Dishonesty and Distraction: ‘A State of Their Own’

Too many in the West believe the only thing Palestinians have been fighting for is their right to self-determination and independence. If only Israel would agree to reasonable terms, if only Israel would allow it, if only Israel would end the injustice of preventing it, then Palestinians would finally have what they want, their own state, and peace would surely bloom.

Uh, no. This is not true, and it has led the West to pursue almost exclusively the false panacea of a two-state solution. The consistency of message among Western leaders is remarkable.

“As we look to the future, the only real solution is a two-state solution.” – US President Joe Biden, 2024 State of the Union

“We remain committed to working toward an irreversible path to achieving a two-state solution …” – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, November 26, 2024

“The ultimate goal here is well understood it must be the two-state solution.” – UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, October 7, 2024

“The only viable solution to meet the security needs of the Israeli people and the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people is the effective implementation of the two-state solution.” – French President Emmanuel Macron, February 16, 2024

“Lasting security for future generations of Israeli people lies in a solution with the Palestinians not against them. This means a negotiated two-state solution.” – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, March 17, 2024

“We will concentrate all our efforts on making the two-state solution a reality.” – Pedro Sánchez, President of the Government of Spain, May 28, 2024

“Italy has always reiterated that the Palestinian people have the right to have a state, an independent, secure state.” – Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy, January 24, 2024

Instead of focusing on the real issues that need to be addressed in order to achieve peace for Israelis and Palestinians, we seem to be fixated on the idea that if we just pressure Israel enough, then Israel would allow Palestinians to have their own state, and we would finally have that long-sought peace in the Middle East.

The problem is that it’s not true … not today, not 75 years ago, and not at any time in between. Over and over, Palestinians have been offered their own state and, over and over, their leaders have said, “No!”

Remember 1937? Jewish leaders accepted the Peel Commission report that recommended a partitioning of Mandatory Palestine to create separate Jewish and Arab states. Arab leaders rejected it.

Remember 1947? Jewish leaders accepted the UN Partition Plan that called for the establishment of separate Jewish and Arab states. Arab leaders rejected it.

Remember 2000? Israel offered Palestinians 95% of the West Bank, 100% of Gaza, a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem, and Palestinian religious autonomy on the Temple Mount. Palestinian leaders rejected it.

And again in 2000, Israel accepted a plan proposed by US President Bill Clinton giving Palestinians 97% of the West Bank, 100% of Gaza, Palestinian control of the Temple Mount, and a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem. Palestinian leaders rejected it.

Remember 2008? Israel offered Palestinians 93.7% of the West Bank with land from Israel to compensate for the rest, 100% of Gaza, an end to Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount, and a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem. Palestinian leaders rejected it.

These and other “two-state solution” solutions have been rejected by the Palestinian side, repeatedly. Yet, the West seems unwilling to see the reality. Every attempt at peace has failed because the Palestinian side has never budged from its position that a Jewish state cannot be allowed to exist in the Arab World.

When Palestinian leaders insist on the Right of Return as a condition to peace, we should know it’s simply another strategy to destroy Israel. How can we attribute good faith to demanding that six million should be entitled to return? Only some 700,000 Palestinian Arabs left Israel in 1948. It’s true some were expelled, but the majority were not. Palestinian leaders know very well that accepting all six million descendants of the Palestinian Arabs who left in 1948, even those who are now citizens of other countries, who may be only one-eighth Palestinian, who may be the great grandchild of someone who left voluntarily to ‘wait it out’ while other Arabs slaughtered the Jews, who might themselves not just want Jews dead but might have even committed acts of terrorism, would destroy the State of Israel.

When Palestinian leaders claim that control over Jerusalem is an impediment to peace, we should know it’s not true. First of all, consider the fact that Israel agreed to give up Jerusalem in its acceptance of the 1947 UN Partition Plan. Second, consider the fact that Israel voluntarily and promptly gave Jerusalem back to the Arabs in hopes of avoiding further conflict after Israeli forces captured the city in the 1967 Six-Day War.

When Palestinian leaders claim prisoner exchanges are an impediment to peace, we should know it’s not true. Israel has always been willing to agree to disproportionate swaps, even a thousand to one, and even when the released Palestinians are convicted murderers being exchanged for innocent Israeli civilians held hostage.

When renewed terrorism thwarts the peace process, we should know it’s not a coincidence. Hamas’ October 7, 2023, massacre was designed to interrupt an imminent peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. There were many other times, for example in 2000, when Palestinian leaders launched the Second Intifada, just as the Camp David Summit seemed so close to delivering peace.

