The Elon Plan is the only realistic and moral plan to solve the Israeli ? Arab dispute that is presently part of any public discussion. And it makes a great deal of sense for both the Jews of Israel and the Palestinians of Palestine-Jordan.



It gives the Arabs sovereignty over seventy-four percent of the land originally included in the Balfour declaration. It gives sovereignty and security control to the land west of the Jordan to Israel. And it rightly suggests that the Palestinian Arabs who will reside within the area of Israeli sovereignty and military control will be politically and economically connected with, and part of, the Arab state to the east.



The Elon Plan offers the Jews a Jewish state in their historical homeland, and the Arabs an end to a conflict that has been disastrous for them in many ways. It is truly a peace plan, for it recognizes that unless terror is defeated, and taken out of the lives of the people of the area, there can be no peace.



But the Elon Plan falls short, and fails to follow its own logic through to the end. It does not include the Palestinian Arabs now residing in the state of Israel within the plan. This population, twenty percent of the present Israel and a population growing two-and-one-half times faster than the Jewish population, also must be made part of the plan. This, for the very important reason that these Palestinian Arabs (who once agreed, or at least part of them agreed, to be considered Israeli Arabs) are a fifth column within the Jewish state. They may now say they wish to remain Israeli citizens, but this, for them, has a very certain and ominous meaning. They know the demography also. And when they say they want to be part of Israel they mean they want to be part of a future ?state of all its citizens?, in which the Arab minority has become the majority and takes over the state. That is, they have no loyalty whatsoever to the concept of Israel, the fundamental concept of a Jewish state promulgated by the state?s founders.



They have no loyalty to the institutions of the state. Their aim is to overthrow the state, and hope to do this by means involving no personal risk or injury for most of them. And here I assume that despite their increasing involvement in terror against Israel, active terrorism will be practiced by only a small minority of their total population. Instead, they believe that by demographic means they will become the majority, and the state will be theirs. For many, the dream would then be re-uniting with the Arab state to the east, and forming one great Palestine, in which the Jewish minority would be reduced gradually to lesser and lesser significance.



To prevent this eventuality, the Palestinian minority within Israel must be treated in the same fashion as those living in Judea and Samaria. They must become part of the Jordanian?Palestinian entity in their citizenship. Israel must remain in control of the security in the territory in which the Arabs live, but those Arabs must have their ?real-life? connection with the Palestinians of Judea and Samaria and the Palestinians resident on the East Bank. This Palestinian minority within Israel, too, might be offered a series of options. Those wanting to serve in the army might even be offered citizenship. There might be a government offer to buy their property should they desire to move to the East Bank. Both these options, however, would be taken only by a small part of their community. The great majority would remain where they are, and be citizens of the Palestine-Jordan state, and, through it, express their political identity.



This plan is the logical extension of the Elon Plan. Of course, at present, there are no Arab takers for the Plan. And also, and this is something even the most fervent supporters of the Plan should understand, the Plan, in itself, bears within it many potential dangers. It is by no means certain to be a panacea. There is, after all, the possibility that Israel, in helping create such a Jordan-Palestine, will be creating an enemy far much more powerful than are the Palestinians in their present state. The Arab state will be on a much larger territory, and once Palestinians from other Arab countries start returning, will be twice Israel?s size in population.



The Elon Plan, however, does seem now the best of all alternatives worth trying. With this amendment as part of it, the Israeli government should adopt the Plan as official policy and begin vigorously promoting it. This, of course, with the goal of achieving within Eretz Yisrael a Jewish state living in security and in peace with its neighbors.