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Still Far from Ready for Statehood
(bitterlemons.org/The Australian) Efraim Inbar - Unfortunately, General Assembly resolutions cannot fix a Palestinian national movement that is hopelessly fractured and dysfunctional. Can the UN bring Gaza and the West Bank together to present reasonable interlocutors for Israeli negotiators? Can it mellow Hamas' lust to kill Jews and to eradicate Israel? Can it eradicate the "shaheed" death culture? The Palestinians insist on the invented "right of return" for Palestinian refugees, which most of the world sees as an unrealistic demand and an obstacle to peace. The Palestinians are trying to deny Jewish history in Jerusalem. They are still not ready to concede that they lost the struggle over Jerusalem, a united capital city that the Jews will adamantly defend. The Palestinians remain unwilling to make a pragmatic deal in order to achieve statehood. And can the PA survive without begging for international support every few months? The writer is professor of political studies at Bar-Ilan University and director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.