September 2018 marks twenty-five years since Oslo and that famous handshake on the White House lawn by Prime Minister Rabin and Chairman Arafat under the patronage of President Bill Clinton.
And a lot will be written about this anniversary.
The one undeniable truth over this period has been the disenchantment of those who supported Oslo and who had believed that finally the Palestinians were going to reverse their original mantra as expressed in 1921 by the Palestine Arab Executive Committee when they said: “Either us or the Zionists. There is no room for both.”
Those in Israel who still support the principles of Oslo and yearn for a Two State solution, understand where the fault lies for it not yet occurring.
AB Yehoshua who was at one time on the Meretz list running for the Knesset, said in an interview in Ha’artez that:
“Yasser Arafat first misled the world when he said he wanted a secular, pluralistic and democratic state and then trampled the Oslo Accords with terror attacks.”
Yehoshua also blamed Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, for “rejecting Israel’s land-for-peace offer in 2008”.
Einat Wilf a former Labour MK, in a recently published book says that her party’s assumption in 1993 “that the Palestinians were ready for peace, has since proven to have been unfounded.”
Ten years have passed since in 2008, Prime Minister Olmert pushed ahead with a most detailed map for a potential Two State solution including minimal retention of areas in Judea and Samaria (primarily the blocks) with land swaps and a shared vision in Jerusalem.
If President Trump can successfully deal with this issue… that would be a game changer.
And with yet another rejection of Two States by the Palestinians as Yehoshua noted.
As in other policy areas, this is another example of the disconnect occurring between people in Israel and significant sections of world opinion, in not understanding, or refusing to believe, just why a solution has not yet been reached.
The further removed from the reality of life in Israel either by choice or naiveté or personal prejudice, the less the realisation that has been so obvious to the Israeli mainstream—that there is no partner.
Or to put it another way, that the Palestinian narrative has not changed since 1921.
The Israeli body politics’ hope that there might be a potential partner was finally dashed by some years of outrageous and ongoing pronouncements from Abbas, including racial slurs and pure anti-Semitism.
From his “the Jews with their filthy feet” are taking over the Temple Mount, to his comments this year about Jews bringing the Holocaust upon themselves, denying Ashkenazim are Jews at all and stating that Jews have no historical or Biblical ties to the Holy Land.
Nor can Israelis see a Palestinian partner emerging in the foreseeable future.
Ironically it is now the Israeli left who set out to show that settlements are after all, no obstacle to the division of the Land. Moreover, in fact it is the so called rightist Israeli government that keeps the possibility of division alive.
As Ori Mark in an analysis by Ha’aretz newspaper concludes:
“The maps and numbers leave no room for doubt: When it comes to construction in the settlements, Netanyahu is like an old refrigerator – freezing almost everything and making a lot of noise.”
Which by the way is yet another irony—despite many settlement building announcements the statistics show exactly that, not much actual building taking place in Judea and Samaria at all, outside the blocks.
President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu at the United Nations General Assembly in bilateral talks Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
The one person who has cut through all of the stasis around the Gordian knot of Palestinian intransigence is President Trump.
Perhaps more significant than the actual embassy move, which whilst important, came with caveats such as that this does not change the status of the Holy Basin—is the current decision by President Trump to tackle a central issue of the conflict and what has ensured to date, that it is ongoing.
UNRWA and the perpetuation of the refugee myth by both the Palestinians and the United Nations and indeed many countries around the world has been one of the greatest obstacles to peace.
And the core result of this myth is the idea of a so called Palestinian ‘right of return’.
This idea is nothing less than the end of the Jewish State and will never occur.
If President Trump can successfully deal with this issue, if he manages to apply the same international definitions that are pertinent to other displaced groups, then that would be a game changer.
And amongst the Palestinians themselves, this should, in a normal world, bring a realisation that they finally need to come to the table for some sort of deal with Israel and to discard one hundred years of simply saying ‘no’.
In the meantime, we have just celebrated the Jewish New Year and the Festival of Succoth (Tabernacles) – one symbolising G-d’s judgement over the Jewish People and the other, the wandering in the desert before reaching the Promised Land.
It is also a time to review the past year.
The population of Israel stands today at just shy of nine million people and the Jewish population has grown more than ten times since her re-establishment seventy years ago to be around six point six million today.
This is due to the highest birth rate in the western world, even amongst secular Israelis, as well as the ongoing tremendous aliyah that continues to re-energise Israel.
Israel’s existence, her growth, her ongoing and increasing strength is indeed a miracle!
And should be recognised as such.
Shana tova – Happy New Year.
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