I was lost while on a cross-country trip. I stopped a farmer in Kansas and asked him how to get to a certain town. His response was, ?You can?t get thar? from here.?



Bush should have consulted that farmer before designing his Roadmap to Peace. You can?t get thar? from here.



Every algorithm that required reciprocity from the Palestinians failed. Now, the Europeans, ignoring all signposts along the way, are simply imposing a Palestinian state upon Israel.



With the last dying embers of the Roadmap, Israel has to accept the bitter reality that negotiations are less than useless. Israel incessantly tried courting peace with the so-called Palestinians, making one painful concession after another, and one one-sided gesture after another, only to be made a fool of again and again. Israel cannot afford the luxury of inaction. Now that a negotiated peace is impossible, we must impose peace.



An Imposed Peace Plan

We can unilaterally give the ?world? closure by ending the conflict in a very simple way:



1. The fiction of the Palestinians must be brought to an end. The so-called Palestinians are not Palestinian. They are Egyptian citizens residing in Gaza or Jordanian citizens residing in the West Bank.



2. Permanent resident visas may be granted to the Egyptian citizens living in Gaza and Jordanian citizens residing in the West Bank. Just as a Bulgarian citizen who wishes to remain in Israel can acquire permanent residency status if qualified, Egyptian citizens that want to remain in Gaza and Jordanian citizens that want to remain in Yehuda and Shomron can apply for a permanent residency visa. According to existing Israeli law, permanent residents can vote in local municipal, county and state elections.



3. Equal Application of Law: Israeli law must be equally applied to all residents, citizens and permanent residents alike; Jews and Arabs alike. Permanent residents that join a terror organization must have their visas revoked and be deported. The lawlessness of the Palestinian Authority must be brought to an end. Israeli law must apply to the permanent residents who live in Areas A and B.



Egyptian and Jordanian Arabs who seek to emigrate from the West Bank should be permitted to freely emigrate. The Israeli authorities frequently deny these Arabs a pass to leave, citing illusory security precautions. Ironically, we have become like the Soviet Union that for decades withheld exit visas of three million Soviet Jews who sought to exercise their basic human right of emigration. We must insist upon equality under the law. Those Egyptian and Jordanian Arabs who wish to emigrate should be categorically permitted the equivalent of an exit visa.



Furthermore, anyone who is either a security risk or participates in the violent overthrow of a government is routinely deported in every democratic country. Just as a Jewish, non-Israeli malcontent who foments racism or is guilty of incitement is deported to their country of origin, Arab malcontents must similarly be deported. The entire terrorist infrastructure from top to bottom must be deported.



Finally, it is unconscionable that Jewish Israeli citizens forfeit due process rights if they live in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, where martial law rather than civil law prevails. Israeli citizens are imprisoned without charges, are prevented legal representation and contact with lawyers, etc. They are citizens and the same due process should apply to them on both sides of the Green Line.



4. All of Biblical Israel must be annexed. There is absolutely no justification in perpetuating the delusion that the West Bank is not Israel. Palestine was a name the Romans gave Israel when they conquered it in 77 CE. It was always a colony, first of the Roman Empire, then of the Ottoman Empire, and, after WW I, a colony of the British Empire. The British divided Palestine along the Jordan River: the East Bank, 80% of Palestine, was given to Arabs and renamed Jordan, and the territory of the West Bank of the Jordan River to the Mediterranean was returned to the Jews for a Jewish homeland. This became Israel - a mere fraction of its original size. In 1948, the Egyptians and Syrians attacked the new Jewish state, and, until 1967, Jordan illegally occupied the West Bank.



In the Six-Day War, Egypt committed an act of war by blockading the Straits of Tiran and Israel used military force to remove the blockade. After the second day of the Six-Day War, Jordan attacked and the West Bank was restored to Israel. The United States takes the position that as Israel fired the first bullet, it technically attacked Egypt and therefore is unjustified in retaining Gaza. However, even the United States must agree that as Jordan attacked Israel, they have no legal claims to the West Bank.



Israeli annexation does not need to be an overt action. Applying Israeli law to this region as it applies everyplace else will have the same effect.



5. Separate states in the West Bank and in Gaza must be established, just as the Sharon, Upper Galilee, Lower Galilee and Negev are separate jurisdictions within Israel, which could be defined as ?states.? They are free to pass additional state or municipal ordinances, just as any other state or municipality within Israel has that prerogative.



