The implications of the ‘Huckabee plan’ for Mideast peace
Let’s look a little deeper into the “plan” for the Middle East suggested yesterday by Mike Huckabee, one of the frontrunners for the GOP nomination in 2012. While touring the Holy Land, he told reporters that there can never be a two-state solution in what he called “the Jewish homeland,” the area now controlled by Israel. If Palestinians want a state of their own, he said, it will have to be somewhere else.
Now, given that outline, what would be the practical consequences of such a policy? How might it be implemented?
At current estimates, there are 2.3 million Arabs living in the occupied West Bank and 1.4 million Arabs in the Gaza Strip, in addition to 1.5 million Arabs living within Israel’s internationally recognized boundaries. In fact, there are probably more Arabs living in the “Jewish homeland” than there are Jews.
To achieve the single-state, Jewish-state solution proposed by Huckabee, one of two things must happen. The Palestinians would have to either go or stay.
Let’s assume first that they go. Creating a Palestinian state “somewhere else” would require the mass exodus of millions of Palestinians from lands where their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great grandparents had lived and are buried. That exodus would have to occur at the point of a gun, because people would not leave homes and farms of many generations any other way. Even at gunpoint, many would refuse to leave. It would be mass ethnic cleansing of the ugliest sort, and there would be bloodshed, and the rest of the world would react in justified horror to it.
Now, let’s explore the second option: The Palestinians stay. Within this “Jewish homeland,” they already account for roughly half the population, and their numbers are increasing at a much faster rate than those of the Israelis. Maintaining “Greater Israel” as a Jewish state in the face of such demography would require an explicit and even militaristic apartheid in which the minority tries to permanently suppress the political and economic aspirations of the majority, including denying them a vote, status as citizens and the right to live and work where they choose.
The hope might be that under such harsh conditions, the Arab population would begin to dwindle. Based on available evidence, that is a false hope. For the past 40 years, the Arab population has boomed in areas under Israeli control, and it is growing most quickly in Gaza, where the economic situation is most dire.
We also have to ask: What would be the impact on the United States of supporting apartheid or ethnic cleansing, presumably under a President Huckabee? Certainly, no other country in the world would back the extreme solution he has championed; we would be going it alone with Israel, and America would and should be held responsible for supporting such brutal repression. It would contradict everything we as Americans have claimed to stand for on the international stage, and it would doom any chance of improved relations with the Islamic world. The willingness of the non-Arab world to cooperate in fending off terror threats would be seriously compromised as well.
Finally, what is the genesis of this idea? Huckabee is by training and profession a Baptist preacher, an evangelical. And his suggested policy is perfectly consistent with the evangelical reading of the Bible, in which God promises the lands in question to the Jewish people for all time. To my knowledge, however, Huckabee has not explicitly and publicly explained his approach in those terms.
But if his policy is not biblically based and driven, what is its basis? What is the rational, humane justification for a policy that would require either large-scale, violent ethnic cleansing or the permanent subjugation of a majority by a minority?
If it is somehow consistent with American values and national interests to back such policies in the Middle East, a candidate for president ought to be able to explain that in terms we can all understand. If it improves our national security to be identified as the champion of such an approach, and to make ourselves international pariahs for doing so, a candidate for president ought to be able to explain that as well.
Huckabee has not done so, probably because there can be no rational, humane justification for such an abhorrent policy.
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269 comments Add your comment
TW
August 19th, 2009
8:57 am
I dunno, Jay, kinda sounds like you don’t ’support God?’
I Report/ Vast White Wing Conspirator :-) You Whine :-(
August 19th, 2009
8:58 am
When did Hickabee become our front runner?
Mrs. Godzilla
August 19th, 2009
8:59 am
What can you expect from a nice old creationist?
Bosch
August 19th, 2009
9:00 am
“President Huckabee” – ewww. I just had breakfast.
I Report/ Vast White Wing Conspirator :-) You Whine :-(
August 19th, 2009
9:01 am
President Obama keeps repeating over and over that his plan does not include any cuts in Medicare. But the legislation he is supporting specifies $500 billion in reduced funding for Medicare, scored by CBO. When arguing that his health overhaul is paid for, he wants credit for these cuts. But when challenged, he wants to deny before the whole country in broad daylight that he is doing it. I can’t recall any precedent for such a Presidential disconnect from reality.-Amspec
Hickabee would alienate Palestinians, Obozo alienates Americans.
The bigger issue?
Mrs. Godzilla
August 19th, 2009
9:06 am
BTW
Israeli Settlements Quietly Halted: No New Housing Permits Granted
here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/18/israeli-settlements-quiet_n_262338.html
stands for decibels
August 19th, 2009
9:06 am
Just a quickie–thanks, Jay, for pointing out the bleedin’ obvious.
