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Denying Israel's Right to Exist Condemns Palestinians to Another Generation of Suffering

(Evening Standard-UK) George Chesterton - How can you expect calls for a ceasefire to be heard if you do not recognize the right to exist of those doing the fighting? Peace depends on the hope of coexistence. It's logical to conclude that the repeated failures of Palestinian leaders to reach a deal for their own state are inextricably linked to a refusal to consider true coexistence. Accepting a two-state solution means accepting Israel, and for some that cannot happen. The two-state solution is little more than wispy Western fantasy that Israel no longer believes in and Palestinians never believed in. Undermining Israel's right to exist means it has no right to defend itself, which renders everything it does an act of evil. The implications of this are profound, not least because what happens over there has a measurable aftershock around the world. In my part of London, social media mums lead calls for mass walkouts by primary school children in support of Palestine. Jewish children open their atlases to find Israel has been scribbled out by their classmates. Inculcating political militancy in nine-year-olds will lead to more and more antisemitism. To pretend otherwise is gross deceit. Some of the pro-Palestinian movement is motivated by a desire for peace and to protect the rights of Palestinians, yet this fervor does not extend to any other conflict or region anywhere else on the planet. Why would this be? "From the river to the sea" is not merely an expression of solidarity. It is a call for the obliteration of Israel and its inhabitants. Israel can hardly be expected to listen to, let alone negotiate with, another party that plots its destruction. Spare us the moral and intellectual hypocrisy of calling for the protection of one people and the destruction of another. It's not a peace movement if what you really want is war with a different result.
2023-12-27 00:00:00
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