Annexation - An Option Or Not? Or When?

Dani Dayan, chairman of the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, was interviewed for the Washington Times.

The headline reads:

Settler leader: West Bank annexation 'not an option'

Dani, described as "The head of the Yesha Council, the largest organization representing the 300,000-plus Jewish residents of the West Bank, [who] stands at the forefront of efforts to prevent the world's vision of a Palestinian state from becoming reality" is quoted saying

"The aim [of Yesha] is to make sure that Judea and Samaria are kept as an integral part of Israel...Yet in the same breath, Mr. Dayan says he opposes bringing the disputed area under Israeli sovereignty.

"I don't think that annexation is an option right now," he says. "It's not an option because of the international arena, because of constraints that we are well aware of. Also because of the question of citizenship for the Arab population and other practical questions. I think that every person that watches the developments understands that annexation is not within the range of realistic options Israel has."

...Mr. Dayan says that though he theoretically supports annexing the West Bank "in the long term," any such move would have to be preceded by a shift of "one of the major geopolitical parameters."

"For instance, I can foresee that if some day there is a regime change in Jordan, which is a country with a predominantly Palestinian population, that will be a major change that will open a whole range of solutions that today are not viable and suddenly will become viable."

He quickly emphasizes that he does not advocate Israeli action to precipitate such an outcome.

I think that is a fair position, in a pragmatic political sense. However, the issue of rights was missing and, knowing Dani, I am sure they were touched upon but in the public diplomacy arena the field must always be assured to be balanced. The Arabs constantly refer to their "rights", the "justness" of their cause and we are behooved to make sure that in semantic terms, at the very least, our central message must include the basic fundamentals of the "conflict". They must be mentioned and even explained. We cannot assume that journalists know what we know. Even a relatively sympathetic, or an understanding one or a fair one.

And this is a great anecdote:

Mr. Dayan took a lobbying trip to Washington in September...[and] On his flight back from Washington, Mr. Dayan recounts that he found himself seated across the aisle from Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. After some hesitation, he introduced himself.

"We chatted for 30 minutes," Mr. Dayan says. "I suspect that he tried on me the speech he has prepared for Jewish communities in the United States, full of empty slogans and cliches, and after some 30 minutes, a British guy that was sitting in the row beside us told us, 'Guys, it's very interesting, but I want to sleep.'"

"And so, once again, Great Britain damaged the prospects of peace in the Middle East," he says.

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