I didn’t think it was necessary, but we have some very thick folks posting here.
later, all.
NRB
August 19th, 2009
9:09 am
Well Jay,
It’s a lot better than Obama’s “plan” for mideast peace…you know…by sending our troops to die for oil in Afghanistan?
Funny how you and the rest of the midstream media don’t whine about the very expensive, and deadly conflict in Afghanistan…but then it’s a Democrat in office now.
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
August 19th, 2009
9:10 am
Well, I sure wish Israel and the Towelheads would get along like good Christians.
But since they don’t, I reckon we got to try a Southren Strategy. Make them all join together and make up one big nation.
Oh, I know what you’re thinking. The Towelheads would outnumber the Jews and pretty soon would take over the country and kick all the Jews out.
But I got a plan to deal with that too. See, you make them all get Voter ID cards. Since all the Towelheads are on somebody’s Most Wanted list, they wouldn’t want to go get a Voter ID card where they could be arrested. And since most of the Towelheads don’t own cars and such, it would be mighty hard for them to get a Voter ID. So not many of them could vote and the Jews would control the place just like Republicans control GA.
And to make sure they controlled it we could pack all the Towelheads into a few counties where they wouldn’t have much punch in the whole country.
So if this was put in place the Rev. Huckabee’s idea would work out good. He could be elected VP and Sarah could be elected President and they could see to it that the Towelheads wouldn’t be able to stir up much trouble in this big new country. They would send the Marines after them quicker than you could say Go Fish.
No charge for the idea and I know it will work. Have a good day everybody.
Lord Help Us
August 19th, 2009
9:10 am
Whiner, you tell us…who is your front runner?
Mrs. Godzilla
August 19th, 2009
9:12 am
…as opposed to when there was a Republican in office and….
OOOPS! he attacked the wrong country!
Taxpayer
August 19th, 2009
9:12 am
Rationale! From one of those people! Why, the rationale is always the same. For, the bible tells them so.
Jackie
August 19th, 2009
9:14 am
Many of the fundamentalist believe the Jews will convert to Christianity and welcome Jesus back to earth for the second coming lending to the fundamentalist contention all but Jews should be removed from modern Israel.
Given that basic premise, should the fundamentalist give credence to the belief the Jews will convert? Should our Mideast policy be hamstrung by this erroneous supposition?
Taxpayer
August 19th, 2009
9:14 am
Obama alienates American Taliban.
No need to thank me for fixing that sentence for you, whiner. It was my pleasure.
Turd Ferguson
August 19th, 2009
9:14 am
http://www.moonpie.com
NRB
August 19th, 2009
9:16 am
OOOPS! he attacked the wrong country!
—————————————————–
Afghanistan isn’t the “right” country either, dimbulb.
Gotta love the “two wrongs make a right” argument from the left, who all of a sudden are okay with spending billions of dollars in an unnecessary war.
Of course, since you’re an overweight welfare-queen, the obvious hypocrisy of the situation eludes you.
@@
August 19th, 2009
9:18 am
Like I said, jay, Huckafee doesn’t have realistic solutions.
He’s a liberal.
Paul
August 19th, 2009
9:18 am
Jay
Right off, are we mixing Palestinians with Arabs? Many Arabs are Israeli citizens, yet I don’t believe they’d consider themselves Palestinians.
The first option: seems to me if we weren’t going to see any sort of mass exodus, Palestinians would have to stay right where they are – Gaza and West Bank. I’ll have to doublecheck, but I don’t think this is acceptable to significant elements of the Palestinian leadership. So that leads to the question: what else do they want? And, if they want something else or something more, aren’t they in fact advocating a mass exodus?
Second option: gets back to the question are Israeli Arabs Palestinians?
I don’t have much regard for Huckabee’s proposal. But he’s not the President. President Obama is.
So, does the President have a realistic plan for a sustained peace? And even if he does, the larger question is, not will the Israelis go along, but will the Palestinians go along? And if they won’t – why not?
We see Democrats standing in their ideological concrete over something as relatively minor as a proper definition of a public plan for health care, yet we cannot comprehend why Mideast hatreds that go back generations and are couched in phrases of “exterminate them” and “never again” aren’t tossed aside for a ‘just solution’?
pat
August 19th, 2009
9:19 am
If you really want to hurt Israel, give them health care reform.
Doggone/GA
August 19th, 2009
9:21 am
“Of course, since you’re an overweight welfare-queen”
Final recourse of the conned: when you can win the argument, launch a personal attack on your opponent.
Paul
August 19th, 2009
9:21 am
NRB
Afghanistan gots oil?
