8 | JANUARY 7 • 2021 

essay

The U.N. is a Major Obstacle to a 

Two-State Solution in the Mideast
I

n a year marked by 
so much misery and 
misfortune, a rare bright 
spot has been Israel’s historic 
diplomatic breakthroughs. In 
2020, UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, 
Morocco and now Bhutan 
have either established 
official relations 
with Israel or 
announced their 
intention to do 
so for the first 
time.
In 1977, the 
late Egyptian 
President 
Anwar Sadat 
broke through 
Israel’s regional 
isolation with 
his dramatic 
visit to 
Jerusalem. The 
Israeli people and government 
responded with far reaching 
concessions that led to a peace 
treaty with Egypt — for many 
years the only such treaty 
between Israel and any Arab 
country.
Now the number of such 
countries with full relations 
or on the road to that status 
is six and growing. But the 
Palestinians are not yet on 
board. For decades, the 
operating assumption was that 
peace with the Arab world 
was contingent on a signed 
agreement acceptable to the 
Palestinians. That is no longer 
the case. Nevertheless, peace 
with the Palestinians is not 

only desirable; it is essential 
for Israel to be truly at peace 
and an accepted part of the 
Middle East.
To achieve peace with 
the Palestinians, many 
years of demonization and 
delegitimization of Israel 
in the Palestinian media, 
mosques and schools will have 
to be overcome. The thorniest 
obstacle is the continued 
official Palestinian adherence 
to the so-called “right of 
return,” the demand that more 
than 5 million Palestinians 
who are descendants of 
refugees from the 1948 war be 
permitted to “return” to their 
original homes in what is now 
Israel. Such an eventuality 
would alter the demographic 
nature of Israel and would 
effectively end its existence as 
a democratic Jewish state. Of 
course, no Israeli government 
would ever acquiesce to a 
demand that would lead to the 
country’s demise. 
The United States has long 
recognized that the “right of 
return” is a non-starter and 
will never be part of a final 
settlement. The “Clinton 
Parameters” were issued by 
President Bill Clinton on his 
way out of office in 2001, 
as a template for a peace 
settlement. The Parameters 
“required the Palestinians 
to waive their claim to an 
unlimited ‘right of return’ to 
Israel proper. The Palestinian 
state would accept all refugees 

wishing to settle in its 
territory ... One should not 
expect Israel to acknowledge 
an unlimited right of return 
to present-day Israel, as that 
would undermine the very 
foundations of the Israeli 
state or the whole reason for 
creating the Palestinian state ...” 
Similarly, an official letter 
from President George W. 
Bush to Israeli Premier Ariel 
Sharon in 2005, stated: “It 
seems clear that an agreed, 
just, fair and realistic 
framework for a solution 
to the Palestinian refugee 
issue as part of any final 
status agreement will need 
to be found through the 
establishment of a Palestinian 
state, and the settling of 
Palestinian refugees there, 
rather than in Israel.”
Finally, the Trump 
administration’s “Vision 
for Peace” reiterated this 
concept, stating: “There shall 
be no right of return by, or 
absorption of, any Palestinian 
refugee into the State of Israel 
... Palestinian refugees will be 
given a choice to live within 
the future State of Palestine, 
integrate into the countries 
where they currently live or 
resettle in a third country.”
Unfortunately, instead of 
playing a constructive role in 
advancing the prospect of a 
two-state solution, the United 
Nations explicitly encourages 
the Palestinians to maintain 
the demand of a “right of 

return.” For the past 45 years, 
the U.N. has repeatedly 
demonstrated its opposition 
to the Jewish state and has 
created an infrastructure 
to perpetuate anti-Israel 
propaganda. In 1975, the 
U.N. General Assembly 
passed its infamous resolution 
scurrilously labeling Zionism 
as a form of racism. This 
resolution led to the creation 
of two unique and nefarious 
institutions within the U.N. 
system: the Committee on 
the Exercise of the Inalienable 
Rights of the Palestinian 
People (CEIRPP) and its 
staff body, the Division for 
Palestinian Rights (DPR).
“Zionism is Racism” was 
repealed (at the urging of the 
United States) in 1991. But its 
operational arms, the CEIRPP 
and the DPR, continue their 
damaging work to this day. 
Operating under an annual 
budget of approximately $3 
million (reauthorized and 
funded every year), CEIRPP 
and DPR do nothing but 
disseminate harsh anti-Israel 
propaganda, and organize 
one-sided international 
conferences that attack Israel, 
advance the maximalist 
and one-sided Palestinian 
narrative, and compare Israel 
to apartheid South Africa. 
They also openly encourage 
the boycott, divestment and 
sanctions (BDS) campaign 
against Israel.
Significantly, the mission 

Richard 

Schifter

Gil Kapen

VIEWS

