East and West Palestine, and Israel? By Ariel Natan Pasko web
posted February 14, 2005 Has anyone really thought through what
Condi Rice means when she said recently, "Israel [must] continue
to make the hard decisions that must be taken in order to
promote peace and...the emergence of a democratic Palestinian
state." Or before that, "Israel also must recognize that the
Palestinian state, which is within our grasp, must be viable and
contiguous, meaning with enough land to function well." Or when
she told the Senate confirmation hearing that a future
Palestinian state must also be contiguous with Arab neighbors
and mentioned Jordan. Many analysts understand from this that
Washington wants "Palestine" to have a common border with
Jordan, Egypt and eventually Syria, and a territorial link
between Judea, Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza. As she said,
"There cannot be peace in the Middle East unless the
Palestinians gain a state that satisfies their aspirations." But
at what cost? Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Shar