SINAI OPTION
Sinai Option – The Road to Permanent Peace!
by Steven Shamrak.
Reprinted with permission
Only 120 years ago, most parts of the Middle East, including Palestine and the entire Sinai Peninsula, were a desolate, arid, land mass which did not belong to any country. It was a no man’s land with which, for 2000 years, Jews had an unbroken spiritual and historical bond!
The creation of a Mandate system after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War 1 and the grip of the new masters, Britain and France, laid the foundations of the current Arab-Israel conflict:
Trans-Jordan was the part of the Palestinian mandate, which was allocated for creation of a Jewish state by the League of Nations in 1922, in accordance with the Balfour Declaration. Therefore, its separation from Palestinian mandated land was an illegal act. Unfortunately, the dominant imperial powers, Britain and France, controlled the League of Nations which they used to rubber stamp their shady deals at the time.
As a result of the deal, in 1922, in order to secure Britain’s financial interests in the Suez Canal, Sinai was illegally given to Egypt by the British with the permission of King Hussein of Hejaz and Nejd, now Saudi Arabia. In return, Britain transferred control of the land east of the river Jordan to Hussein’s son, Abdullah. Control of the Golan Heights were transferred to the French-run Syrian Mandate. In exchange the United Kingdom got control of newly discovered oil fields in Kirkuk.
Since its independence, Israel has fought many wars with its implacable Arab neighbours, signed numerous cease-fires, so-called Hudnas and even peace agreements. But all those efforts have not brought about any permanent solution to the endless terror Israeli society has been enduring daily.
The solution that can bring permanent peace to Israel and let Arabs live with dignity in their own country was proposed over 100 years ago. It has been deliberately ignored and disallowed by the United Nations.
It is the Sinai option – the transfer of all of the Arab population from the land that used to be called the “Palestinian mandate” to the Sinai Peninsula, an area of contiguous land which is comparable by size with the entire Palestinian mandate: Israel, Gaza, Judea, Samaria, Golan Heights and Jordan! This plan presents the real opportunity for a permanent peace:
1. It will separate the two entirely incompatible communities and will create an environment conducive to the development of a new Arab entity totally independent from Israel.
2. It will provide Arabs with a contiguous landmass. Isn’t that what the PA is demanding?
3. It will give Arabs full territorial, financial, military, political and religious control over the land, natural resources and population. There will be no dependency on Israel!
4. The new entity will be accountable for its actions in accordance with international law.
5. Israel will be able to securely control its border with the new Arab entity and keep it accountable for any terror activity.
6. All anti-Israel terror-inclined elements will be removed from the Jewish lands.
And, this plan is relatively easy to implement because:
1. The new entity can be either part of Egypt or become another independent Arab state.
2. There are only around 250,000 people living in Sinai today, predominantly Bedouins.
3. The SINAI OPTION will resolve the so-called Palestinians refugee question as they can easily be settled in the Sinai. Note: Over 70% of Jordan’s population are so-called Palestinians others are decedents of the refuges from Saudi Arabia.