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Peace Process

Sharon looks to sell Israel's birthright


By Ryan Jones
November 28, 2005

Emulating the blunder of their patriarch's elder brother Esau, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new Kadima Party Monday said Israel has no choice but to sell its birthright for the ?bowl of pottage? it believes will ease the nation's current ills.

?The people of Israel have a national and historical right to all of Israel, and together with that the need for a Jewish majority, and so we must concede part of the land of Israel in order that a Jewish and democratic state may exist,? Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said as she read out the party's official platform at its first official meeting as a Knesset faction.

The manifesto makes clear reference to a demographic threat that has been proved false by recent studies.

Conducted by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, one such survey found that population figures quoted by those advocating the establishment of an Arab state west of the Jordan River have been artificially inflated by as much as one-and-a-half million persons.

A more detailed look at the numbers showed a Palestinian Arab population numbering no more than 2.5 million persons in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, giving the Jews a firm 60 percent majority west of the Jordan River.

That ratio has remained largely unchanged since 1967 and is not expected to shift in the Arabs' favor any time soon, considering the Jewish birth rate is only slightly lower than that of the Arabs and is constantly augmented by Jewish immigration.

Some have argued that the real demographic threat lies in allowing the establishment of a sovereign ?Palestinian? entity in Judea and Samaria, which will quickly flood with so-called ?refugees,? providing the Arabs an indisputable majority between the river and the sea.

This state with its rapidly ballooning population will continue to rely heavily on Israeli public services, putting the Jewish state under tremendous strain, and eventually resulting in Israel's Arabs reuniting with their ?Palestinian? brothers and demanding the reunification of ?their? lands.

So says Michael Wise of One State Plan, a movement that advocates a one-state solution under the current Jewish sovereignty.

The Kadima platform also insists a government headed by Sharon will preserve Jewish control over a united Jerusalem. But similar declarations in the past regarding issues such as negotiating with terrorists have all been broken down under waves of international pressure.

Meanwhile, other voices, such as prominent Chabad Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe?s, have urged Israel's religious public to more fervently seek the replacement of the ?current rule, which is called 'the State of Israel' with the true Kingdom of David.?

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