Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[Ste]

"they vote in their own elections (they never did under Arab control mind you) for their own bodies (municipalities and their own Parliament. Any problem with that?"

Yes, two big problems!

1) The Knesset controls the whole of Israel including West Bank and Gaza whereas the PA has only token control of a small area. It is not a symmetrical arrangement.

2) The PA "controlled" territory is not contiguous and can never operate as an independent country unless it is made contiguous.

When apartheid fell in South Africa, there wasn't talk of putting a fence round all the black townships and declaring them collectively "Black South Africa" with their own elections and govt, leaving the rest of the country to be called "White South Africa"

The whole of South Africa remained one country with everybody voting for a govt comprised of all groups. That would be a better eventual goal for Israel than current separation techniques IMO. Maybe that's too optimistic, but I don't even hear anybody talking about it as an option.

I'm not sure how Saudi Arabia is relevant? I don't think that's a role model to emulate here <g>