October 16, 2002 From: Stephen Leavitt This response went out to Thomas Friedman today... Dear Tom, I would honestly have to say that this http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/16/opinion/16FRIE.html was your first honest article about Israel, where you honestly defend Israel against the double standard, and where you don’t revert to canned phrases to criticize us, but instead presented logical, reasoned arguments. Regrettably, your arguments are based on faulty premises, and their consequences would be even more disastrous. The demographic issue is certainly not limited to the West Bank and Gaza. What happens in the next 20 years when the Arabs of just the Triangle and the Galil, with their incredibly high birthrates, radically change the demographic ratios of Israel? This is where the numbers are heading. Does Israel then divest itself of those two central regions or does Israel no longer remain a Jewish state in 2020? By cutting off Judea and Samaria, the cradle of Jewish civilization, we’ll have managed to save Israel from the same predicted demographic destruction by only 10 more years! I could give you one of Effie Eitam’s stock answers, which while observationally true, does not directly provide a roadmap. Effie says that Jewish history is not and has never been linear. The Jewish people survive despite events that should have wiped us out, and miraculously flourish just after our bleakest moments . I say ‘wipe us out’, because this is where your basic premise is flawed. The war is not with the Palestinians. It is with all the Arabs (or if you prefer, Islam). It is a religious war. It is not about a two-state solution, but rather a ‘one-Islamic state with no Jews’ solution. This religious war didn’t start with Gaza, Judea and Samaria and it is disingenuous to say that settlements are the obstacles that will keep it going, as if we can suddenly disengage the Palestinian pawns from their pawnbrokers. This war is about the Jewish settlement of Israel sitting in the Arab/Islamic Middle East – and that is the fundamental root cause and the basic premise. But you would prefer to focus on the micro level. What about within the Jewish settlement of Israel? One man, one vote - no? Well, with your solution we would need to keep cutting up Israel like a salami. Demographic issue in Judea-Samara right now. Chop. Demographic issue in the Triangle 10 years from now. Chop. Demographic issue in Haifa and the Galil 15, 20 years from now. Chop. Chop. Only by clearly recognizing the root and consequences of the war will we find a proper solution. The root is the Islamic fundamentalist and non-democratic nature of the dictatorial Arab regimes of the Middle East, including ‘moderates’ like Jordan and Egypt. And the root is the double standard that is used to attack Israel. a.. When the Middle East becomes democratic, when the settlement of Israel is no longer a pariah to be destroyed and expelled, then peace will be possible. b.. When the 500 million dollars of annual U.N. funds are used to rehabilitate the Arab refugees from Arab wars of aggression, instead of perpetuating those Arab refugees in squalor for political or pecuniary reasons, then peace will be possible. c.. When the Palestinian majority of Jordan can vote for their Palestinian leadership without a dictator over them, then peace will be possible. d.. When a solution that doesn’t involve the transfer Jews out of the cradle of Jewish civilization is presented, then peace will be possible. You want a solution that students can answer on the campus? How about this? Both sides lay claim to the same land, and while the Jewish claim to the land is much older and stronger, both sides deserve a basic right of self-determination. But it is a double standard to demand the Arab right to self- determination only in Israel, but not in the rest of the Middle East, and it is a double standard to say that an Arab right of residence and self-determination takes precedence over the exact same Jewish right and Jewish history in the same region. As for a just and fair solution, there are many alternatives that don’t involve creating more Judenrein regions in the Middle East. How about this alternative? When Jordan becomes a democracy, and the suppressed Palestinian majority realizes Jordan as the de facto Palestinian state, Arabs living in Israel will achieve their national aspirations and rights in Palestine, while continuing to live where they are, and the Jews will continue to live and grow where we are and achieve our own national aspirations, and any disputes over shared resources will be worked out between two legal democratic governments that want to work together peacefully. Your solution of cutting us in half and creating another terrorist state on our border is just that, another terrorist state on our border, and the same process that will then have to be repeated in the next generation. Your solution denies us Jews of our basic rights to live in our homeland. Yes, all Arabs, everywhere in the Middle East, deserve the right to vote, but via a just and fair solution that won't abrogate my rights either. Sincerely, Stephen Leavitt Jerusalem, Israel