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Source: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-west-can-only-see-palestinians-as-victims/
The Palestinians Must Want to Live in Peace with Israel for a Palestinian State to Be Sustainable
(Spectator-UK) Stephen Daisley - Palestinians ought to run their own affairs. But that goal cannot be achieved by unilateral actions such as recognizing a Palestinian state. The Palestinians have to accept Israel not only as a political or military reality but as a legitimate country, the nation-state of the Jewish people, the ingathering of an indigenous and exiled people to their historic and spiritual homeland. There is no alternative route. This used to be doctrine among two-state solutioners. But substantive recognition has fallen out of fashion, along with other safeguards intended to secure a lasting peace. The only way the two-state solution paradigm can work is if there is a genuine and enduring truce between the two nations. A mere end to hostilities would be insufficient. The Palestinians must want to live in peace with Israel for a Palestinian state to be sustainable. Palestinians went to the polls in January 2006 and duly elected Hamas in a ballot monitored by the Jimmy Carter Center. Hamas was not an unknown quantity at this point. It had been murdering Israelis for years and affirmed in its charter: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it." Call them a state, do whatever you like, but it won't change Palestinian national culture. A state of Palestine that has not made its peace with Zionism cannot be relied upon to resist political forces pushing fresh confrontation with Israel. It is not enough to get rid of Hamas. Palestinian national culture must come to reject the impulses and prejudices that lead so many to support anti-Israel factions and to console themselves that Israel is a temporary entity and will one day, inshallah, be dismantled. The international community could encourage this by penalizing extremism and rejectionism. By telling the Palestinians that the world stands ready to bring their plight to an end but won't wait forever for them to take the steps needed on their part.