6. Buffer zones must be imposed to prevent the possibility of attack. In order to prevent Jews from being within range of snipers and bombers, clear a two-kilometer buffer zone around every Jewish holy site and tomb, around each Jewish community and along the roads in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Any Arabs that have houses and farms within these buffer zones who can prove ownership, with papers delineating the chain of title from the Ottoman, British and Jordanian records, should be compensated. Others are squatters who have no rights to this land.



We must pool our resources to purchase all property in these buffer zones from the so-called Palestinians. From the standpoint of Israeli security, there will be no need for the security fence, but rather there will be sufficient buffer zones between populations. In the long run, the cost to the government in providing security to its citizens will be markedly reduced. From the standpoint of aliyah, the affluent, accomplished Jews of the world will be attracted to the scenic open space in this newly reclaimed land.



7. We can end the conflict simply by investing. By buying out just 1% of the Arab population in Judea and Samaria, Jews can reclaim 58% of the land, because 99% of the Arabs live in concentrated areas on the other 42%. We must flood the courts with motions to compel Israel to evict any so-called Palestinian who does not possess valid title to their land and homes.



With so-called Palestinians confined to cantons, the option remains open for them to sell and find a better life elsewhere. The United Nations Charter gives them this right. Their right to emigrate is an inalienable basic human right. The so-called Palestinians are prevented from exercising their right of free trade by racist fatwas, or religious decrees, of Moslem clerics who issue a death warrant for any Moslem who sells land in Israel to Jews. In a country of law, this must not be tolerated. Ordering the death of the seller is conspiracy to commit murder, plain and simple, whether the terroristic threats are acted upon or not. The cleric must be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Palestinian web sites proudly display execution of land dealers, complete with video and pictures of the execution.



8. Homesteading. Undeveloped land in Judea and Samaria must be cultivated. Just as farmers may apply for agricultural land within Israel, either in joint co-operative projects, as in moshavim or kibbutzim, or in private farming ventures, permits to farm land in Judea, Samaria and Gaza that is owned by the Israeli government must be offered to Israeli citizens. For unowned land, Israel should copy the United States Homestead Act of 1867, permitting citizens to farm abandoned land and record ownership after a number of years. This would simply reinforce the existing Jordanian law that is in full force and effect in the so-called West Bank that permits farming abandoned property. In order for the homesteads to not become a burden upon the Israeli armed forces, homesteaders must be ex-soldiers with valid permits to carry firearms and who have proven ability to protect themselves from infiltrators.



This law is certainly not in violation of the Geneva Convention when applied only to the so-called West Bank. One may debate whether Egypt?s blockade of the Straits of Tiran in 1967 was an act of war. If it was, then even though Israel fired the first weapons, it was a defensive war. If it was not, then Israel?s use of military force against Egypt was an offensive rather than defensive act. However, no one can debate Jordan?s role. Jordan attacked Israel after the second day of the Six-Day War despite Israel imploring the Jordanians not to enter into the conflict. Jordan is unquestionably the aggressor in that war and their loss of the West Bank is permanent. The Geneva Accords definitely do not apply to this territory. As such, even the most extremist view that the Geneva Convention prohibits citizens of one country inhabiting the occupied territory of a conquered country, could only apply in Gaza. To be above reproach, the Homestead Act should at first be passed on so-called West Bank areas.



Best Interests of the so-called Palestinians

While implementing this plan will upset a handful of demagogues who corruptly abused their position of power, it is in the best interest of the so-called Palestinian people. Rather than remaining locked into an armed struggle that they can never win and rather than falling victim to fanatical, corrupt self-rule, this is the best accommodation they can hope to achieve.



In the early 20th Century, their families moved to what is now Israel in the hopes of a better future for themselves. In the new Jewish state, there were jobs aplenty, education for their children and the promise of a modern democracy. Instead, they were turned into a scapegoat for the entire Arab world, forced into the role of oppressed refugees by their own crooked leadership, contained in poverty and exploited by the Western anti-Semitic media. This is their chance for freedom.



Hundreds of thousands of so-called Palestinian Arabs have elected to relocate abroad. They want nothing more than a chance for a normal life. They want to live in an area free of tyranny, injustice and free from those who have exploited them for generations. They understand that were they to stay, they are condemning their children to a lifetime of poverty, abuse by the so-called Palestinian leadership, and anarchy. They do not want to become full-fledged Israelis, which in the future would require three years of army service from their boys and girls just like any other Israeli citizen. They certainly do not want to pay the high taxes that other Israelis pay. They want out.



We should help them out.