Netflix's ‘Fauda’ and the two-state scenario - by Jonathan S. Tobin

The obstacle to peace remains Palestinian ideology, not how many settlers can be evicted from their homes.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
21 August '18..

In the international hit Israeli TV series “Fauda,” the head of the Palestinian Authority security service is a fictional character named Abu Maher. Played by Qader Harini, an Arab actor from eastern Jerusalem, Abu Maher is reconciled to peace and coexistence, and therefore willing to cooperate with the Israelis to combat Islamist terror.

In an episode of the show’s second season (this is not a spoiler for the main plot line, so you can keep reading even if you haven’t watched the series), Abu Maher takes his son—a student who sympathizes with Hamas—to lunch on the Jaffa beach inside Israel. He tells the youngster to look at the skyscrapers of neighboring Tel Aviv. Those mighty buildings and the industry, creativity, power and wealth they represent, he says, show the permanence of Israel. The Jews are interested in life rather than death, and since they can’t be defeated, Abu Maher believes that the Palestinians must choose peace.

I’m sure I’m far from the only audience member who saw that scene and pondered what life would be like if the actual head of the P.A. was someone like the fictional Abu Maher, instead of Mahmoud Abbas or the other real-life Fatah functionaries who are still fixated on the century-old war against Zionism (in which they have yet to admit defeat). With such a person leading the Palestinians, a two-state solution might indeed be possible.

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