One of Israel’s leading historians, Benny Morris – a fine scholar who now represents the bigoted underbelly of Israeli society – knows how to solve the Middle East conflict:
Morris concludes that a majority of Jews during the Mandate and Israelis in the years since have come to accept the notion of two states for two peoples. However, the Arabs have not. The historian takes the reader through the various covenants and declarations of the PLO, Fatah and Hamas and illustrates that even when claims of moderation are made, they do not reflect reality. There is no “secular democratic Palestine” in the making.
Morris argues that all the solutions are almost a “practical nightmare and well nigh unthinkable” or “not realistic.” So he argues for a return to an idea from the 1970s of a union between the West Bank and Jordan, with Gaza attached to this “confederation.” This perplexing creation must be created over the opposition of the Jordanian monarchy, which has jettisoned the Palestinians since the Jordanian civil war, and the Palestinians themselves who already lived under such a scheme from 1948 to 1967. Morris’s failure to provide a real answer, however, lies not in any fault of his own, but the hardship of “resolving” the conflict.
His solution is anything but. A never-ending occupation that will guarantee never-ending resistance.
Perhaps that’s what he needs to justify fortress Israel.