"Why can't the Jews and the Arabs just sit down together and settle this like good Christians?" ~Warren Austin, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations 1948

Palestinians Voted Full Membership in UNESCO

I recently received an e–mail from the Simon Wiesenthal Center informing me that "Palestine" (their quotation marks) was voted in as a member of UNESCO. The SWC asked that I sign a letter of protest to UNESCO's Director–General Irina Bokova.

I contacted no one.

Ask yourself this question: in the 44–year conflict between the Palestinians and Israel, have the fundamentally unchanging Israeli policies towards the territories brought about even a modicum of long–term peace and stability?

Israel now has an opportunity to be what she should be: a light unto the nations. Let her take the high road by setting an example for all.

Face it, Israel is disliked by nearly all the world's nations. She receives American support in large part because of the political power exerted on Washington by the self–interested, hypocritical, capricious, evangelical–Christian ignoramuses.

Similarly, nobody in the Middle East trusts the Palestinians. They've been booted out of every Arab nation in which they've lived and are considered the hillbillies of the Mideast. Nobody will have them, but Arab governments cynically use them for their own political gain.

Given this situation and some political will, Israel could make the Palestinians a generous offer of statehood they can't refuse. If the Palestinians do reject the offer—thereby revealing their motive being the destruction of the Jewish state—Israel has won the PR war. The Palestinians would be seen as the miscreants. If they accept the offer, the Palestinian government would be held to the same criteria as other civilized nations, responsible for the well–being and defense of their citizens. That's a full–time job in the Mideast. Other Arab governments wouldn't militarily intervene knowing they'd be tangling with a country with approximately 300 tactical nuclear warheads. Palestine would become the Arab League's headache.

To paraphrase Abba Eban, the best thing that ever happened to Israel was the 1967 war, and the worst thing that ever happened to Israel was the 1967 war. Israel now has the biggest ratio of defense spending to GDP and as a percentage of the budget of all developed countries: $2,300 per person, a burden that's already causing domestic demonstrations and unrest in Israel. So long as the Israeli government continues to let inflexible, ultra–religious zealots and unbridled capitalists guide her future, she is doomed.

The threadbare arguments from both sides are redundant and unproductive. Albert Einstein said, "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Let's see something new, daring, and different.

It might work.