Thursday, January 29, 2009

Debt of Gratitude to Google Maps

As I have said earlier, I spent more than a few months thinking about all of this.  Why now am I posting much of this?  You might think it was because of the current Gaza conflict.  I cannot deny that timing of this is unusual.  

However what really got me going was discovering a new (new to me anyway) bell and whistle on Google Earth.   As you might have already noticed all the maps presented here are from Google Earth.   What I discovered is the "path" feature.  

Before this discovery I had been trying desperately to find a way to draw credible maps of my concepts that could be presented clearly on the internet.   This had been a major part of my energy since perhaps late fall.

It was only when I discovered that by creating a "path" on Google Earth that I could create a credible facsimile of what I was trying to convey.  It is however not an easy task.  It took hours to do just one of the many outlines I created.   And more than once, always near the end of a multiple hour endeavor, I would make a slip of the hand or touchpad and ruin all my work for that session.

So much of the fine detail of proposed boundaries is really, on close inspection, not really that accurate and I don't hold out that they are.  Also boundaries such as to be determined in East Jerusalem or even just the Jerusalem Governate are very sketchy  at best.  I for one would never begin to know every block, street and district on which such things will be decided.

I, again, feel that it is only if some solution for the Palestinian people includes access to the Temple mount that does not involve entering another country, then and only then, will some sort of settlement on East Jerusalem be solved.  

Another factor for the Israeli side.  East Jerusalem Governate has in the area of 500.000 people.  Putting as many of those on the other side of any agreed upon final boundary, without the need to move anyone, is indeed a microcosm of what the greater Sulha 35 is all about as well.

So you put much of Hebron Governate, Bethlehem Governate and Jerusalem Governate on the other side of a solution and the number of people that you have to entice to move from Upper West Bank is just that easier of a task.  And the realization that, while they in no way have to move, many of the Jewish settlements in Lower West Bank are a part of that trade as well.  

gltoffic@aim.com

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