This was also posted on Israel Blogger.
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| Ambassador Bolton addressing the Ingeborg Rennert Center's Guardian of Zion Award
dinner |
As I already blogged on A Jewish Grandmother, my husband and I attended the
Ingeborg Rennert Center's Guardian of Zion Award Dinner last night. So, besides the food, the real highlight of the evening was the speech by
Award winner, former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.
Since the dinner was also attended by many much more knowledgeable and respected writers than myself, such as Caroline Glick, Ruthie Blum and Jerusalem Post Editor in Chief Yaakov Katz, (
all of whom I do have some sort of personal connection,) I await their reports. No doubt that we will read them, most probably in the Friday editions of actual Israeli newspapers.
One of the reasons I've embraced blogging so enthusiastically is that I can make my own deadlines and rules about what gets posted and when.
The crowd at the dinner was international, speaking a multitude of languages among themselves, but the program was in English. Our table was so overfull of diners that we had to put the bread plates in the center so our plates could lie flat and not spill over. There were screens and loudspeakers all over, since we filled two adjoining rooms.
As Bolton began his speech, there was almost a standing ovation when he said:
"...the Two State Solution has failed."
So, it was clear that no matter how diverse the crowd seemed, we did agree on that very basic fact. Every time he mentioned the failure of the Two State Solution, he was greeted with enthusiastic applause. But after that, his ideas fell flat, like a souffle taken out of the oven too early and greeted with a bang.
Bolton's "peace" proposal, what he calls the "Three State solution," IMHO, is as dangerous,
fokokt and unworkable as all the versions of the
Two State one. The three states in Bolton's proposal are Israel, Egypt and Jordan. Please note, that Bolton,
unless I missed it, didn't mention the Golan Heights at all. His proposal only deals with what he calls "the West Bank," sic, and Gaza.
At my table quite a few of us were mumbling to each other how unrealistic, and possibly illegal, as it contradicts prior Israeli treaties with those countries, Bolton's proposal actually is. The crux of Bolton's plan is that the so-called West Bank should
somehow be divided between Israel and Jordan. And of course, the idea of a country called "Palestine," sic, should be scrapped completely. Bolton totally ignores the Israeli Treaty with Jordan, in which Jordan gave up claims to it. Remember that during the nineteen years of
illegal occupation, Jordan did absolutely nothing to develop the area. In 1967, when Israel liberated it, there was no proper electricity, piped water, sewer system, modern telephones etc. Only the State of Israel has invested and upgraded the area. Arab residents have no desire to return to Hashemite rule. And the Hashemites, aka Jordan, aren't interested in them either.
Besides the lack of Jordanian identity among the Arabs here, making safe, secure and sensible borders between Israel and Bolton's fantasy entity are impossibly unrealistic, exactly like it would be with the Two State idea.
Bolton's belief that Egypt is interested in Gaza is so far from historic reality, I really wonder about his knowledge and sanity. If Egypt had wanted it, then Sadaat would have taken it when Menachem Begin gave him the Sinai. Post-Camp David, Egypt sure fought hard for the Taba resort and got that. Egypt has enough stability problems, and the last thing it wants is the responsibility of ruling Hamas supporting Gaza.
There were some excellent things in what Bolton said, which is similar to things I wrote periodically, such as that the basis for most countries' support of
Palestine is their wish that the State of Israel disappear. And I truly wish that Bolton had given a speech on that topic rather than trying his hand at a "peace" proposal. Haven't people realized that succeeding in making "peace"with the Arab terrorists here is as impossible as conquering all of Russia...
