National Infrastructures Minister Avigdor Lieberman has a new plan to deal with Israel\'s problem of its Arab citizens - \"a sharper problem than that we face with the Palestinians; the two cannot be separated.\" Lieberman said that it\'s not that we\'re approaching a situation in which we may lose control, but rather \"we have already lost our control in certain areas. For instance, it\'s about as dangerous to enter Um el-Fahm [in Wadi Ara, between Hadera and Afula] as it is to enter Area A in the Palestinian autonomy. We don\'t enforce building regulations in the Arab sectors in the north, just as we don\'t with the Bedouin in the south. The Arab leadership largely identifies with the Palestinians and with our enemies in the region… We therefore must make a basic decision regarding our relations with the Arabs in Israel.\"
What then does he suggest? \"I propose that we must solve both problems - the Palestinians and the Israeli-Arabs - at once. I do not rule out a population transfer in the final arrangement, which would involve transferring the population of a few of the isolated Jewish communities in Yesha to other [areas] under Israeli sovereignty, and the moving of a significant portion of the Israeli-Arab community into four separate Palestinian cantons. This would also solve the Palestinian problem; we cannot have one Palestinian entity with a \'safe passage\' [between Gaza and Ramallah/Hevron] that will cut Israel in two - this is absurd; everyone knows that we can\'t have armed terrorists going across a safe passage right in the middle of Israel… The four Palestinian cantons - Jericho, Samaria, Judea, and Gaza - will have separate governing authorities, and not one central government, and no territorial contiguity…\"
Lieberman was asked, \"Is it part of your plan that the tens of thousands of Arabs in Um el-Fahm must emigrate to the Palestinian areas?\"
\"Most definitely, we must make sure that those Arabs who see themselves as Palestinians, such as those who demonstrated against Alik Ron yesterday in Jerusalem and chanted that the intifada will win - this is intolerable - [move to the Palestinian areas]. 90% of the Jewish communities in Yesha will come under sovereignty... I am talking about a program in which 55-60% of [Yesha] remains under Israeli sovereignty, with permanent borders. We must make sure that this country remains a Jewish country, and not just a democracy with a Jewish majority, as some of our left-wing leaders want...\"
When it was pointed out that this program is not very practical, Lieberman said, \"No program of this nature can be implemented in one day... Even the new Zionist program in Basel [proposed 100 years by Theodore Herzl] took a few days to be implemented... We have to present a comprehensive program, including final borders and our relations with the Arabs in Israel, with all of its complexity. I see no alternative solution other than this plan of cantons.\"
What then does he suggest? \"I propose that we must solve both problems - the Palestinians and the Israeli-Arabs - at once. I do not rule out a population transfer in the final arrangement, which would involve transferring the population of a few of the isolated Jewish communities in Yesha to other [areas] under Israeli sovereignty, and the moving of a significant portion of the Israeli-Arab community into four separate Palestinian cantons. This would also solve the Palestinian problem; we cannot have one Palestinian entity with a \'safe passage\' [between Gaza and Ramallah/Hevron] that will cut Israel in two - this is absurd; everyone knows that we can\'t have armed terrorists going across a safe passage right in the middle of Israel… The four Palestinian cantons - Jericho, Samaria, Judea, and Gaza - will have separate governing authorities, and not one central government, and no territorial contiguity…\"
Lieberman was asked, \"Is it part of your plan that the tens of thousands of Arabs in Um el-Fahm must emigrate to the Palestinian areas?\"
\"Most definitely, we must make sure that those Arabs who see themselves as Palestinians, such as those who demonstrated against Alik Ron yesterday in Jerusalem and chanted that the intifada will win - this is intolerable - [move to the Palestinian areas]. 90% of the Jewish communities in Yesha will come under sovereignty... I am talking about a program in which 55-60% of [Yesha] remains under Israeli sovereignty, with permanent borders. We must make sure that this country remains a Jewish country, and not just a democracy with a Jewish majority, as some of our left-wing leaders want...\"
When it was pointed out that this program is not very practical, Lieberman said, \"No program of this nature can be implemented in one day... Even the new Zionist program in Basel [proposed 100 years by Theodore Herzl] took a few days to be implemented... We have to present a comprehensive program, including final borders and our relations with the Arabs in Israel, with all of its complexity. I see no alternative solution other than this plan of cantons.\"