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Separate Peace

It is possible to incorporate 80 percent of the settlers on the Israeli side of the fence. This requires Israel’s taking 8 to 10 percent of the West Bank. And, given that Israel is acting unilaterally, it may take more like 15 or 20 percent, which, the argument goes, can be negotiated when the Palestinians are ready.

But what about the 50,000 to 60,000 Israelis on the Palestinian side? Who also happen to be the most radical, religiously driven settlers? Schueftan argues that Israelis have already given up on them. “The settlers know it,” he says. “Members of their leadership council have come to see me five times to discuss these issues. They understand that when they lose two thirds of the Israeli public, they’re doomed.”

The ideological obstacle may also prove less formidable than it used to be. The ugly reality on the ground since the failure of Oslo has closed off Israel’s options. Both the dream of the left and the dream of the right now look like broken relics from another time. The dream of the right, of course, was the greater land of Israel. A Jewish homeland that incorporated the West Bank and Gaza. In this fantasy, Israel would control the territories and the Palestinians would live with some measure of autonomy within a Jewish state.

The dream of the left was that Israel would give back the territories, the Palestinians would have their state, and everyone would live together, side by side, with full economic and social connectedness.

Schueftan argues that the left’s vision of a cooperative peace was never a real possibility. “This is the reason Israel’s left is totally impotent now,” he says. “Because they continue to sell this complete fantasy. And Israelis know it’s a fantasy.”

Even during what in retrospect looks like the golden days of Oslo, Palestinians never really accepted the notion of a Jewish state. Not a single map or a single schoolbook was ever altered to reflect a new reality, and the Palestinians never budged on the right of return. “Oslo,” Schueftan says, “was Jews helping Palestinians manipulate Jews. It has always been a zero-sum game for the Palestinians. They want to harm Israelis more than they want to help themselves.”

Schueftan is not against making concessions. On the contrary, he says he would have happily given the Palestinians the territories—and a piece of Jerusalem as well—if he believed they would accept a two-state solution. What he has done is take the assumption of the right and combine it with the conclusion of the left. “The right starts with the correct assumption. Namely that the Arabs want to butcher us. But they arrive at the dumb conclusion that because they want to butcher us, we need to stay in Gaza and Nablus and Ramallah and Hebron forever.”

“On the other hand, the left,” he says, “starts with the right conclusion, but based on the wrong assumption.” The conclusion is that Israel should get out of the territories, but the assumption is that all the Palestinians want is peaceful co-existence.

“The Arabs do hate us, and they do want to kill each and every one of our children,” Schueftan says. “So we need to leave the West Bank and Gaza because the only kind of society that can survive generations of conflict with the Palestinians is a society with a solid Jewish majority. A society that is completely convinced it is morally justified in what it’s doing.”

Schueftan argues that it is critical, however, that the Palestinians not be given 100 percent of the West Bank. At least not right away. “They must pay for killing 900 Jews in this three-year war they have been waging. We cannot send the message that if you kill Jews you get 100 percent of what you want. It would reverberate for generations.”

There are a number of serious arguments against Israel’s unilaterally separating itself from the Palestinians. First, it is a violation of international law. The World Court at The Hague is scheduled to hear the case against Israel’s security fence in a few weeks. The Europeans will use this as a reason to isolate Israel and impose sanctions. “But since the Europeans are such complete incompetents,” Schueftan says, “and have never done anything right, even the sanctions probably won’t be effective.”

The Palestinians and others have already argued that the fence will turn Israel and the territories into some kind of South Africa, especially given the fact that Israel will hold onto the Jordan Valley until it is determined there is a responsible Palestinian leadership. If in doing this they decide to build a fence on the eastern side of the West Bank, the Palestinians will effectively be surrounded. But there are no plans right now to actually build this side of the fence.

It is also argued that the Palestinians will end up with a bunch of noncontiguous pieces of land—in essence, a collection of Bantustans. Schueftan argues this is completely untrue: It is simply anti-Israel propaganda. “We are giving the Palestinians what they want—a state on contiguous land. Not because they deserve it but because it is the only way to get rid of them. There has to be territorial contiguity, because if there isn’t, we will be held responsible for their failure.”

But finally, Schueftan is only interested in one argument. “If we have to control these areas until the Palestinians give us peace,” he says, “we will cease to exist.”