. ...............(more)

http://www.juancole.com/2015/11/permanent-survive-annexation.html

[geek tragedy]

1. That's a problem Israelis have decided to pass on to their

grandchildren. Their thinking is "we are stronger so why would we give up land, resources, and control and get nothing in return? The powerful extract concessions from the weak, not vice versa."

[DetlefK]

2. How will today's Israel fare in israeli history-books in the future?

What is the timeline from today's Israel and today's Palestinians to a situation where Israel and the Palestinians are at peace with each other?

[COLGATE4]

3. About another 2000 years or so. nt

[geek tragedy]

4. In about 100 years both Palestinian nationalism and Zionism will have perished

and the binational state that replaces them can get on with the business of bringing everyone together.

[DetlefK]

5. But why will they perish? Why would they? And how could they possibly?

Step 1: The Palestinians strike back at the Israelis.
Step 2: The Israelis strike back at the Palestinians.
Step 3: See Step 1.

Come on:
Gimme a wild speculation how your scenario could come true. (Imagine writing a sci-fi-novel and a character talks about a long-gone past.)



Is there sci-fi that deals with the future of Israel?

The only example I know is the double novel "Ilium"/"Olympos" by Dan Simmons:
In a flashback to the distant past, Jerusalem is split between Jews and Muslims and the Muslims are blasting anti-semitic chants from loudspeakers in their quarters. But it is never explained how this came to be.

[geek tragedy]

6. The South Africa playbook nt

[DetlefK]

8. That doesn't read very promising.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Africa#Resistance_to_apartheid
- domestic terror-attacks
- civil unrest
- international isolation

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s meant the African National Congress (ANC) in alliance with the South African Communist Party could no longer depend on the Soviet Union for weaponry and political support. It also meant the apartheid government could no longer link apartheid and its purported legitimacy to the protection of Christian values and civilisation in the face of the rooi gevaar, meaning "red danger" or the threat of communism.



What Israel and the Palestinians need are reconciliation and bonding. Ramping up the pressure until one side breaks is the wrong way to go in this case. There must be a WILL to peace.

[geek tragedy]

9. Things will have to get much worse before they

can start getting better.

[DetlefK]

10. But Israel already has a siege-mentality.

Laying siege to them won't deter them the least bit. The pressure needed to force Israel to change its political position is awfully close to the pressure it takes to break Israel as a functioning society.

[geek tragedy]

11. Taking away their visa-free travel privileges in Europe would be a start nt

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

7. If Israel keeps on its present course there may be no

Israel...let alone Israeli history books in the future.