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Jan Willem van der Hoeven, a native of The Netherlands, has been living in the Middle East for over 30 years. He is the founder of The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and is today the director of The International Christian Zionist Center. He can be reached at iczc@iczc.org.il
 
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How should Israel solve the “Arafat problem”?
By Jan Willem van der Hoeven   August 27, 2001

How should Israel solve the problems it has with Yasser Arafat and his terrorist affiliated organizations?

I. The American Model:
They destroyed the Indians and let the rest live autonomously in designated reservations.

II. The NATO Model:
Bomb Arafat's entire Palestinian military and logistic infrastructure, just as NATO bombed Yugoslavia's military and logistical infrastructure, thereby bringing Milosevic to his knees. During the Persian Gulf War, the Western-led nations went further, destroying much of Saddam Hussein's army, though they left him alive to threaten the region with ever increasing and dangerous weapons of mass destruction.

III. The Indian Pakistan Model:
Simply exchange populations using a formula similar to what happened in relation to India and Pakistan in 1947 and 1948: When droves of Muslims from India went over to Pakistan and many Hindus from Pakistan went over to India. Likewise, by creating a Muslim Jordanian-Palestinian state in Jordan, and a Jewish state in the land of Israel, those Muslims who refuse to live peacefully under Jewish sovereignty can choose to live under Arab sovereignty.

IV. The Kuwait Model:
Expel the 75 percent of the Palestinians who, according to just-held surveys, approve of the worst types of terrorist murders and massacres against Israelis in Israel "proper". Kuwait expelled some 300,000 Palestinians for supporting Arafat's alliance with Saddam Hussein to the detriment of Kuwait's safety and security.

V. The Biblical Model:
Believe and act on the basis that the land of Israel in its entirety has been given to the Jewish People as an everlasting possession.

Permit those strangers or non-Jews who want to live as loyal citizens of the State of Israel, obeying its laws and constitutions, equal rights and obligations and to treat them with respect. But bar from citizenship those who incite against Israel or become conduits for Israel's enemies as a fifth column in its midst, treating them as any healthy nation treats those who compromise it's security.

These are the five models that stand before Israel. May Israel choose the way that is wisest and best.

The entire world seems to, more or less, have accepted models one to four: No-one treats the U.S. like a pariah state for the way it treated its Indians; Kuwait was never censured for expelling the Palestinians; India was allowed to 'resettle' its Muslim population; and the use by NATO and Western-led coalition forces of excessive force in dealing with Yugoslavia and Iraq was almost universally accepted and understood.

By choosing to solve its problems in the way set out by the Tanach, Israel can be assured that, in the light of their own past practices, the world's nations will hardly be able to over-criticize the Jewish state; unless, of course, Israel is held to a different standard, in which case the world's response will accurately bear the all too familiar and distinctive characteristic: Anti-Semitism.

Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.