Peace by expulsion? This is not a new idea at all… it was a method used by the nazis in much of Eastern Europe… expelling Jews, trade unionists and others to concentration camps in other lands…
Bush arrives Wednesday for a three-day visit in Israel and the Palestinian territories, hoping to help Israeli and Palestinian leaders move ahead with fledgling peace talks.
Elon’s plan calls for giving Palestinian refugees financial incentives to
emigrate, granting Jordanian citizenship to the remaining Palestinians, and allowing Israel to retain full sovereignty over the West Bank. All Israeli settlements in the West Bank would remain in place, and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ government would be shut down.
Such an arrangement would essentially allow Israel to keep Palestinian
territories while turning responsibility for the Palestinians themselves over to Jordan.
The plan contradicts the formula for peace that has been accepted
internationally as well as by the Israeli and Palestinian governments, which would see two sovereign states existing beside each other.
Elon’s initiative was dismissed by Jordan when it was first proposed in
October. Jordan ruled the West Bank from 1948 to 1967, when it lost the territory to Israel. In 1988, Jordan renounced its claim, saying Palestinians should decide their own destiny.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called Elon an extremist, denouncing his plans as racist ideas.
“Denying the Palestinians’ existence has only added to the complexities,” Erekat told The Associated Press.
Undaunted, Elon is now seeking new followers from a younger audience. Using a professionally produced mock movie
trailer titled The Last Fanatic, which Elon’s representatives are posting on YouTube, Elon hopes to garner international awareness of his plan.
The clip features Muslim extremists chanting slogans against Israel and the U.S. and a would-be suicide bomber videotaping his final manifesto. Elon’s plan changes their minds: The fanatics abandon their impassioned leader, the suicide bomber reconsiders and removes his belt of explosives, and all of them presumably decide to live their lives in peace and prosperity.
Elon has close ties to evangelical Christians in the U.S., and his plan was endorsed by Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, a figure identified with the conservative Christian right. Elon said no financial support for his costly campaign was coming from the Christian right, and that only Jews in Israel and the U.S. were funding it.