As if the world wasn’t already pre-occupied enough with solving the Palestinian question, all eyes are now turning toward the United Nations in anticipation of a possible unilateral declaration of an independent Palestinian State in September this year.
The Palestinian cause is certainly a popular one. To the average man on the street, it’s a simple case. The Jews came in, chucked out the Palestinians in 1948 and these Arab families have been trying to return to their homeland ever since. Who wouldn’t want to get behind such a worthy cause? Surely we should all be supporting the creation of a Palestinian state? But such views are very one sided and lack facts to support them.
The most important fact to realize is there has never been an internationally recognized modern Palestinian state. Yet ever since the creation of Israel as a nation in 1948, the Arabs living in the land have been offered a Palestinian state of their own numerous times. Every single time Israel has made them an offer, Palestinian leaders have rejected it.
In 1947, just before Israel as a modern day nation existed, the UN proposed a partition plan (181). The Arabs would have 45% of the land, and the Jews would have 55%. Jerusalem would be an international city.
With a 6000 year history tying the Jews directly to the land, they accepted the UN’s plan. Every single Arab state rejected the plan. In the following 12 days, Arab terrorists killed 80 Jews. The following year when Israel became a nation, the government offered full citizenship to Arab residents. But Arab states responded by invading the one day old state, seeking to completely destroy it.
In the year 2000, Ehud Barak, Israel’s Prime Minister at the time made an incredibly generous offer to the Palestinians. He offered Yasser Arafat 73% of the West Bank and all of the Gaza strip. But the Palestinian Authority Chairman turned the offer down.
In 2001 US President Bill Clinton proposed a Palestinian state in 94% to 96% of The West Bank and all of Gaza. This would have effectively been a return to 1967 borders. The former Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Shlomo Ben-Ami, PhD said “the proposal was difficult for us [Israel] to accept. No one came out dancing and singing, and [Prime Minister] Ehud [Barak] especially was perturbed.” Reluctant to give so much land away, but desperate for peace, the Israeli cabinet decided to accept the Clinton Parameters. The Palestinian leadership rejected it.
Finally, in 2008 Ehud Olmert offered Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas a peace agreement that would have guaranteed a Palestinian state in virtually all the West Bank, Gaza, and part of Jerusalem. Once again, the Palestinians turned down the offer.
Now the Palestinians want to bypass negotiations with Israel and go directly to the UN with their proposal. But before there can be real peace, the three famous Palestinian ‘no’s’ must be retracted. When the heads of state from eight Arab countries attended a summit conference in Khartoum, Sudan held in 1967, they adopted the famous “Three NOs” with respect to Israel. ‘NO’ to recognizing the state of Israel, ‘NO’ to negotiating with them and most importantly of all ‘NO’ to peace. Not a single Palestinian leader has ever retracted their belief in this resolution.
Does a leadership that does little (if anything) to curb terrorism and refuses to even recognize the other side (let alone make peace with them) really sound like a leadership that is ready for a state of their own?
When terrorists fire rockets from school playgrounds (as they did in Gaza) and use children as human shields (as they did in Gaza) it’s the Palestinian population that suffers. When the Palestinian people’s leaders refuse to sit down at the negotiating table, the chances of their people having a country of their own worsens.
I have no problems whatsoever with the thousands of Palestinians who just want a quiet life and a state of their own. But let’s not pretend this is a black and white situation where Israel merely has to say the word and peace will come to the Middle East. The reality is far from that.
So I say to the activists in Europe: “By all means campaign for a Palestinian state, but not until you’ve campaigned for a rejection of the three NOs. And while you’re at it, how about asking for a new Hamas charter which doesn’t preach hatred and racism towards the Jews and their state?” Then the world will start listening to you.
1 comment
rick December 13, 2011 | 02:25am
Forgot the real kicker. Arabs controlled all of the land- every inch of land that Abbas claims for his state from 1948 to 1967. They threw out all Jews living there, burned all synagogues, uprooted ancient Jewish cemeteries, and refused to allow Jews to even pray at Judaism's most holy site in Jerusalem.
But there was one thing they didn't do. They did not create an Arab nation. They did not even consider creating a "Palestine" and Arabs who now call themselves palestinians, did not ask for a state in those 19 years. If they had, Israel could not have done anything about it as Arab troops controlled all of it.
It has never been about creating a new Arab state, It has always been about destroying the Jewish one.