ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES
JUNE 15, 2001

"The Palestinian Time Bomb: An Israeli Unilateral Separation Could Torpedo the Palestinian Grand Plan to Demographically Eliminate Israel"

By Kenneth W. Stein

       The following confidential letter sent by Yasser Arafat to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was discovered in the Palestinian Authority archives in 2048.

June 14, 2001
Washington, D.C.

My Dear Hosni:

          I want to explain to you our tactical and strategic decisions vis-à-vis Israel. The so-called cease fire I have just declared after the Tel Aviv discotheque bombing is a means to an end. Our objectives are to keep the negotiations going forward, keep the Americans and left-wing Israelis interested, slow down settlements, and at all costs prevent the Israelis from separating from us unilaterally.

          Demographic forecasts suggest that by 2010, 50 percent of the population west of the Jordan River will be Palestinian; by 2045, Palestinians will constitute 75 percent of the total population in the same geographic area.

          However, if the Israelis separate themselves from us, our long-term strategy of overcoming them demographically will fail. Exercising the return of Palestinian refugees merely to a new independent Palestinian state, which does not include pre-1967 Israel, does not accomplish our objective of liberating all of Palestine.

          Without a viable Arab military option, we have no choice but to adopt this long-term strategy. We have no real intention of ending the conflict with Israel until it no longer exists as a majority Jewish state. We have cleverly played to their mythical belief that our conflict with the Jews can be negotiated to conclusion, satisfying the Israeli quest for normalcy as a nation.

          We use the tool of negotiating to ingratiate ourselves with the Americans and gullible Israelis, and buy precious time to liberate our land. Our cause for self-determination and the liberation of all Palestine is made easier by the Israeli peace camp, including some Israeli intellectuals and newspaper columnists.

          Many of them, as you know, believe that the Palestinians were wronged in 1948. With their Universalist moralism, keen desire to make Israel a democracy, where Arabs and Jews will be equal and regular bashing of Zionism’s origins, we have allies whom we cannot afford to alienate.

          These Jews hate being labeled as racists or discriminatory in any fashion. The second-class status of the Arab citizens in Israel is a wonderful way to keep them feeling guilty. The convergence of our superior population numbers and their guilt about wronging us fits perfectly with our long-term approach of overcoming them demographically.

          In carrying out this long-term demographic strategy, I once feared that settlements would prevent us from having a contiguous Palestinian Arab state, or they would render out state useless in eventually liberating all of Palestine. But I realize now, the more settlements they build, the more people that populate the West Bank, the greater will be their difficulty in separating themselves from us physically.

          Our greatest fear now is that Israelis will separate themselves from us in some totality, both economically and geographically. Just like they withdrew from Lebanon unilaterally, they might do the same thing on the West Bank.

          If the Israelis declare their new borders unilaterally, incorporate a majority of their settlements and settlers into pre-1967 Israel, and compensate their other settlers to leave, then our strategy of combining low intensity violence while overtaking them demographically will be defeated.

          It is all the more dangerous now because a May Tel Aviv University poll shows that 60 percent of Israeli Jews are in favor of unilateral separation from us—partial or total.

          Their economy can easily disengage from Palestinian labor with only a minor hiccup; we do not have that luxury. If Israel cuts us off, the Palestinian economy and financial condition will become catastrophic. Neither the European Union, Arab states nor American Congress will provide us with the annual $2 billion in subventions we shall need for the next decade to get our economy off the ground.

          If the Israelis geographically separate themselves from us with high walls, electric fences, a by-pass route for us to connect around or through Jerusalem, and a highway to connect Gaza and the West Bank, our strategy is defeated.

          Furthermore, if Israelis declare a Palestinian state unilaterally, they will absolve themselves of being morally blamed for the current sorry state of affairs. They will switch the world’s attention from their complicity in creating and sustaining our condition and place the responsibility squarely on my shoulders!

          Hosni, you need to keep the pressure on Washington to insist that Israel do nothing unilaterally. Promising to stop the violence and negotiating with the Israelis and Americans every now and then buys us Palestinians precious time. But the Israelis could kill the calendar and the clock with unilateral separation. And, if they do so, they probably will not alienate an already disinterested Bush administration.

          Yours in the struggle,

          Abu-Amr