‘Commonplace double standard’

In Rabbi Eric Yoffie’s eloquent Oct. 30 column “Jewish life cannot be sustained without Israel at its core,” he writes, “[T]here is no way that a viable contiguous Palestinian state can come into being unless [the settlements around Hebron and between Nablus and Ramallah] are removed.”

Israel has managed to remain an undeniably Jewish state while having about a million Arab Israelis among its citizens. At the risk of sounding naïve, I do not see why an equally Islamic Palestinian state cannot exist while including 100,000 Jewish citizens within its own borders. I recognize that the settlers might not accept this outcome, but I do not see why the rest of the world can’t work towards a two-state solution, and once achieved, the settlers can ultimately make their own choices regarding which country (Israel or a Palestinian state) they ultimately choose to live in. Certainly Arabs made such choices in 1948.

To take the other position not only permits the settlers to dangerously obstruct the peace process, it propagates the commonplace double standard that it is expected that Arabs can live peacefully in Israel but not for Jews to live peacefully in a Palestinian state.

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