How do the Israelis react to the Palestinian question?

Answer 1

First Answer

The first objective was to get a sufficient number of Jews to migrate to Israel to make the concept of a Jewish homeland in Palestine plausible. This was achieved by both legal and illegal migration. Next, the Jews bought up rural properties, often from absentee landlords, but sometimes from the Palestinians themselves, and would assert not just land rights but also sovereign rights over the land bought by Jews. Then, they refused to employ Palestinians on the land, hoping that Palestinians would move elsewhere in search of work.

When Britain seemed likely to implement a democratic, one-state solution that would inevitably favour the Palestinians, the Zionists began a terrorist campaign with the objective of driving the British out. The British finally relented and handed the Palestinian question over to the United Nations, which at first proposed a unitary, democratic state, but then agreed to a two-state solution preferred by the Jews, with both sides having equal shares. Gradually, the Jewish negotiators whittled away the Palestinian share of the proposal, until the United Nations Green Line was reached. Fortunately, the Soviet Union and America supported the Jews in the United Nations.

In the period leading up to the Jewish Declaration of Independence, they armed their citizens until they were ready to begin the civil war. This was the opportunity to drive many of the Palestinians out of the area that was to become Israel, with some forced over the border into Lebanon and Jordan as refugees, while others were driven into the West Bank. The Green Line was never implemented, as the Jews expanded Israel's borders. After the declaration of independence, Israel's envoys encouraged the rulers of Jordan and Egypt to annex the West Bank and Gaza strip. This plan would mean that there no longer were any Palestinians - just Jordanians and Egyptians, but the Palestinians did not assimilate into their neighbours as planned.

After the 1967 War, Israel annexed the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem and began settling Jews in these territories. Again, the Jewish settlements were not intended to remain part of a future Palestinian sovereign state, and the Jews who settled there were not intended to become Palestinian citizens. Each new settlement simply whittled away at the Palestinian territories.

Both sides continue to attack the other; the Palestinians through the use of primitive rockets, the Israelis through military power and, unofficially, rifle fire from settlers on the West Bank. A protective wall and fence has been built between Israel and the West Bank, but in places cuts deep into Palestinian territory.

The main weapon used by the Israelis in recent years has been public opinion in western nations. The Palestinians have little ability to organise on their behalf internationally, but Jews have been able to monitor the western press and put into action letter writing campaigns and opinion articles to support the Israeli cause. At one stage, a number of internet sites called for Jews to join this campaign and gave instructions on how to pressure newspaper editors to favour Israel in news coverage, and how to have letters published. The substantial Jewish population in the United States is concentrated in a small number of states, giving them the swing vote in those states and, arguably, disproportionate political power.

In the negotiations over Palestinian statehood, time is on the Israeli side, as they continue, on one pretext or other, to expand the settlement in the Palestinian territories. Intentionally or otherwise, Israel has no good reason to rush towards a solution to the Palestinian question.

Second Answer

The above answer, while giving very accurate and precise details about how Israel has sought to form itself and the Israeli government's support of the Settlements in the West Bank, does not discuss much about the Israeli reaction to the Palestinian Question: Is Palestine a State? or Should Palestine be a State? While there are a minority of opinions on the extreme that believe emphatically that Palestine does not and should not ever exist, the vast majority of Israelis believe that Palestine should be a state. However, there are a variety of pre-requisites that the Palestinians need to do before they can become this state. These Israelis believe that first and foremost among these is to recognize the State of Israel as a Jewish State on at least the 1949 borders as a final state of negotiations. (This is as opposed to Hamas which has made it unclear if this is the first set of negotiations or final set.) Palestinians have to be willing to negotiate and respect Israel.

Most Israelis are in favor of a Palestinian State because they recognize that it is a necessity to give the Palestinians something both on account of their historical connection to the land and to maintain the Jewishness of the State of Israel, the Palestinians must be able to go somewhere.