r/IsraelVersusPalestine

Most two-state proposals assume two separate enclaves, Gaza and the West Bank, linked by a corridor, bridge, or tunnel across Israeli territory. I want to float a single-territory alternative and get feedback, especially from Palestinians and policy analysts.

The concept:

A 1:1 territorial exchange: the entire Gaza Strip (~365 km²) goes to Israel, and Israel transfers an equal area of contiguous sovereign land to the Palestinian state.

To illustrate the idea, I sketched one 365 km² block in the Lakhish hills, directly west of the Hebron Hills. Its eastern edge is the Green Line, from south of the Ela Valley down to just north of Kibbutz Lahav. Its western edge runs about 5 km east of Kiryat Gat. It would join the West Bank along Tarqumiya, Idna, Beit Awwa, and adh-Dhahiriya.

Note: This is a sketch to illustrate the concept, not the only way to do this. Also, this is not a surveyed boundary where I can account for every millimeter. It is illustrative only.

Why consider it?

1. Contiguity. One unified Palestinian state bordering Israel and Jordan, with no extraterritorial transit corridor through Israel.

2. Simpler border. A single line is easier to agree on and enforce than two separated enclaves.

3. Rebuilding. Given the destruction, unexploded ordnance, and aquifer contamination in Gaza, largely open land next to the West Bank would allow planned urban development from the start.

The obvious problems

This means roughly two million Gazans relocating. That isn't a detail. It could only happen as a consented part of a negotiated final-status agreement, never imposed, and I recognize that for many people this alone ends the conversation.

The block isn't empty either. It contains no city, but it does contain about a dozen small kibbutzim and moshavim, whose residents would have to move. These include Bnei Dekalim, Neta, and Karmei Katif - all built for families evacuated from Gaza in 2005, who would be asked to move a second time.

It also contains the sites of Palestinian villages depopulated in 1948, including Bayt Jibrin and al-Dawayima.

(The reverse model: I also considered the opposite direction swap of this idea: swapping West Bank territory for a much larger Gaza to form a coastal state. That keeps sea access and the Egyptian border, but given the West Bank's population and size, and the attachment to East Jerusalem and Hebron, it seems far less viable. ).

My big questions (for Palestinians especially):

1. Could contiguous land joined to the West Bank compensate for losing the Mediterranean coast, offshore gas (Gaza Marine), and the Egyptian border?

2. How much does Gaza's specific location matter, as opposed to the overall viability of the state?

3. Does it change anything that this land includes 1948 village sites, or does that make it worse?

On this day in history, October 4, 2003, Palestinian Islamic Jihad carried out a suicide bombing at the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, Israel, murdering 21 people and wounding dozens.

It was Saturday lunchtime. Families had gathered to eat at a seaside restaurant jointly owned by Jews and Christian Arabs, where Jewish and Arab Israelis regularly worked and ate together. Hanadi Jaradat, a female Palestinian lawyer, a suicide bomber from Jenin, detonated an explosive belt among the diners.

The bomb was packed with metal fragments to make it more deadly. The explosion sent shrapnel through the crowded restaurant, destroying its interior and killing children, parents, grandparents and staff.

Two families each lost five members across three generations.

The Zer-Aviv family lost Bruria, her son Bezalel, his wife Keren, and their children: four-year-old Liran and one-year-old Noya. A grandmother, both parents and both children were murdered in the same attack.

The Almog family lost Ze'ev and Ruth, their son Moshe, and their grandchildren: nine-year-old Tomer and eleven-year-old Assaf Staier.

Ten-year-old Oran Almog survived, but the blast left him blind. His father, brother, grandparents and cousin were dead. He lost his sight and five members of his family in one afternoon.

Four Arab employees were also murdered. The terrorists attacked a place where coexistence was part of everyday life, and killed the people who made it possible.

In 2012, the Arab Lawyers Union awarded Jaradat its highest decoration and sent a delegation to present it to her family. A union representative said its lawyers were proud of her actions. The woman responsible for murdering children at lunch was being honored for it.

Maxim was rebuilt and reopened. A memorial near the restaurant remembers those murdered there.

Wiki

On this day in history, October 6, 1973, the Battle of the Valley of Tears began in the Golan Heights.

Over the next four days, heavily outnumbered Israeli soldiers would fight one of the most desperate and heroic battles in Israel's history.

