What would the Maryland peace show look like? A lone Olmert facing a whole bunch of Arabs; Israel against the Muslim world - the impartial US presides over the show. And America is truly impartial to Jews and Arabs alike, but sensibly cares of its own interests only. Olmert the master politician will look great, but the show’s format predetermines Israeli humiliation. Saudi will send its foreign minister. Mubarak would probably stay home. Only Israel, Palestine, and Jordan will send their rulers to the peace conference. Israel will thus appear on par with the Palestinian non-entity. America and the Arab world will judge the imprudent Jews and Palestinians. No other Israeli-Muslim peace conference was staged so humiliatingly.
What is there to discuss? The Arab demands are well known and non-negotiable. Israel must swallow her Arabs, 1.4 million and counting. Israel must destroy most of the settlements, making much of the 250,000 religious Jews residing there homeless and asocial. Israel must give Arabs half of Jerusalem, and allow Israeli Arab residents of Jerusalem to move into the Jewish district; Jerusalem will be split between Palestinian and Israeli Arabs. Israel must give Arabs the Temple Mount where the Jews are forbidden to pray even now, and abandon the hope for the Third Temple; Jewish prayer, “The next year, in Jerusalem!” will be urgent again. Israel must accept a number of the fourth-generation descendants of the 1948 refugees.
Israel will look good on the map, but ignore the uninhabitable Negev. Forget most of the Galilee, heavily populated by Arabs. Abandon the Lod area close to Israel’s only international airport (the other one in Jerusalem is closed because the Arabs live too close). The Road Map Israel is a narrow beach strip, not a state. No state can exist like that, and certainly not a Jewish state surrounded by Muslims from the outside and pressed by Muslims from within.
In return for acknowledging her defeat in the century-old struggle for the Jewish state, Israel will get nothing. Zero. Nil. Absolutely. No population exchange: Israel will swallow her tremendous Arab population, which already makes 34% in 0-9 age group. Hamas will continue in the Palestinian territories. Fatah will continue its terrorist activity against Israel – oy, Fatah will renounce terrorism on paper and verily promise to end it. Iran will not accept Israel in whatever borders larger than a cemetery. Syria will not dismantle its hundreds of missiles. Saudi Arabia will not cut down $100 billion+ worth of advanced weapons it purchased from the US in the recent years. Egypt will continue receiving American aid and spending it on the cutting-edge weapons only directed against Israel.
Israel is ready for “sweeping concessions” while Arabs offer none. Israel seeks peace while Arabs don’t. Israel hinges on the 0.1% of the Middle East’s territory while her enemies ready themselves on the 99.9% of the land.
If Jewish rulers survive, the Jewish state won’t.
