What's a Palestine?
After a host of recent conversations with my comrades, I have come to the conclusion that there needs to be some light shed on the darkness in the Middle East. Yeah there is a truce for now, but I bet your still curious. Two questions arise that I am confident will be answered in contrarily varying ways elsewhere. What is Palestine? What is Israel? Here I will attempt to answer these questions i an introductory fashion, and equip the public with the means to do research on their own.
If you think one article can bring you up to speed with the events over yonder, I humbly suggest the work of one Noam Chomsky. I do not believe that it will be enough, but if you only have patience for one article, please let this be the one. If a cartoonish representation of the atavistic violence backed by an awesome soundtrack can attract your curiosity to the calamity watch "This Land is Mine", and read the information beneath the video. If you have the will to read through decades of antiwar articles on the subject, click here. Cato's sobering look at the Two State Solution. The Just view of the re-elected Noble Peace Prize Winner's hypocritical view of human life in the region, here. To reiterate, the above is an intellectual sports drink to get you in the game of war. How long you play, and when you substitute out are up to you coach.
The farce called the One State Solution, is proposed by those seeking peace in the region as a response to the plethora of problems that arise in establishing two sovereign States. George Bisharat, professor of Law at UC Hastings, rightly calls it the "two state mirage". His reasons are legion
The obstacles to meaningful Palestinian statehood are constantly mounting, most tangibly in the form of Israel's illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Some 600,000 Jewish settlers now reside there-- three times as many as at the beginning of the Oslo peace process in 1993, and their numbers are growing rapidly.
His analysis on the subject is accurate to a tee, but the solution he proposes has problems of its own. These failings come from the worship of the State, statolatry. The One State idea is supposed to be more democratic, egalitarian and realistic in light of Israeli disapproval of a fully sovereign and armored Palestinian State. Bisharat's supplication to the State blinds him to the Israeli desire to praise Eloheim. The Israelis may not all believe in God, but they surely want a State that affirms their cultural view of the deity. Palestinians are not as jewish as the Israelis. Some Palestinians are Christians and most of the others are Muslims. Having One State means resolving these incompatible religions. If Palestinians are forced to be in a State that selects Judaism as its religion, then talk of equality is for nothing. If the One State is not a religious State, have fun getting Israel to agree to such accords. Voting in One State would somehow achieve more favorable results, by making people come together and agree. If the U.S. Congress is any indication of democracy, then they Israelis and Palestinians should stray as far as they can from it. The Congress has succeeded in agreeing to increase the scopes of both domestic and foreign State invasion. This has wrought the initiation of violence in the past, and would only lead to more initiation of violence in the future. Additionally, Benjamin Franklin is often quoted as referring to democracy as two wolves and a sheep voting on dinner plans. I'll let your mind substitute the parties we are talking about into this metaphor. Voluntary exchange is the most critical issue in the area. Sure, the original Israeli invaders of Palestine were wrong. Sure, the 600,000 current settling invaders are even more wrong. However, the most deplorable action by the Israeli State is its blockade of Gaza. The Israeli State dehumanizes Palestinians by calculating the amount of calories needed for bare subsistence. The Israeli State achieves this by invading the voluntary exchange between Palestinians and peace seeking traders abroad. War is brought about not by having one, two or thirty States. War, and by that I mean murder, is the essence of the State.
Let the solution for peace in the Levant be known. The No State Solution is the path to preventing as much murder as possible. Hamas is the Palestinian democratically elected State that ensures war in the region by monopolizing the initiation of force. The Israeli State also has a monopoly on the use of force, democratically elected of course. If both States, and the Palestinian State in the West Bank, are abolished there will be no monopoly on the initiation of violence in the region. Those who will increase social cooperation through voluntary trade will do so. These are the peacemongers. Those who will insist on dominating other humans through initiating violence will be dealt with by security producers aligned with dispute resolution producers.
The key to peace is to allow peaceful association of people. Israelis and Palestinians are people. Profound, I know. There may be Israeli neighborhoods, Palestinian neighborhoods, or the more likely mixed neighborhoods when peaceful association is allowed. The anatomy of the State is inherently an association of war. It cannot be constructed without the threat of kidnapping and murder. Therefore its construction cannot lead to peace in the Middle East. Disintegrate the State to allow peace to ensue and endure.
Post Scriptum:
But, but, but who will build the courts? Kritarchy is the answer.