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The Fears that Haunt Israelis in a Hostile World
(Independent-Ireland) Carol Hunt - Last Wednesday, the Dail [principal chamber of the Irish legislature] voted unanimously to call on the government to recognize the state of Palestine. Recently, I asked Israeli diplomat Dr. Einat Wilf, who was visiting Ireland, "Who could oppose self-determination for such a victimized people as the Palestinians?" Wilf, a member of the Israeli Labor Party, a socialist Labor Zionist, responds: "There are a lot of people of goodwill who believe that - all they seek is peace, to ameliorate the plight of the Palestinians. But there's a kind of colonial attitude in what they say...because they fail to admit that the Palestinian people are making conscious choices, which have led them to where they are today." "On November 29, 1947, the UN voted for partition between a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews said 'yes,' even though they felt they were conceding a lot, the Arabs said 'no' because as far as they were concerned the Jewish people do not belong there and should have received nothing....And so, they continually refuse to recognize the right of Israel to exist." When people "say, 'I have solidarity with Palestine'...what they don't understand is that to most Palestinians, 'Solidarity with Palestine' means Greater Palestine, the entire area between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, which will supersede the Israeli state. Many people of goodwill support the two-state solution but they don't realize that they are being roped into a project that is not peaceful and does not acknowledge the right of the Jewish state to exist." "If Ireland really wants to promote peace, it will have to say that its support of Palestine is in addition to - and not opposed to - support of Israel. It will have to realize that people living in Palestine cannot be recognized as refugees from Palestine." "The moment the Arabs accept that the Jews are an integral, indigenous, equal part of the region with the right to self-determination, then we can lay down our arms in the knowledge that no one will try to drive us away."