Is Lieberman’s idea for 2 states ‘racist’?

The distaste expressed overwhelmingly by liberal opinion for Avigdor Lieberman’s long-standing notion that “the triangle” of Israeli-Arab towns and villages, including Umm al-Fahm and Tayibe, be transferred to the new Palestinian state in exchange for Israel annexing the blocs of settlements contiguous with Israel, may have more to do with our disdain for the proposer than the proposal. Still, there is a moral flaw in this idea: the Palestinian-Israelis (as they increasingly call themselves) who inhabit this area, reportedly prefer to continue living in Israel, as Israeli citizens.

Michael Lame, a blogger on Middle East issues whom I occasionally refer to, has posted a somewhat sympathetic treatment of Lieberman’s conception. Lame is especially worth reading for his comparison of Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party with Hamas. Commenting immediately below his posting, another writer I sometimes feature, Thomas Mitchell, responds much as I would have:

Precisely because it isn’t voluntary on the part of Israeli Arabs, any change of borders should be for the sole purpose of territorially compensating Palestine for territory lost by incorporating settlement blocs into Israel. It should not be done for the purpose of ridding Israel of Arabs. And the Arab citizens that are put out of the state should retain their citizenship and be given the option of moving elsewhere. …

Israeli Arabs should understand that if they want to remain as citizens of Israel they will be remaining as citizens of a Jewish state, although at least in theory with equal rights. They should struggle to actualize that potential equality. Struggling to turn the state into something other than a Jewish state will only delay their acceptance as equal citizens. The UN Partition called for two states, one Arab and one Jewish. …

I would add that if this were a real option considered in negotiations–an unlikely “if”–that Arab citizens of Israel in the triangle, even if they chose to remain where they are as citizens of Palestine, should be permitted to commute to whatever jobs they may have in sovereign Israel and to retain the social insurance benefits they’ve earned as Israelis.