Daniel Pipes
National Review Online
11 May '10
In honor of Yom Yerushalayim, a very special video - Jerusalem Day: Reflections by Rabbi Yisrael Ariel
When a major Arab state would finally sign a peace treaty with Israel, it was long assumed, the Arab-Israeli conflict would end. The Egypt-Israel peace treaty of 1979, however, buried that expectation; it had the perverse effect of making other states and also the Egyptian populace more anti-Zionist.
The 1980s gave birth to a hope that, instead, Palestinian recognition of Israel would close the conflict. The total failure of the 1993 Declaration of Principles (also known as the Oslo Accords) then buried that expectation.
What now? Starting about 2007, a new focus has emerged, of winning acceptance of Israel as a sovereign Jewish state. Israel's former prime minister Ehud Olmert set the terms: "I do not intend to compromise in any way over the issue of the Jewish state. This will be a condition for our recognition of a Palestinian state."
Olmert was Israel's worst prime minister but he got this one right. Arab-Israeli diplomacy has dealt with a myriad of subsidiary issues while tiptoeing around the conflict's central issue: "Should there be a Jewish state?" Disagreement over this answer – rather than over Israel's boundaries, its exercise of self defense, its control of the Temple Mount, its water consumption, its housing construction in West Bank towns, diplomatic relations with Egypt, or the existence of a Palestinian state – is the key issue.
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This piece is waving a red herring. As a 72 year old Jewish woman and lover of Israel, I recently visited Israel and the West bank under the auspices of Jstreet, the pro-Israel pro-peace group. Jstreet has argued that we are at a moment of urgency where Americans--and Obama--should support a two-state solution more energetically. We were gratified to learn that many top officials--Israelis and Palestinians--agree.
ReplyDeleteIn Ramallah, Prime minister Fayyad told us that the first principle of a two-state deal will be uniquivocal acceptance of each other's existence.
One of the most basic problems with Fayyad is he lacking both support and constituency. In this part of the world, either one would normally be considered fatal. See Khaled Abu Toameh's "The Palestinians: Why Salam Fayyad Cannot Deliver" http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com/2010/04/palestinians-why-salam-fayyad-cannot.html This is one of a number of articles written by observers on the scene, with the same observations, although not always as delicate. In the past two weeks Fatah members have been making their voice heard to remove any possibility of his actually having the power to act, and have caused him to back off from his statehood declarations.
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