Taxpayer
August 19th, 2009
9:21 am
May 23, 2009 “Counterpunch” (cont.)…The story of the conversation emerged only because the Elysée Palace, baffled by Bush’s words, sought advice from Thomas Römer, a professor of theology at the University of Lausanne. Four years later, Römer gave an account in the September 2007 issue of the university’s review, Allez savoir. The article apparently went unnoticed, although it was referred to in a French newspaper.
The story has now been confirmed by Chirac himself in a new book, published in France in March, by journalist Jean Claude Maurice. Chirac is said to have been stupefied and disturbed by Bush’s invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs”.
In the same year he spoke to Chirac, Bush had reportedly said to the Palestinian foreign minister that he was on “a mission from God” in launching the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and was receiving commands from the Lord.
There can be little doubt now that President Bush’s reason for launching the war in Iraq was, for him, fundamentally religious. He was driven by his belief that the attack on Saddam’s Iraq was the fulfilment of a Biblical prophesy in which he had been chosen to serve as the instrument of the Lord.
Many thousands of Americans and Iraqis have died in the campaign to defeat Gog and Magog. That the US President saw himself as the vehicle of God whose duty was to prevent the Apocalypse can only inflame suspicions across the Middle East that the United States is on a crusade against Islam.
So, would Huckabee just pick up where Bush failed and continue the crusade. Only his hair dresser knows for sure since he has not been quite as open as Bush with his beliefs, has he?
NRB
August 19th, 2009
9:21 am
So Jay, do you agree that we need to send America’s poor people to off to Afghanistan and kill brown people. Why is Obama acting like Hitler by trying to take over the world and kill foreigners?
Is oil so important that we must spend billions of dollars in the Afghan war, Jay?
Oh please guide us Jay! Tell us what to think!
NRB
August 19th, 2009
9:22 am
Paul: no Afghanistan does not have oil. I’m mocking the mental disorder known as liberalism.
Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander
August 19th, 2009
9:22 am
All you call yourself a Christian huh Jay? You know that if Huckabee’s reasons behind this policy are purely biblical based, there would be no ethnic cleansing. Also, from a Christian standpoint, there must be no compromise on Jerusalem. It is common knowledge that Islam followers are breeding at a rate that will encompass the world by 2050 if we make it that far.
USinUK
August 19th, 2009
9:23 am
TF –
I think I love you for your 9:14
(although, I never was a fan of RC cola)
Jay
August 19th, 2009
9:23 am
NRB, Democrats didn’t criticize the war in Afghanistan under Bush, either.
And while you’re here, maybe you can explain to the rest of us your reference the other night to “McVeigh’s heroic effort” at Oklahoma City.
What precisely did you find heroic about it?
Taxpayer
August 19th, 2009
9:23 am
Huckabee is a liberal! My, how the GOP has managed to spread those tent wings.
Doggone/GA
August 19th, 2009
9:25 am
“Is oil so important that we must spend billions of dollars in the Afghan war”
What oil?
Paul
August 19th, 2009
9:25 am
Redneck Convert
You need to submit to the Foxworthy Blue Collar tour. You’d make a fortune. First line was priceless –
Mrs. Godzilla
[[OOOPS! he attacked the wrong country!]]
and he left the current Pres with a system in place to get out pretty quick. Which the current Pres is doing. But the current Pres just told the vet group we’re gonna be in that other country for yearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs.
Somehow, that doesn’t leave me feeling all warm and fuzzy -
USinUK
August 19th, 2009
9:26 am
Paul –
I replied to your last post downstairs …
Huckster
August 19th, 2009
9:26 am
You left out the part about increasing Isreal’s froeign aid to $10,000,000,000 and giving them the bomb.
Mrs. Godzilla
August 19th, 2009
9:26 am
NRB
First that whole dimbulb thing….is that needed? Does that help your case? And overweight welfare queen?
Aside from the fact that you’re wrong on both points your attitude is
pretty crappy and frankly it makes you look like the grumpy old “get off my lawn” man. Not a particularly effective way to make your case.
But it’s your free speech, and if you want to use it poorly it’s your choice.
So you support increasing the Taliban?
So you support safe havens for AL Qaeda?
What eludes me is why yo’ mama didn’t slap some sense and manners into you when she still had the chance.
Maybe you were adopted.
lovelyliz
August 19th, 2009
9:27 am
Don’t confuse support of Israel with any affection for the Jewish people. It’s the real estate and it’s neo-conservativly, King James Bible interpreted, implications that these folks are interested in. As for the Jews, they really couldn’t care much less. The only people “they” care for less than the Jews are any Arabs/Muslim/Palestinian people (they all look the same).
