Although Jewish, I am not a staunch defender of Israel. Still, the column in the NYTimes today by Muammar Qaddafi (yes that Muammar Qaddafi) on a One-State solution to Israel and Palestine strikes me as sinister, for reasons that will not be clear until after the jump. Read the whole op-ed here.

In absolute terms, the two movements must remain in perpetual war or a compromise must be reached. The compromise is one state for all, an “Isratine” that would allow the people in each party to feel that they live in all of the disputed land and they are not deprived of any one part of it.

I find this column highly suspect, a rhetorical Trojan horse. On its surface it sounds peace-loving and rational–can’t we all just get along? But there are reasons why the “right of return” is a complete non-starter in negotiations from Israel’s perspective.

Simply put, many Arabs believe they can out-birth the Jews. If Palestine and Israel became one–Qaddafi’s “Isratine”–then the population of Israel would become majority Arab immediately. Furthermore, based on the birth rates of Israeli Jews versus Israeli Arabs and Palestinians (20 per 1000 versus 25 per 1000), the Jews would see their minority shrink significantly every year. In the end, what you would have is yet another country where Jews are a hated minority–exactly the situation that the creation of Israel was intended to avoid. What cannot by taken by force would be taken by demography. That’s no solution at all.

And make no mistake: Muammar Qadaffi knows exactly what he is suggesting.