Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has proposed “peace” through payments to Israeli Arabs to leave the country.
The manifesto of Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party favors the cession of Arab-majority areas in northern Israel to a future Palestinian state, in return for areas of Jewish settlement in the West Bank being given to Israel. Meanwhile, there would be economic incentives for Arab-Israelis — about 20% of Israel’s population — who do not identify with the “Jewish State” to encourage them to emigrate to Palestine.
The manifesto says an offer to the Arab Israelis “who feel part of the Palestinian people will solve the problem of divided loyalties and ‘split personality’ they suffer from”:
They can decide if they are part of the state of Israel or Palestine.
Those who decide that they identify as Palestinian could give up their Israeli citizenship and become citizens of a future Palestinian state. The State of Israel should encourage this via a system of economic incentives.
Lieberman is expected to present the plan for territory and population exchanges next week at a meeting of European Foreign Ministers in Switzerland. He will then speak at the annual Saban Forum in the US.