A Countiguous Palestinian State

"A Contiguous Palestinian State".

 

That is what Gorge Bush publicly says he wants. But how is that going to work? Gaza and the West Bank are separate. Separated by worthless desert, granted, but joining the two with land from Israel would separate Israel in two.

 

There are very few countries in the world that are not contiguous. The UK (thanks to Gibraltar), Russia (Kalingrad), the USA (Alaska) are the only examples I can think of. However, and this is important, all those examples are separated by international waters (sea or ocean).

 

Azerbaijan is the only country (that I know of) separated by a non-international sea or ocean. However, it is linked by a river shared with Iran... 

 

And if Israel was split in two, the Israelis could still access the southern portion of their country  by water via the Suez canal, or, if that doesn't work, the horn of Africa.

 

East and West Germany might still be separate countries were it not for Berlin being in the middle of East Germany. And Pierre Trudeau used Quebec's geographical position as an argument to convince non-Quebeckers to keep Quebec in Canada.

 

French speaking Brussels, surrounded by Dutch speaking Belgians, is a big problem when contemplating the separation of that country. As it should be. As being contiguous is important.

 

A land locked West Bank is not going to want to be separated from Gaza. Overpopulated Gaza is not going to want to be separated from agriculturally "rich" (comparatively) West Bank (of the Jordan river).

 

The only solution I see involves giving all of southern Israel to the Palestinians in exchange for land in the West Bank...

 

Or, the West Bank could be given back to Jorden and Gaza to Egypt and we could forget all this nonsense about a Palestinian state.

 

Why is George Bush's opinion on the subject important? Without the American financial aid, Israel would cease to exist. I'm not sure what the point of a Jewish homland is if your future is dependant on a Christian American president. But then again, I don't understand why people would refuse to eat pork.