The "right of return" sought by the Palestinians to the lands from which they were evicted during the war for Israel's independence is not part of a practical solution to the I/P problem, any more than giving the American West back to the Indians was realistic in 1920. Actually, it's even less practical, because in 1920 there weren't enough American Indians left to alter the balance of population power in the US, while if large numbers of stateless Palestinians refugees and their descendants were allowed to return to Israel the essential Jewish character of the State of Israel would be threatened, if not undermined completely.
The bad-faith substitute offered by some Israeli sympathizers, allowing to "return" only persons who were themselves evicted in 1948, isn't even worth spitting on.
Only a withdrawal to pre-1967 boundaries (with rational adjustments) will move the problem toward a solution. Everyone knows this, but a some Israelis, and others, just don't want to give all that good land and copious water resources back to the rightful owners.
So, what's the newest propaganda wrinkle on the subject? The Right To Remain. In the past year or two, Israeli sympathizers who feel that the so-called "settlers" (an Orwellian word if ever one existed) should be allowed to remain in their condos on stolen West Bank land (and what better place for these pesky misfits, geographically as well as ideologically out of the mainstream of Israeli society?) have been floating this idea as a trial balloon. Several posters here have barked this plan up, possibly taking their cue from the Israel Project's Global Language Dictionary, compiled by their notorious Republican propagandist Luntz, who begins by admitting:
Public opinion is hostile to the settlements – even among supporters of Israel. But if you make the issue part of the larger conversation about finding a way for two peoples to live side by side with equal respect and equal rights, then you move the debate to more favorable territory (so to speak). This passage works as a useful way to turn the issue away from settlements and towards peace.
Luntz continues:
Why should all the Jews have to leave a future Palestinian state? There are 1.2 million Arab citizens of Israel who will stay Israeli citizens in a future two-state solution. Why then should all Jewish people have to leave what will become Palestine? What does that say about the character of the future state? Shouldn’t we expect a Palestinian state that is a true democracy to respect all religions and allows citizens to keep their homes and communities?
We especially recommend rhetorical questions, as above, for an issue that is as challenging as settlements.
http://www.newsweek.com/...
Now in theory I'll bet that the Palestinians would not mind having Jews living in their midst-- Jews, that is, who properly bought the land they are living on from a rightful owner, who agree to live as law-abiding Jewish Palestinians in a Palestinian state, without all the benefits the so-called "settlers" enjoy today, such as special-access roads, water-supply preference, the right to roam heavily armed across Palestinian land, and a host of other privileges, petty and gross.
But what kind of idiot would believe that any of the current "settlers," who view themselves as redeeming the Land of Israel, would agree to live in the West Bank like this, and all the less so under explicit Palestinian rule? Maybe a few left-wing Jewish peaceniks would try this, but most of the settlers would flee immediately.
So, without a real prospect that Jews in any number would choose to live as Jewish Palestinians in a Palestinian state on the West Bank, what is all this talk about the settlers' Right to Remain? Just the latest iteration of Israeli expansionism.
Most of this diary has been about the "Right To Remain" as applied to Israelis living in the West Bank. But don't assume that the proponents of this doctrine are being one-sided. They are not ignoring the plight of the Palestinians for one second, they have the same rights as the West Bank Jews-- identical rights, in fact.
The Palestinians also have the Right To Remain in place in their refugee camps or as second-class citizens, serfs really, oppressed and humiliated daily, and finally tossed off the good land, in their own country.
This is one face of Israel today-- a decades-long campaign of harassment, humiliation, intimidation, vandalism, environmental crimes, theft of water, murders, and attempted school bombings by the settlers and their partisans, conducted under the banner of expansionism and with the tacit support of the State of Israel.
Thankfully there are others.