We received a comment on The Way to Middle East Peace Now as follows:
The pure arithmetic and logic of your proposed solution ignores the human element of the problem and the years of suffering and sacrifices made by the native population.
If it was that simple, many countries could be bought out.
The ‘citizenship of choice’ would not include the choice to remain Palestinian.
The test is: offer this precise solution to the Israeli Jews and create for them a homeland in say California. Will they accept it?
Grow up for God's sake! It is stupid and banal.
Our response is as follows:
Thank you for your message.
You do raise important issues which we shall consider point by point:
We are fully aware of the Human Element — the emotions caused by injustice. But rather than being swayed by emotions, as most people do, we chose to find a solution to this problem by considering all the issues involved in this conflict and reasoning about it logically from Prime Principles.
You said, “The ‘citizenship of choice’ would not include the choice to remain Palestinian”.
Today “being Palestinian” means one of:
As the proposed Compensation Project is not to be imposed by force, but is an offer to be accepted voluntarily, those who do not want to accept this offer would remain “being Palestinian”, as above. So, “being Palestinian” will be still a choice.
You suggest, as a test, to offer this solution to Israeli Jews.
The offer is money and US citizenship.
Israeli Jews can come to the USA without this offer and some do. And some do become US citizens.
There are also many US citizens of Palestinian origin who settled in the USA without this offer and would not leave the USA to return to Palestine.
And in the USA and Europe you can find large communities of immigrants from African and Asian countries who settled there and would not go back to their countries of origin.
All these came to the USA or Europe by their own means, and worked the hard way to settle down and acquire the citizenship of the chosen by them country.
And, if offered 3,000.00 USD per adult and 800.00 USD per child, both monthly for 20 years, there would be a stampede of applications not just from Israel, but from all over the world.
Compensation is a standard legal procedure used to deal with violations of land related rights.
This procedure is commonly used by governments when they undertake land development projects on populated land. The affected population is paid compensation so that they can re‐settle elsewhere and be put in a position not worse than they were before.
The compensation is for loss of property, residence, and citizenship rights, and the suffering and sacrifices by the residents of Palestine as a result of creation of the State of Israel.
The amounts are based on the cost of living for 20 years at a comfortable level without need for additional income.
Twenty years is based on the time required for an immigrant family not familiar with the language and culture of the host country to settle down in business or profession.
This offer will be made by the USA (under UN auspices), because it is the easiest and the cheapest way to end the conflict for good. It will also give Israel what they want — a Jewish state in Palestine as promised by Lord Balfour in 1917.
Are there any other alternatives?
You are certainly welcome to propose any alternative, as long as it is practically implementable. You would need to say who will do it, how it will be done, and how much it will cost.
All conflicts are caused by the Human Element (emotions which prevent people from seeing the reality as it is), and it was discovered from times immemorial that to end an endless conflict, or to prevent one side wiping out the other side from the face of the earth, one needs to look at conflicts impartially and logically from the basic principles of Natural Justice. And this is what we do.
The visitor's answer to the above tells even more about the Human Element.