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Do the Palestinians Want Two States?

(Ha'aretz-Hebrew) Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser - The former head of Palestinian General Intelligence, Tawfik Tirawi, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, told an interviewer on the PA's official TV channel that the Palestinians have waged an ongoing struggle to liberate their land ever since the Balfour Declaration, 98 years ago. This is the context in which to regard the current wave of terror attacks. As Tirawi explains, there is no single act that will achieve the long-awaited objective, just a "cumulative struggle." The Palestinian leadership, driven by an outlook that denies the existence of the Jewish people and its right to a democratic nation-state in its homeland, sustains its support for indiscriminate murder because it fears that the Palestinian issue will be pushed to the margins. On the other hand, there appears to be growing awareness that there is no solution in the foreseeable future and, thus, no reason that the international community should invest resources in the issue. Israel, along with its efforts to bring an end to the wave of terror, has been busy with questions such as: will the war last forever? Apparently for as long as the Palestinians cling to their far-reaching demands and to their strategy of "struggle." Mahmoud Abbas has again declared that he will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He says such recognition would nullify the "right of return," make it harder for Israeli Arabs to promote Palestinian interests within the Israeli political scene, and would require a change in the Palestinian narrative. Those are exactly the reasons why Israel insists that only such recognition can guarantee real peace. Just as many Zionists now recognize the Palestinian people's right to a nation-state in its land in the framework of the permanent settlement, so long as it does not constitute a threat to Israel's security, so must the Palestinians be required to recognize the Jewish people's right to a (democratic) nation-state in the land of its forefathers. The only possible solution is that of two states for two peoples with mutual recognition. The idea has not died; it simply has not yet been born because the Palestinians, and the Europeans who support them, refuse to allow its birth. The writer was formerly Director General of the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs and head of the Research and Analysis and Production Division of IDF Military Intelligence.
2015-11-09 00:00:00
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