Den største trusselen mot Israel kommer ikke utenfra, men innenfra. Gjerdet risikerer å ødelegge muligheten for en levedyktig to-statsløsning. Da har Israel valget mellom å forbli jødisk og undertrykkende, eller et demokrati, og havne i mindretall med alt det innebærer. Dagen er ikke så langt unna hvor kravet vil bli en-mann-en-stemme. Senest i 2015 vil det være flere palestinere enn jøder.

Christian Science Monitor har en lang artikkel med kart over Gjerdet. Sharon wants to have the cake and eat it too.

Sharon’s plans, made concrete

Noen kjernepunkter:

For years, Israel has avoided examining this predicament too closely, but inaction has a cost. There are 4.9 million Jews in Israel and the territories and approximately 4.4 million Palestinian Arabs, according to Israel’s Bureau of Statistics and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). With Palestinian women having an average of 5.9 children each, compared with Israeli women’s 2.9 children, according to the UNFPA, Arabs are expected to outnumber Jews by 2015 at the latest.

Gjerdet kan bli en selvoppfyllende profeti, another fact on the ground:

The road map is meant to help establish a Palestinian state, yet settlement construction and the barrier’s incursions into the West Bank will make that goal much harder to meet, critics say. This is, in part, because few people expect Israel to dismantle the $7.6 million-per-mile barrier quickly, but also because settlers in the territories and Jerusalem now number more than 400,000. They have become a powerful voting bloc.

The barrier’s wide arcs will keep 44 settlements on its «Israeli» side, trapping 274,000 Palestinians in 122 villages, according to a UN report released this week. The report, rejected by the Israeli government, also finds that the barrier’s incursion take 14.5 percent of the West Bank land, excluding East Jerusalem.

Palestinian fears that Israel will use the barrier to take their land are deepening. Palestinians point to the Israeli army’s decision, in October, to make 18,000 acres of land between the barrier and the Green Line a «closed zone,» meaning no one may enter or exit without a permit. This includes the 12,000 Palestinians living in the area. They will have to apply for permits to continue living there and to exit and reenter the area. Israeli citizens and internationals of Jewish descent are exempt from any permit requirement.Jeg er redd Gjerdet vil gjøre det mer sannsynlig at det internasjonale samfunn vil gripe inn i konflikten og pålegge en løsning, med internasjonale styrker til stede, eller amerikanske. Det høyresiden frykter mest av alt kan bli virkelighet.