TARRYTOWN, New York — Loud voices of “fair but not biased” countries, members of the UN, and “well informed but not at all anti-Semitic” private citizens can be heard almost daily demanding the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Why is it not established yet?
Of course the answer of those who hate the Jewish people and Israel is: “It’s Israel’s fault.”
Really?
What prevented Palestinian Arabs from accepting the UN partition plan of November 1947, which allocated to Jews a miserably small portion of the historic Jewish land (lately conveniently called Palestine), but which was nevertheless accepted by the Jews? What made Palestinian Arab leaders say “no” to the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and to peace with Israel? They said “no” after numerous negotiations, some with the participation of US presidents, and they said “no” after being offered to share Jerusalem, twice, and despite the settlement freeze in 2009.
The reason given by some experts is that Muslims, and Arabs in particular, have an ideological Islamic principle that land which was under their rule for some period of time must belong to them forever.
But is this the main reason?
Arabs see Israel with its 6,335,000 Jews as a drop in the ocean compared to the Arab population of the world, numbering 367,400,000, or compared to the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims. Incidentally, the total Arab population in Israel proper, Gaza and the West Bank is 6,177,000 – almost equal to the Jewish population of Israel.
So in many Arabs’ minds, there is a hope that, sooner or later, by the sheer force of their overwhelming numbers, they will be able, in their typically “humane” way, to throw the Jews into the sea. All that they need is just to be patient. And, being historically people of a desert, patience they have.
The actions of Hamas, encouraged by its Iranian patrons, are certainly guided by such hope. And so, instead of bettering the lives of the Gazan people, Hamas spends large portions of the resources provided by its Muslim supporters to prepare and commit terrorist acts against Israel.
Regarding the West Bank, after pushing out the Jordanian army, Israel did a lot to improve the lives of the local Arab population, in terms of economic and democratic changes.
Those who choose to call the Israeli military presence in some areas of the West Bank an “occupation” somehow choose to overlook the strange nature of this “occupation,” where the occupied have their own government, their own security forces, are free to act in the international arena, are free to run education the way they choose, are free to have elections, are free to introduce Palestinian citizenship passports, and so on.
Israel did and should do as many humane things as possible for people of the West Bank. But one thing was an obvious mistake: to allow the brainwashing and propaganda of hatred in the West Bank’s schools and media.
Now what is on the minds of the Israelis?
Granted, many Jews would prefer that Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) would become part of the Jewish state and that the Arabs who live there would relocate to some Arab country. But Jews are unwilling to resort to force to make this happen – or adopt any sentiment similar to the idea of “throwing people into the sea” or the nuclear extermination with which Iran, America’s partner in nuclear negotiations, is threatening Israel.
Recognizing the realities of the existing situation of two people living on the same piece of land, Israelis (excluding a small number of Jewish extremists) are wiling to accept a Palestinian Arab state in the West Bank, which would recognize the Jewish state of Israel and will be established with all necessary guarantees for Israel’s security.
Those loud voices demanding the establishment of a Palestinian state, no matter what, ignore Israel’s understanding and experience that this would turn the West Bank into one more Gaza.
With regard to the “fairness” of many UN members, why don’t we hear the same loud voices about many similar conflicts around the world? For example, why aren’t there more demands that Turkey allow 16 million Turkish Kurds to establish a country of their own?
France recently came up with an initiative calling for peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. It seems that the only hope for a positive outcome is: (1) that during these negotiations Palestinian Arabs give up the idea of getting rid of Israel and recognize Israel as Jewish state – Israel’s government has declared many times its willingness to recognize a Palestinian Arab state – and (2) that both sides come to the negotiations with a willingness to compromise.
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Arkady Mamaysky is a mechanical engineer who immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union in 1979. He has visited Israel once, and sometimes twice, during every year since then. To contact the author, email arkady437@gmail.com