Just say yes?
Charles A. Kupchan urges the 'Palestinians' to just say yes. Since Israel holds virtually all the cards — the land, the tanks, the wealth, the water — the Palestinians should make that bold move by taking what they can get, not what they want.Good luck with that. In seventeen years of 'negotiations,' the 'Palestinians' have never given in on a single demand - I don't see them starting now. And besides, even if Abu Bluff and Fayyad said yes, who else would follow them? What could go wrong?
The Palestinian Authority should make Israel an offer it can’t refuse by leapfrogging the logjam and declaring publicly that it is prepared to accept the outlines of the deal that successive Israeli governments have put on the table.
To the end of securing its main objective — statehood — the Palestinian Authority should acquiesce to major Jewish settlements in the West Bank in a swap for territory in Israel; it should give up the right of return for most Palestinian refugees and instead secure monetary compensation; it should accept effective demilitarization of a Palestinian state in order to meet Israel’s security needs; and the Palestinian Authority should aim to locate its capital in Arab East Jerusalem.
Although it may seem like an act of folly for the Palestinian Authority to accept Israel’s terms as its opening move, Palestinian leaders have little choice: They can opt for statehood on these terms — or no state at all.
Palestinians should stop denying themselves their only chance for statehood by clinging to demands that everyone knows full well they will never get.
Read the whole thing.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:26 AM
2 Comments:
1) The PA's "main objective" is not statehood, but statelessness for the Jews. Statehood is their means.
2) None of the Arabs know "full well" that "they will never get" their demands. They're actually rather convinced Israel will completely cave in, eventually. Given how Israel's convictions keep eroding with each passing year, I can't blame them for thinking that way.
The Palestinians are not going to accept Israel as the Jewish State and end the conflict. To sell uprooting thousands of Jews in Yesha an Israeli Prime Minister must at least obtain those terms from the Palestinians. Otherwise Israeli Jews will just see an agreement as a "hudna" - a prolonged truce to allow the Palestinians to gain a strategic advantage in the next round.
And Yaakov is correct - what is Israel's minimum red line, where Israel won't give anything away? You don't hear such a declaration from Israel's leaders. All you hear from them is how much Israel should be prepared to concede to get a peace agreement. And the Palestinians have every reason to believe a combination of Israeli fecklessness and world pressure will get them a state without their having recognize Israel's national character and terminate the conflict.
Israeli Jews have been negotiating with themselves for the past 17 years. There is no talk of real compromise from the Palestinian side. For that reason alone, I expect the peace talks to ultimately end in failure.
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