Return of the rejectionists

A quick history lesson.

1937: The British government recommends partitioning Palestine into an Arab state on roughly 80 percent of the land and a Jewish state on the rest.  The Zionist leadership accept this offer of a mini-state on 20 percent of the territory.  The Arabs refuse.

1947: The UN votes in favour of Resolution 181 – the partition of Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, this time roughly 50:50. The Jews accept, the Arabs refuse and, for good measure, declare that they will strangle the new Jewish state at birth.

2000: At Camp David, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak suggests establishing a Palestinian state in Gaza and some 90 percent of the West Bank.  Yasser Arafat rejects the offer and makes no counter-proposals.  A few months later, after Arafat has already launched the second Intifada, President Clinton presents both parties with a last chance to make peace before he leaves office.  His plan would see the creation of a Palestinian state in Gaza and 97 percent of the West Bank, with a capital in East Jerusalem.  Barak, with reservations, accepts the proposal.  Arafat rejects it. Saudi Arabia accuse him of committing "a crime against the Palestinian people".

Last week, I was at Bar Ilan University to hear Benjamin Netanyuahu surprise many by accepting the need for a two-state solution.  I wondered what would be the reaction of the Palestinian Authority; I guessed it would be cautiously optimistic. I was wrong.

"He announced a series of conditions and qualifications that render a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian state impossible," complained Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat.  What were these "impossible" conditions? That the Palestinian state be demilitarized, and that the Palestinians accept Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.  The first of these is nothing new.  Clinton's proposals also included this concession to Israel's security requirements.  It is the price the Palestinians must pay for decades of threatening Israel with annihilation.  The second qualification simply states that if Israel accepts the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own, then quid pro quo: the Palestinians recognise the right of the Jewish people to their own state.

Every time there has been an offer on the table, the Palestinian leadership has adopted an "all-or-nothing" policy and ended up with nothing. And while Israel has made its fair share of mistakes over the years, no one factor is more significant in the failure to find a resolution than the enduring stupidity of Palestinian rejectionism.

This was published in The Jewish News on 26/6/2009.