Transfer, please.

Most of the Palestinian arabs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are "refugees" according to international law.

That being the case, this means that they are not in their permanent homes.

Why not resettle them in permanent homes in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria or elsewhere under Muslim hegemony? Why must these people who are in their temporary homes be settled in Israeli land west of the Jordan River?

It's time to revisit the Alon Plan, I think.

It just means the Pal state will have to be subject to sensible constraints.

1. Israeli control over the border with Jordan, through which any missiles would have to be smuggled for a period of several years, to be followed by some kind of international control.

2. Commitment on the part of the international community (Which mainly means the US, for these purposes) that any appearance of missiles on the West Bank would constitute Casus Belli for Israel, whether or not said missiles are fired.

3. An adjustment of borders - Israel to annex Maaleh Adumim, Gush Etzion, and Ariel, to improve its strategic position (and yes, I know that doesnt solve the range problem for katyushas, etc, but it helps the overall strategic problem)

Now the crazy left will call this a "bantustan" not a state, but we are adult enough to ignore them, arent we?

1.Thats true of Gaza, but not the West Bank. Most West Bankers are NOT '48 refugees or their children.

2. Allon plan did not intend transfer. It called for dividing the WB into cantons, with Arab cantons to be attached to Jordan

3. This may actually help the path toward a Pal state. Hamas and Hezbollah, by their rejectionism are the main obstacles to Pal statehood. By destroying Hezbollah, Israel is eliminating an obstacle

I'm starting to wonder whether, in the end, there won't be two states, or two provinces: Gaza and the West Bank.

Just so there's no confusion, I meant the Elon Plan, named after Benny Elon. I don't mean the Allon Plan, named after Yigal Allon.

The Elon Plan is at http://www.therightroadtopeace.com/eng/DefaultEng.html

Any minute now you'll try to pretend that Israel ever had any interest in a two-state solution.

Israel has had more interest in a genuine two-state solution than any of the other Middle East states, which have never had any. The Arab bloc never recognized the existence of Israel (although a few individual nations did). The PA and Hamas never did.

You can't have a 2 state solution if an entire region doesn't accept the existence of one of them.

This problem seems to be solving itself - the years of Israeli "occupation" brought such a marked rise in living standards that there were 20-30,000 illegals *immigrants* from Jordan and other countries every year.

Now, after almost a decade of Arab control, and the resulting chaos, graft, and thuggery - there is a net emigration of 20-30,000 a year. The ingathering of the "Palestinian diaspora" has not materialized - surprise, surprise - and the demographic threat has already been debunked.

Ariel Sharon first made a name for himself by defending pre-67 Israel from attacks on what is now the area of Ben-Gurion airport. Back then this was "disputed territories". Now all these areas are part of consensus Israel.

It's the same war, stretched out over almost a century. And the Arabs will at some point miss their last opportunity, to paraphrase Abba Eban.

Liberalhawk, Actually, the majority of Palestinian arabs in the West Bank may well be officially refugees.

According to UNRWA, there were (as of March 31, 2005) 687,542 "Palestine Refugees Registered with UNRWA (PRRUs) in the West Bank and 961,645 PRRUs in Gaza, for a total number of 1,649,187 PRRUs in the West Bank and Gaza. By contrast, Bennett Zimmerman's study argues that there are 2,500,000 Palestinian arabs in the West Bank and Gaza in 2004. Therefore, approximately 65% of all Palestinian arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza are refugees in temporary homes.

In my opinion, these refugees should be resettled in Jordan (already home to 1,780,701 PRRUs, according to UNRWA, Lebanon (home to 400,582 PRRUs), Syria (home to 424,650 PRRUs), or elsewhere in the Arab countries of the Middle East.

Judith - I don't deny that most of the region has in general had no interest in the Israeli half of a two-state solution to the Palestinian problem. But neither has Israel generally had any serious intention of recognising the Palestinian half. So everyone wants a two-state solution except all the countries in the area affected. Not a recipe for success.