Here’s what US President Bill Clinton had to say about this, “I killed myself to give the Palestinians a state. I had a deal they turned down that would have given them all of Gaza… between 96%-97% of the West Bank, compensating land in Israel, you name it.”

Palestinian leaders have rejected, ignored, or sabotaged every offer to have a state of their own for one reason and one reason only. None of those offers eliminated the State of Israel. The issue has always been that Israel’s very existence is intolerable and, because of that, no peace plan that allows Israel to survive can be acceptable.

When Palestinians and their supporters in the Arab World shout, “From the River to the Sea,” hopeful Westerners don’t seem to believe them, but that is exactly what they have always meant. Here is just a small sampling of the words of Palestinian leaders across the decades.

“It is the duty of Muhammadans [Muslims] in general and Arabs in particular to … drive all Jews from Arab and Muhammadan countries.” – Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, November 1943

“It will be a war of annihilation. It will be a momentous massacre in history that will be talked about like the massacres of the Mongols or the Crusades.” – Arab League Secretary-General Azzam Pasha, October 11, 1947

“We will endeavor to assist [foreign-born Jews] and facilitate their departure by sea to their countries of origin. Whoever [Israeli-born Jews] survives will stay in Filastin, but in my opinion no one will remain alive.” – PLO Chairman Ahmad Shukeiri, June 2, 1967

“We don’t want peace, we want victory. Peace for us means Israel’s destruction and nothing else.” – PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Quoted in the Washington Post, March 29, 1970

“Peace for us means the destruction of Israel.” – PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Quoted in The Times, UK, August 5, 1980

“We plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state.” – PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Speech in Stockholm, 1996

“I will never, under any conditions, accept the existence of the state of Israel.” – Palestinian Islamic Jihad Leader Ramadan Shalah, December 15, 2009

“Palestine is from the sea to the river… We will not recognize Israel!” – Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh, December 14, 2010

“We won’t accept a Jewish state…” – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Meeting for the Central Council of the PLO, March 4, 2015

“We support the eradication of Israel through armed Jihad and struggle.” – Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar, Speech on Al Jazeera TV, May 26, 2021

It’s not a negotiating strategy if the message hasn’t changed in 75 years. It’s not a negotiating strategy if they’ve been offered their own state and rejected it for 75 years. Every peace offer, every opportunity to gain true independence and their own state has been rejected, and usually met with violence. We in the West have to accept the reality that the singular impediment to peace in the Middle East is Palestinian leaders’ refusal to accept the presence of a Jewish state in the Arab World.

In fact, what the Hell is wrong with us that we refuse to believe what they tell us a thousand times over! And the wars and terrorism. They’ve never stopped. What monumental flaw is there in our modern Western psychology that our response is to blame Israel? It is madness and it has to stop.

What our Western leaders keep calling for is not a solution because it’s not possible, at least not yet. And there has to be real urgency to correcting their thinking because focusing so exclusively on a two-state solution prevents honest discussion of the real issues standing in the way of peace.

There is no sincere search for solutions by influential Western powers to the Islamists and terrorists that dominate Palestinian societies and mercilessly indoctrinate new generations of Palestinians. How can there be peace while this continues?

Israel is left to defend itself with checkpoints and policing actions, only to hear the West cry, “Oppression!” Israel is left to fight back against suicide bombings and knifings and attacks like October 7, only to bear relentless criticism from the West. In this environment, peace cannot grow. The only thing that can is anti-Semitism.

What’s worse is that the West is complicit in perpetuating the stranglehold the Islamists and terrorists have over Palestinians and, therefore too, the suffering inflicted on both Palestinians and Israelis. Sending billions of dollars in international aid to Palestinian authorities, which ends up in the hands of Hamas or funds the Palestinian Authority’s ‘Pay-to-Slay’ program, undermines the possibility of peace. Funding irrigation pipelines that are then dug-up to use the pipes for rockets undermines the possibility of peace. A United Nations that looks the other way on every violation of international law by Hamas or Hezbollah undermines the possibility of peace. Funding UNRWA, which supports terrorists in both their attacks on Israel and their indoctrination of Palestinian children, undermines the possibility of peace. Holding back Israel from fighting and destroying the Islamists and terrorists who attack it relentlessly, harms not just Israel, but also the Palestinian people who are subjugated by the likes of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and others.

A two-state solution will not solve these problems and will not resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So, stop talking about a two-state solution that serves only to distract from the desperately urgent need to address these issues!