It was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. Across Israel, people were fasting and praying when Egypt and Syria launched their attacks. Sirens broke the silence. Reservists rushed from their homes and synagogues to join a war that had already begun.

In the northern Golan Heights, Israeli tank crews faced wave after wave of Syrian armor. The defenders included the 7th Armored Brigade, commanded by Avigdor "Yanush" Ben-Gal, and soldiers from the 188th Armored Brigade. Among them was the 77th Battalion, led by Avigdor Kahalani.

Their task was to stop a much larger force from breaking through the northern Golan. Behind them lay the roads toward northern Israel.

For days, they fought under heavy shellfire. At night, Syrian tanks had night-vision equipment that the Israeli crews lacked. Enemy tanks slipped through the darkness, and some clashes took place at terrifyingly close range. The defenders lost tanks and friends, but kept fighting.

By October 9, the fourth day, the Israeli force was badly worn down. Crews were exhausted. Tanks had been destroyed or damaged. Ammunition was running dangerously low.

Then the Syrians launched another major attack.

Under heavy bombardment, some Israeli tanks pulled back from the high ground overlooking the valley. If the Syrians took those positions, the defense could collapse.

Kahalani rallied the remaining tanks and led them forward to regain the heights. His men were pushed close to their limits, but they followed. They reached the firing positions and fought Syrian tanks at distances of just tens of meters.

Eleven tanks led by Yossi Ben-Hanan arrived to reinforce the battered defenders. Israeli artillery poured fire onto the Syrian attack. Together, the crews, commanders and supporting forces held on.

By midday, the Syrian tanks began to withdraw.

The line had held.

The valley was left littered with hundreds of wrecked Syrian tanks and armored vehicles. The victory came at a terrible cost to the Israeli soldiers who fought there and the families who would never see them return.

After the battle, Ben-Gal told Kahalani over the radio: "You are a hero of Israel."

The Valley of Tears became a symbol of Israeli courage because the men who defended it kept fighting through fear, exhaustion, loss and dwindling ammunition. Their stand stopped a breakthrough in the northern Golan and helped give Israel the time it needed to turn the war around.

On this day in history, October 2, 1938: Arab attackers massacred 19 Jews in Tiberias, including 11 children, during the Arab revolt in British Mandatory Palestine.

The attack began around 9 p.m. Telephone lines were cut and roads were blocked. Armed attackers struck government buildings and entered the Jewish Kiryat Shmuel neighborhood, breaking into homes, murdering families and setting buildings on fire. Around 70 attackers took part. Only 15 Jewish guards were defending a neighborhood of roughly 2,000 residents. The approach facing the Sea of Galilee had been left unguarded because an attack from that direction was considered unlikely.

Rachel Mizrachi, 26, was murdered with her five children: Ezra, 12; Miriam, 5; Yochebed, 3; Samuel, 2; and Hephzibah, just one year old. Their father, Shimon, was on guard duty elsewhere in the city when his family was killed.

In another home, Joshua Ben-Arieh, his wife Shoshanah and their son Arieh were reported stabbed and burned to death. Their other son, Moshe, just a year and a half old, was shot dead. Three children from the Leimer family, aged 12, 10 and 8, were also reported stabbed and burned to death in that house.

The synagogue was set ablaze. Its elderly caretaker was stabbed to death, killed beside the Torah scroll. Two Jewish guards who came to help were ambushed and killed.

Alex Morrison, who arrived shortly after the massacre, described seeing the bodies of babies still burning. His account also described naked female bodies bearing evidence of horrific knife violence.

The British government's report to the League of Nations described the massacre as "systematically organized and savagely executed." It stated that 15 of the 19 Jewish victims had been stabbed to death.

The Haganah subsequently investigated the failures in the city's defenses. Later that month, Tiberias's Jewish mayor, Zaki Alhadif, was also assassinated.

Entire families were destroyed in their homes. Eleven children never grew up. This happened in 1938, a decade before the State of Israel was even established.

After two decades, the U.S. formally withdrew from Iraq, leaving behind a battered nation trapped between the U.S. and Iran. The U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation cost nearly 4,500 U.S. lives and killed more than 115,000 Iraqis, according to the most modest counts.

Do you think this will have an affect on the Israel-Palestine conflict?