Tobin - Palestinian “Peace Now?” Not Exactly.

Jonathan S. Tobin
Commentary/Contentions
15 November '11

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/11/15/palestinian-peace-now-change/

Do Palestinians long for peace in the same way as Israelis? That’s an assumption many of those who blame Israel for the lack of a solution to the Middle East conflict consider to be self-evident. But while advocates for concessions to the Palestinians have always been a vocal part of Israel’s political culture, the absence of a “Peace Now” faction on the Palestinian side or even a more moderate faction that deplored terrorism has highlighted the difference between the two societies.

A recent feature in the Washington Post attempted to debunk this notion by pointing to a group of young Palestinians who offer an alternative to mainstream factions. But as Elliot Jager pointed out in an excellent piece in Jewish Ideas Daily, the idea that this is the start of a Palestinian “Peace Now” is way off the mark.

As Jager points out, the young Palestinians profiled by Washington Post reporter Joel Greenberg may have no use for Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and his attempts to win statehood at the United Nations, but that doesn’t mean they embrace a two-state solution. Indeed, these putative peaceniks may prefer community service to terror, but their political goals bear a striking resemblance to those of Hamas. The group’s leader Hurriyah Ziada’s idea of a solution to the dispute between the two peoples is the eradication of Israel and its replacement with an Arab majority state where Jews will be offered equal rights. While that is a bit different than Hamas’s genocidal plans for the Jews who remain after Israel is destroyed, that may be a difference without a distinction. Either way, it means no Israel.

Even among those Palestinians most disaffected from the existing political parties, there is still no commitment or even belief in the concept of living in peace with a Jewish state no matter where its borders might be drawn. If this is what liberal critics of Israel believe is a “new political and social force,” then there is little or no hope for genuine peace in the foreseeable future.

That’s a bitter pill for friends of Israel who find it hard to accept that the divide between the two peoples is so deep, but swallow it they must.

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