Forget the Two State Solution Already!
On May 18, the Jerusalem Post published an editorial entitled “Israel cannot abandon the two state solution.” https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-707053
I maintain that Israel must leave that tired so-called panacea behind.
The subtitle of the editorial is: It is time for Israel to strengthen its ties with moderate Palestinians [actually, Palestinian Arabs] and keep cooperating with pragmatic Israeli-Arabs. Unfortunately there are few pragmatic Israeli-Arabs. The Arab members of Knesset, even those from Ra’am, the one party supporting the current (teetering) government, don’t genuinely support a Zionist state. Mansour Abbas, Ra’am’s head, has periodically said that he recognizes Israel as a Jewish State and that, “It will stay like this.” He doesn’t mean it.
As for “moderate” Palestinian Arabs, the vast majority want to usurp Israel and rid “Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the (Mediterranean) sea” of Jews. So far, they and the other Jew-hating Arabs and Muslims (primarily Iran and its cohort: Lebanon, Syria, Iraq) haven’t succeeded. But they don’t stop trying.
“A public opinion poll published on March 22 found that Palestinian support for an ‘armed struggle’ against Israel has risen from 42% three months ago to 44%.
In the lexicon of the Palestinians, ‘armed struggle’ is a euphemism for various forms of terrorism against Israel, ranging from rock-throwing to shooting, stabbing, car-ramming, rocket salvos, and suicide bombing attacks.
The poll, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, showed that a majority of 70% oppose a resumption of the peace process with Israel.” April, 2022 https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/khaled-abu-toameh/why-palestinians-celebrate-the-murder-of-jews/2022/04/15/
Yes, as the editorial continues, some Jewish Israelis acknowledge the existence of the Palestinian Arabs and their history here. That’s very nice, but peace can’t be made when even the minimal demands of the opposing parties have no overlap. It’s a fact that Israeli prime ministers have made (grossly over-generous) peace offers to the Palestinian Authority/PLO – notably Ehud Barak in 2000 and Ehud Olmert eight years later.
But Israel’s enemies among the Palestinian Arabs have an “all or nothing” mentality. Their minimum demands (which are just a cloak for their ultimate goal of usurpation) include Israel withdrawing to indefensible borders and exclude Judaism’s holiest sites from the diminished state. There’s zero chance that Israel could exist under those conditions.
The editorial board admits that, “It is true that it is not possible to make peace with the aging and intransigent Mahmoud Abbas, who barely controls the West Bank, and without Israel’s help would be toppled by Hamas that wishes to wipe out the State of Israel.” Since Abbas will never sign a peace treaty which would make him a traitor to his cause, and Hamas readily admits its goal of destroying Israel, exactly with whom would Israel negotiate?
The editors ask this question: “Does Israel want to maintain a situation in which millions of people live under the control of its military while being refused citizenship? Or does it want to make those people citizens and lose the Jewish majority?” Obviously the answer is neither. So what does that leave as a solution?
The editors conclude: “It is time to start talking again about solutions to the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. Ignoring it does not serve Israel’s interests of remaining a Jewish and democratic state.”
The label “Jewish and democratic state” is a red herring. Israel is a democratic state, as anyone looking at our politics knows. It is also a fundamentally Jewish State, and that is the rub. Evidently, the world has trouble swallowing even one Jewish nation, while abiding dozens of Muslim states. It’s down to the Palestinian Arabs who have to propose a situation that would not diminish Israel as the Jewish State; anything else will not suffice.
There are 57 Muslim states in the UN, plus so-called “Palestine.” The initial charter of the United Nations reaffirmed the legitimacy of a Jewish state in Palestine which originated at the League of Nations. The UN itself proposed a Jewish State in Palestine in 1947 and accepted Israel as a member on May 11, 1949, one year after Israel declared its independence and defeated six Arab armies which attempted to overwhelm it. This problem with the Palestinian Arabs is something the Arabs will have to deal with. Our sovereign state is not going to commit suicide with a two-state solution because some Arabs whose grandparents lost a war of annihilation against the Jews want to be rewarded with our demise.
There’s no obvious “solution” for the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict. What is crystal clear is that there must not be a terrorist Muslim state in the Land of Israel. Therefore, forget the two state solution already!