According to your April 19 front-page news article, “The dilemma, plainly stated, is that if Israel annexes the West Bank it will take in 2.5 million Palestinians who will either be granted Israeli citizenship and soon outnumber Jewish Israelis or not be given the right to vote, making Israel an apartheid state in the eyes of much of the world.” (“Unwavering Support For Israel At Risk In Annexation Proposal”)
Actually, that’s not Israel’s dilemma at all. Nobody is proposing to “annex the West Bank” and “take in” millions of Palestinian Arabs. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said he is considering extending Israeli law to Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria. The Palestinian Authority occupies about 40 percent of those territories, and 98 percent of the Palestinian Arabs live under the PA. They would not be affected by what Netanyahu is considering.
All that’s under discussion is the governance of the 60 percent of Judea-Samaria that Israel still rules. There are only a small number of Arabs living there. They do not pose a demographic threat to Israel.
Since 1995, nearly all Palestinian Arab towns have been under the laws of the Palestinian Authority. So why can’t Israeli law be implemented in the Jewish towns? Why do the Jews still have to be governed by the arbitrary and cumbersome system of the old Israeli military administration, while the Palestinian Arabs get to live under their own laws?
Long Branch, N.J.
