Published in the Jerusalem Post, 7 February 2024
On
the next day, the Jerusalem Post carried a story headlined: "US might
recognize Palestinian state after war." It reported that US Secretary of State Anthony
Blinken had ordered the State Department to start examining the possibility of
US and international recognition of a State of Palestine the day after the Gaza
war ended. One strand of opinion in the
State Department, it said, apparently favors recognition of a Palestinian state
as the first, rather than the last, step in a renewed peace process aimed at
guaranteeing Israel’s security in a two-state solution.
Hooked on the nostrum of a two-state solution, much of the world, including a swath of Arab opinion, subscribes to the view that it has been Israeli intransigence that has frustrated this deeply desired outcome by the Palestinians. For example Husam Zomlot, Palestinian ambassador to the UK, told the media on the following day that Cameron’s remarks about recognizing a Palestinian state were “historic”. Pursuing the Palestinian Authority strategy of supporting the two-state ideal, inherited from its first leader, Yasser Arafat, he said:
“It is the first time a
UK foreign secretary considers recognizing the State of Palestine, bilaterally
and in the UN, as a contribution to a peaceful solution rather than an
outcome,” he said. “If implemented, the Cameron declaration would remove
Israel’s veto power over Palestinian statehood [and] would boost efforts
towards a two-state outcome.”
The plain facts tell a
quite different story. Every one of the
numerous Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations over the years – each of which,
as an obvious sine qua non, incorporated
recognition of Israel – has fallen at the last hurdle. Embracing a two-state solution implies a
voluntary end to the delegitimizing of Israel.
It means abandoning the key elements in the charters of the two main
political Palestinian movements, Fatah and Hamas, both of which state
unequivocally that the whole of what was once Mandate Palestine is Arab land,
and it is the God-given duty of Palestinians to fight for its recovery.
A two-state solution
means that one of the two states is Israel.
Many, perhaps most, of those who support the “Palestinian cause” believe
that Palestinians are fighting for their own state alongside Israel; many others understand clearly that “From the
river to the sea” means what it says – the removal of the state of Israel. To be blunt, while the two-state solution
appeals to world opinion, it is not what majority Palestinian opinion
favors. The latest authoritative poll,
undertaken in December, revealed that no less than 64% of Palestinians are
opposed to a two-state solution.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reviled by two-state supporters as having consistently rejected Palestinian statehood. He may oppose it at present, given current circumstances, but this was not always the case.
Barack Obama came to the
US presidency in 2009 determined to change the dynamic in US-Muslim relations
for the better. He chose Cairo as the
location for a speech to be known as “A New Beginning”. Having pledged America’s support for Israel,
Obama continued: “The Palestinian people—Muslim and Christians—have suffered in
pursuit of a homeland.. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of
dislocation. So let there be no doubt, “
he continued, “the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. And
America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for
dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.”
Like Obama, Netanyahu
had only recently won an election, and it was too early for a head-to-head
clash. Instead Netanyahu decided to show Obama that on certain issues, with
certain conditions, he was willing to bend for the greater good, although never
when it came to Israel’s survival. Ten
days after Obama’s speech, Netanyahu gave an address at Bar Ilan University.
Speaking to the
Palestinian people direct, he said: “the simple truth is that the root of the
conflict was, and remains, the refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish
people to a state of their own, in their historic homeland.
“But we must also tell
the truth in its entirety,” he continued.
“Within this homeland lives a large Palestinian community. We do not
want to rule over them, we do not want to govern their lives, we do not want to
impose either our flag or our culture on them.
In my vision of peace, in this small land of ours, two peoples live
freely, side-by-side, in amity and mutual respect. Each will have its own
flag, its own national anthem, its own government. Neither will threaten the
security or survival of the other.”
Then he added: “I told President Obama when I was in
Washington that if we could agree on the substance, then the terminology would
not pose a problem. And here is the substance that I now state clearly: If we receive this guarantee regarding
demilitarization and Israel's security needs, and if the Palestinians recognize
Israel as the State of the Jewish people, then we will be ready in a future
peace agreement to reach a solution where a demilitarized Palestinian state
exists alongside the Jewish state.“
These honeyed words fell
on deaf ears. Hamas, rooted in
rejectionism, had already seized the Gaza Strip. Their total raison d’être was and remains to
eliminate Israel. Fatah and the
Palestinian Authority continued to pursue the strategy set by Yasser Arafat,
which was to court world opinion by appearing to support a two-state solution
while retaining the ultimate objective of ousting Israel from the Middle East.
Nothing has changed
except that since the massacre of October 7, Hamas has gained unprecedented
support within the Arab world in general, and among the Palestinian populace in
particular. That means Palestinian
statehood means something quite different to majority Arab opinion than it does
to the ardent two-staters. In short, the two-state solution is anathema to most
Arabs – a fact of life which Anthony Blinken, Lord Cameron, and all who espouse
it wilfully refuse to recognize.
Published in the Jerusalem Post and the Jerusalem Post on line under the headline: "The two-state solution is anathema to most Arabs", 7 February 2024:
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-785525
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