Tuesday, January 18, 2011

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.

^

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

All you hear about is the Palestinian question over and over again with regards to Judea Sumeria.What I want to know is what about the none Arab Palestinian population for example we the Sorani Kurmanji Kurdish people who reside in Judea Sumeria Israel.What about us don't we have a say in what happens here?We are a pro Israel block within Israeli Judea Sumeria and we support the annexation of these lands by Israel but yet the Israeli government refuses to allow us to become Israelis because were Muslim Kurds who have resided here for hundreds of years since our forefathers came here.Some of us have been here since the 1930's and when Israel liberated Jerusalem and Judea Sumeria we were overjoyed because we too can trace our origin to the Lost Tribes of Israel.But Yet we are treated by the I.D.F. as if were Arabs and as such we were issued Palestinian ID cards by the I.D.F. in 1967 when General Moshie Dayan ordered a census of the populations of Judea Sumeria we were classified as being Arabs because of our Kurdish ethnic names we were mistook for being Arabs and this mistake must be corrected by the powers at be.Israel must reach out to the pro Israeli Kurdish population of Judea Sumeria with a hand of friendship and brotherhood as fellow Hebrew Israelite tribesmen since it has been proven through D.N.A. tests that we do bare the Cohin Gene and that only Hebrew Israelite people have this Gene in there genetic D.N.A. If anyone has any helpful hints or contacts we can be connected to please call 0525-630-189 cellcom Israel is my number I can be reached at.Ask for Abu Moshie.My people want nothing to do with the corrupt P.A. so we ask that we be issued Israeli National ID cards and that we be allowed to serve in the IDF as loyal Israelis should.In order for this to happen we must be reclassified as Israeli Nationals.Thank you and Toda Raba. Respectfully Submitted by Abu Moshie.