essay
Overriding Obstacle
Palestinians stymie their statehood bid by delegitimizing Israel.
T
he vaunted
two-state solu-
tion to the
Israeli-Palestinian
conflict hinges on a
joint willingness to
negotiate, compromise
Robert Sklar
and truly change.
Contributing Editor
Desirable as that
solution is, it will
remain a pipedream without a con-
current shift in attitude and action
by both sides.
A new dynamic could derive from
coexistence and enlightenment
somehow curtailing not only the
Palestinian terror and demonizing
that’s targeting Israel, but also Israel’s
settlement growth in and military
occupation of the West Bank.
Internationally, Palestinians imag-
ine the West Bank, part of Eretz
Yisrael, the biblical Land of Israel,
as the centerpiece of their hoped-
for sovereign state. That state would
include the Gaza Strip and, as imag-
ined, have the Arab-dominated east-
ern sector of Jerusalem as its capital.
But not only have the Palestinians
rejected at least six previous bro-
kered offers of statehood, they also
have shown no inclination to recon-
stitute a culture teaching its young to
despise anyone or anything Zionist.
Even with reconstitution, it would
take two generations to dramat-
ically alter Palestinian cultural belief
toward Israel, the ancestral homeland
of the Jewish people.
Hurdles Abound
The Palestinians aren’t helped by the
terrorist organization Hamas ruling
from Gaza City and the corrupt gov-
ernment of Fatah, under the guise
of the Palestinian Authority (P.A.),
controlling Palestinian areas of the
West Bank.
Israel has muddied the situation
by continually expanding settlements
despite international backing for (yet
another) halt in hopes that would
8
October 18 • 2018
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sway the P.A. to talk once more.
Conditions aren’t right for Israel
to relax its land, sea and air block-
ades of Gaza or its checkpoints into
and out of the West Bank. Israel
must maintain a qualitative edge in
defense of its borders and its people.
Hamas, by charter, is plainly com-
mitted to Israel’s destruction. And
Fatah, Israel’s supposed peace part-
ner, promotes “martyrdom for Allah”
borders would leave it dangerously
vulnerable, Israel could overlook
the demand until final-status nego-
tiations resumed, demonstrating its
respect for the process, if it thought
Fatah in practice recognized Israel as
the Jewish state.
His power has receded, but
Mahmoud Abbas, 82, still heads both
Fatah and the P.A. He fractiously
seeks legitimacy of statehood arising
While the P.A. and Fatah seem to
acknowledge Israel internationally, they
don’t, in truth, recognize existence of
the Jewish state.
by defiantly paying salaries to terror-
ists imprisoned by Israel and to sur-
viving families of so-called “martyrs.”
These official P.A. payouts often
originated as international donations
meant for the Palestinian people.
The United States has injected
itself headlong into the decades-old
conflict through a series of diplomat-
ic moves branded by the Palestinians
as favoring Israel. With justifica-
tion, the White House recognized
Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. But
President Donald Trump put ordi-
nary Palestinians at higher risk via a
steep pullback in U.S. humanitarian
support.
At present, there’s a better chance
of renewed peace talks if initial-
ly brokered by such Arab League
Sunni Muslim nations as Egypt,
Saudi Arabia and Jordan than by the
U.S., Israel’s chief ally, or the United
Nations, known for relentless anti-
Israel resolutions.
Foundering Fatah
As a starting point, the Palestinians
demand a fresh round of talks based
on pre-1967 borders. While those
from international conventions, trea-
ties and declarations than via direct,
bilateral talks with Israel. And he
has failed to deliver a reunification
agreement with Hamas, leaving the
Gaza Strip in limbo in any statehood
discussion. Hamas ousted Fatah
from Gaza in 2007 and would gladly
engage its nemesis in war once more
if it felt the prize for victory was the
West Bank — another pathway for
Sunni Muslim Hamas to attack Israel.
What’s Real
In a Sept. 28 bulletin, Israel-based
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW)
reinforced a gripping, understated
reality. While the P.A. and Fatah
seem to acknowledge Israel interna-
tionally (particularly a Palestinian-
Israeli joint security arrangement in
the West Bank) they don’t, in truth,
recognize existence of the Jewish
state.
No matter what their leaders say
through the illusion of diplomacy,
affirms PMW, Palestinians on the
street learn through school texts,
news reports, social media, public
pronouncements, religious sermons
and sports tournaments that the per-
ceived state of “Palestine” includes
“all of Israel along with the P.A.
areas.” PMW cites P.A. maps and
puzzles devoid of Israel within any
borders.
Consider the popular Islamist
refrain, “From the River to the Sea,
Palestine will be Free.” A state of
“Palestine” ranging from the Jordan
River to the Mediterranean Sea, of
course, would swallow Israel.
PMW asserts that both the P.A.
and Fatah “do their utmost to con-
vince Palestinians that all of Israel
was, is and will remain ‘Palestine’.”
The message denying Israel’s exis-
tence and portraying Israeli cities
such as Haifa and Tzfat as Palestinian
comes “from the top” — meaning
Abbas and his cronies.
On Fatah’s official Facebook page
Sept. 20, PMW reports, Abbas boast-
ed, “I say to all of them that freedom
will come, without any shadow of a
doubt, and the fate of the occupation
is to come to an end.” “Freedom”
here certainly seems a euphemism
for erasing Israel — and not just
from maps.
After its September review on
the 25th anniversary of the 1993
Oslo Accords, PMW concluded that
since their signing by Israel and
Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO), Palestinian
leaders have continued to tell the
Palestinian people that Oslo’s intent
“is to increase the land under
Palestinian control in stages. Israel
will eventually disappear and be
replaced by ‘Palestine’.”
That corroded way of thinking by
the PLO, chief international negoti-
ator for the Palestinian people and
chaired by a now politically emascu-
lated Mahmoud Abbas, may be the
single strongest detriment to rekin-
dling peace talks between Jerusalem
and Ramallah. ■