PJ Media

Here’s how you fix the middle east:

Let’s face it, this is an intractable situation that’s going to require some out-of-the-box thinking. Those who have followed all the peace agreements inevitably leading to dashed hopes have finally come to realize that the Palestinian people will simply never accept a Jewish state and any Palestinian government that acquiesces to a peace deal are dead men walking. There is no end to this and will almost certainly one day result in a cataclysm for the Jewish people, the Middle East in general, and perhaps even the world.

So, If the Muslims are so irate about the existence of Israel on “their land,” fine, we’ll propose a swap. And since the Turks have decided to become involved in all of this–as they should, in that they governed the area for centuries–let’s start there.

The part of Turkey lying to the west of the Bosporus was not only occupied by Europeans from time immemorial, they built one of their greatest cities there, Constantinople. Constantinople’s historic boundaries encompassed everything west of the Bosporus Strait and the Dardanelles (The waterways separating Europe from Asia) to the boarders of Greece. In fact, by all historic measure this land should be a part of Europe but isn’t because of the Ottoman Turk invasion around 1500.

So, for the sake of peace this land is offered to Jews in exchange for the current lands of Israel. Any movement of Turkish Muslims from that area of the historical part of Constantinople in present-day Turkey can choose to migrate to Palestine or move across the straight to Muslim Istanbul. For those Turks who choose to move to former Israeli lands, their homes can be swapped for Israeli homes and land of equal value. Palestine can choose either to become part of Turkey (which they were not long ago) or divide the land into a Turkish-ruled possession and a separate Palestine that ideally would link Gaza and the West Bank.

Now, think of the symmetrical beauty of the exchange. The lands are roughly the same size, they both encompass beautiful, historical holy cities, and have Mediterranean-accesible harbors and shorelines.

And the elegance of this solution might just serve to settle some old scores. The seat of Eastern Christianity is Constantinople. Certainly, Christianity has a thing or two to atone for for its prosecution of the Jews over time–including both the Holocaust and the primarily East European pogroms. Here the Christians give up a share of their historic land to the Jews as compensation.

The Turks swap dead even, but get good-will points in exchange for ruling it over Europeans not only in the former Constantinople but for 500 years of atrocities committed on Christians in the Balkans and, more recently in Armenia as well. If the Turks want to start up the old Ottoman Empire again, what better way than maneuvering themselves into the position of being “The Saviors of Palestine” while attaining a foothold back in the holy land?

The Jews have a lot to give up in this equation by accepting to leave Israel, but they also have at least as much to gain. They would now be living in a safe, Jewish land (easily worked into NATO). A promised land with no former claims that would be far richer as an eternally safe, prosperous, and self-ruled Jewish state that could never be threatened or taken away again. And I have the feeling the promised land is far more resemblant to a nation like this than as a place inhabited by them over a thousand years ago.

Would the Jews ever come to accept the apparent waste of all the sacrifices to obtain the holy land once again? Many never would, but they can be consoled knowing that those sacrifices have brought the world to an understand that they have a right to a homeland and have themselves sacrificed plenty in order to achieve it. Plus, all the turmoil the establishment of Israel has produced has lead the entire world to see the logic of accepting some level of sacrifice by all parties involved in order to obtain it.

The Palestinians should be overjoyed by this arrangement but would have to accept that a large part of Israeli land now becomes part of Turkey.

One more element to this plan’s acceptance is one of the heart, in that it might just save every last Jew in Israel from the next apocalypse, most of the crazy Arabs from themselves, and quite possible the world from nuclear winter. If accepted, it might just also produce a situation that is about the closest proximity to “peace on earth” ever. Not a bad compromise from all parties that they could forever be proud of.