I Report/ Vast White Wing Conspirator :-) You Whine :-(
August 19th, 2009
9:28 am
LHU- I’m going to vote for Hillary Klinton in the dimocrat primary if that helps you any.
Paul
August 19th, 2009
9:28 am
Taxpayer 9:21
Do you suppose you could provide us with some links to Church of Christ apocalyptic beliefs?
Doggone/GA 9:25
[[What oil?]]
Well, every military base has at least one gas station, and the Air Force bases have these big fuel containers…
Doggone/GA
August 19th, 2009
9:29 am
“It is common knowledge that Islam followers are breeding at a rate that will encompass the world by 2050 if we make it that far.”
You can rest easy. The world is going to end on Dec 21, 2012 anyway (according to the Myan calendar)
USinUK
August 19th, 2009
9:29 am
Mrs G –
speaking on behalf of adopted people everywhere … please don’t lump NRB in with us.
thank you.
USinUK
August 19th, 2009
9:30 am
Paul and Doggone –
Afghanistan doesn’t have oil … what it does have is a very strategic pipeline.
Lord Help Us
August 19th, 2009
9:30 am
Nice dodge…coward.
Hannah
August 19th, 2009
9:32 am
Simple, tell Hilary Clinton that there too many “Arabs” and they are in need birth control and the politics of eugenics to control their population, after all all 22 Arabs states are too small for them so they have come to Israel for land. Huckabee for President!!!!
Paul
August 19th, 2009
9:32 am
USinUK 9:26
Thanks for reminding me GOD plays an essential role in Democrats’ current political strategy!
Captain Underpants
August 19th, 2009
9:33 am
USinUK
August 19th, 2009
9:23 am
; )
Checkout their site. I like the tshirts, also one can purchase pies buy the case…OH YEA. I consume about a box of mini’s on a weekly basis. For awhile they were unlocatable in the Kroger so tried the Lil Debbie pies as substitute. No comparison.
Only the ORIGINAL MOON-PIE will do!!
PS…I noticed also on the site strawberry, orange, banana…mmmm dont know about all that new fangled mess.
Go with whatcha know!
@@
August 19th, 2009
9:33 am
O.K., jay, I think Obama’s Science Czar, John Holdren has a solution for Palestine’s population explosion.
Adding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods is a suggestion that seems to horrify people more than most proposals for involuntary fertility control. Indeed, this would pose some very difficult political, legal, and social questions, to say nothing of the technical problems. No such sterilant exists today, nor does one appear to be under development. To be acceptable, such a substance would have to meet some rather stiff requirements: it must be uniformly effective, despite widely varying doses received by individuals, and despite varying degrees of fertility and sensitivity among individuals; it must be free of dangerous or unpleasant side effects; and it must have no effect on members of the opposite sex, children, old people, pets, or livestock.
Obama can send him over to negotiate research and development with Israel. Together they can figure out a way to bring about birth control among the Arabs in their midst.
Yup!
pat
August 19th, 2009
9:34 am
I don’t find it his sentiments biblically based at all. I think they are based on the 6 Day War. Israel was attacked by 6 countries and in 6 days they kicked their collective butts and took their land. Since this is how most land has been acquired around the world, the land is by rights, theirs. The worst case scenario is what we have right now which is a state of limbo. Either one of the following would be better, either fully occupy the land as part if the state of Israel or just leave it. The perpetual limbo is worse than either one of those scenarios.
Of course, all the palestinians have to do is renounce the violence against Israel and recognize it’s existence and they will get statehood and there will be nary an Israeli boot on their soil, as the difined in the road map. Honestly, how hard is that?
Paul
August 19th, 2009
9:34 am
USinUK 9:30
Please, please, please do not telll me we not need to send American military forces to guard the very important strategic pipline all along the ’stans and other countries it goes through… please…………
Mrs. Godzilla
August 19th, 2009
9:35 am
sorry USinUK, no slur intended
maybe it’s a case of being hatched instead of born….IT (NRB) obviously wasn’t raised properly
Paul
August 19th, 2009
9:35 am
USinUK
wow. that shoulda’ been ‘please do not tell me we need to send American military”
norman ravitch
August 19th, 2009
9:36 am
Huck shares the rightwing Likud view that the Arabs should be expelled from all of Palestine so that a greater Israel can be created. These same evangelicals used to be furious anti-semites. Now they are furious Zionists. In neither case do they give a fig about the Jews; they care only about their pseudo-biblical fantasies.
Taxpayer
August 19th, 2009
9:37 am
Clearly, compromise is the only choice here. Once Huckabee has obtained the title of “former President of the US”, he should set up a meeting with former President Carter and tell him what needs to be done in order to solve these other people’s problems for them. After all, it’s all about personal responsibility… and freedom… and no taxes… .