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I, for one, all too
often only read sites with which I agree. Well, there's a different
one:
I came across
this site through a link received from "Palestine Digest". See site home
page note and the article below:
http://www.jerusalemsummit.org/eng/.
Not sure if the links work - you might have to go to the home page to see
them.
The inaugural
Jerusalem Summit took place in October, 2003. Among featured
participants were many of today’s most gifted policymakers – Richard
Perle, Senator Sam Brownback, Congressman Eliot Engel, Prof. Daniel Pipes,
Amb. Alan Keyes, Cal Thomas, Benjamin Netanyahu and Uzi
Landau.
Their insights and discussions
served as the foundation for scholarly works on The Prospects
of a Palestinian State and US National Interest and The Plight of Arab
Christians under the Palestinian Authority. Both reports were
distributed to the US Congress and are being used as the basis for
upcoming Congressional hearings and legislation.
Jerusalem Summit has inspired
the creation of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus as well as
establishment of regional Jerusalem Summits which will bring together top
intellectual and spiritual leaders in their respective major civilizations
to develop morality-based policies which will be presented and coordinated
at the annual Jerusalem Summits in Israel’s capital.
Jerusalem Summit Asia took part in August 2004 in Manila, Philippines. Jerusalem Summit Americas is scheduled for May, 2005 in Washington, DC. The Second Jerusalem Summit will take place on November 27-30, 2004 and will focus on developing a Humanitarian Solution to the Middle East Conflict. Jerusalem Summit-2004 will also offer innovative ideas in several fields which are crucial for advancement of democracy and overcoming the global threats:
Jerusalem Summit 2004 will also develop a new concept, the Council of Civilizations, which we expect to evolve into a new model for the unity of nations. This is one of
their papers:
Another Perspective | ||||||||
| Redefining the Palestinian Problem | ||||||||
| Martin Sherman | ||||||||
| 17 October 2004 |
TEL AVIV -- The time has come to redefine the
conceptual context in which the plight of Palestinians is perceived. The
Palestinians' violent rejection of the far-reaching Barak initiative underscores
that the chances of reaching a political resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict are highly remote if not totally negligible. On the one hand, it is
difficult to envisage any Israeli leader offering a proposal substantially more
generous than Ehud Barak's; on the other hand, its unequivocally vicious
repudiation by the Palestinians indicates that even this offer, for all its
unprecedented generosity, fell substantially short of their minimum demands.
However, if the Palestinian problem seems insoluble in the political context, it
may well be eminently soluble in other contexts -- namely the humanitarian one.
Dispassionate analysis of Palestinian behavior for well over the last
half-century strongly supports the "heretical" assertion that the Palestinians
are neither genuinely desirous nor deserving of statehood. In spite of
unstinting international support for their cause (including strong backing from
most influential media organizations, and the sponsorship of one of the two
superpowers during the decades of the Cold War), the Palestinians have failed
miserably in establishing any semblance of a stable, productive self-governing
society or producing any capable, credible, and competent leadership likely to
advance them along the path towards that goal. Quite the contrary. Well over a
decade after having the generous Oslo Accords virtually thrust upon them by an
unprecedented accommodationist Israeli administration that not only acknowledged
their claims for independence, but actually identified with them, the
Palestinians have done nothing but produce a repressive and regressive interim
regime run by cruel, corrupt thugs who have pillaged their people.
Indeed the Palestinian state has perhaps the unique distinction of
achieving "failed state" status before it was actually established. Thus by
their manifest inability to achieve statehood despite the highly conducive
conditions that prevailed in their favor, the Palestinians appear to have failed
the "test of history"-- thereby casting severe doubt as to whether they are
worthy of such statehood.
BUT EVEN IF ONE is convinced that the
Palestinians are undeserving of a state, the question still remains as to
whether they are genuinely desirous of one. In this regard, there are two
competing -- indeed antithetical -- hypotheses by which to explain the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the motivations behind it. According to the
first of these hypotheses, the fuel of the conflict is the lack of Palestinian
self-determination, and all that the Palestinians aspire to is the establishment
of their own state. There is however an alternative explanation, whereby the
fuel of the conflict is not the lack of Palestinian self-determination but the
existence of Jewish self-determination, and that as long as Jewish
self-determination persists, so will the conflict. Moreover, according to this
alternative explanation, the goal of the Palestinians is not to establish a
state for themselves but to dismantle a state for others -- the Jews. Any
fair-minded analysis of Palestinian deeds and declarations show them to be far
more consistent with the latter hypothesis, casting serious doubt as to the
genuine nature of their intentions and the authenticity of their desire for
statehood.
The generally accepted Palestinian narrative has been the
major force not only for the propagation of the Palestinian claims for statehood
but also for much of the international acrimony directed against Israel.
Accordingly, the de-legitimization of this narrative is essential to the serious
exploration of other avenues of solution. But even if the Palestinian narrative
is de-legitimized, Palestinian political aspirations are discredited, and the
issue of Palestinian state removed from the international agenda, the problem of
the Palestinian humanitarian predicament still must be addressed.
This is
a problem that can conceivably be dealt with by means of money -- specifically
generous sums paid to the Palestinians to relocate and resettle elsewhere in the
Arab/Moslem world. Such compensation should be the equivalent of lifetime
earnings in any appropriate host country in Asia or Africa -- i.e., the GDP per
capita of such a country multiplied by at least 50-100 years. This would entail
a grant of US$ 100,000 -150,000 to each family unit.
In fact the cost of
such a proposal compares favorably with other more conventional alternatives
involving Israeli withdrawal and attempts at Palestinian self rule -- most of
which have proved to be unproductive if not indeed counterproductive. The sums
required for the humanitarian resettlement of the entire Palestinian population
in countries with a similar/familiar socio-religious environment would be
significantly less than those already spent by the U.S. on the Iraq War. It
would thus be easily affordable to the international community -- especially if
it were spread out over a number of years. Indeed, given Israel's current level
of GDP, it would not be a ruinous burden even if the country were to bear it
alone.
ANY PROPOSAL CALLING for the relocation and resettlement of the
Palestinians outside the confines of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza will inevitably
raise the question of its feasibility. To be sure, it is likely to be rejected
vehemently by formal Palestinian organizations, which must therefore be
by-passed. The problem should be "atomized" by making the offer of compensation
on an individual basis directly to Palestinian bread-winners each of whom would
then be faced with three alternatives: (i) reject the offer and remain under
continued Israeli control; (ii) reject the offer and live under a dysfunctional
Palestinian regime -- which has proved more onerously repressive than the
Israelis'; (iii) accept the offer of a relocation grant equivalent to a
life-time of earnings in an alternative country of residence, facilitating the
chance of a new life for himself and his/her family.
If reason prevails
at the individual level, there is little doubt which choice would be the most
attractive. Note that the implementation of the scheme is not contingent on a
negotiated agreement with an official Palestinian organ, but on the rational
choice of individual families.
The proposed solution would also involve
considerable benefits to the host countries accepting the resettled
Palestinians, as it would bring with it a considerable -- and sorely needed --
influx of capital to their ailing economies. This would make the proposed
endeavor a "win-win" measure for all concerned -- the individual Palestinians,
the State of Israel, and the host nations -- except of course for the cruel and
corrupt Palestinian leadership.
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