Two-state solution not sought

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls on the Palestinians and the world to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, a proposal which recently became a strategic principle for Israeli national security.

He and most Israeli leaders from different parties agree on denying essential Palestinian rights, preferring ‘peace-for-peace' instead of ‘peace-for-land', irrespective of differences in details.

In an article in Haaretz titled ‘If I were a Palestinian', Akiva Elder wrote: "A sovereign state that demands another people recognise its national identity cannot get away with not presenting a map that defines its self-determination. The solution of two states for two peoples has little value as long as it is not accompanied by an agreement … on the location of the border that will separate the two. The Jewish prime minister, in demanding that the Palestinians recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people, has now erased that border. According to principles of reciprocity … always dear to Netanyahu, all Palestinians, like all Jews, are welcome to build their homes … anywhere between the sea and the Jordan River".

Elder adds, "Were I a Palestinian, I would demand that tenders for land allotments in the West Bank and East [Occupied] Jerusalem also be open to me. I would thank Netanyahu for his plan for ‘economic peace', but ... would demand from the government …the same development budgets and water allotments it grants its Jewish citizens… And, of course, I would expect it would restore…my private land which has become the location of illegal outposts."

In the same context, former diplomat Gideon Samet notes that the increasing power of the extremist right-wing Yisrael Beitenu Party, led by Avigdor Lieberman, "gives political life in Israel a fascist colour when Israeli society shows tolerance towards fascist ideas. Lieberman is the reduced copy of Israeli fascism. The harm Lieberman is causing…has been too great, especially in the presence of Obama, a different US president. If we look carefully, we will see that Lieberman is actually not the founder of a new racism; he is the natural progeny of the colonial racist essence of Israel which continuously regenerates itself to face Israel's crises in a more aggressive and racist fashion".

Missing ingredients

On the other hand, strategic scholar General (retired) Shlomo Gazit, in an article in Maariv titled ‘Fate of the Second Miracle', says, "For democratic society to survive, it needs stability and six basic conditions to exist: a harmonious society; a rich, well-established society; a state that does not encounter threats to its existence; a secular society and system; an undisputed legal system for law enforcement; and a political system that allows stable governance. As a group, these conditions do not exist in Israel. Israeli society is becoming less and less harmonious … The official educational system is about to vanish; we can also see trends in private education that dissipate harmony. The Israeli army today, which had played the role of national amalgamator, does not bring together more than 50 per cent of men and women in Israel, of which, only a minority continues the task of reserve service".

Writing in Yediot Ahronot, Gaby Tuob says, "It has become more and more possible to hear that the expression ‘Jewish and democratic' is contradictory. For the state to represent part, but not all of its citizens, violates principles of democratic equality. How, in a period of six decades, have we moved from there to here? How has the idea which looked democratic…in the past turned…to its opposite? Every answer must take into account at least two dramatic contexts…one originating from the right and the other from the left. The first is the increasing identification of Zionism with [colonies] and occupation, and the second is new, using the language of human rights in order to get basic democratic rights".

Historically, the Zionist venture is imperialistic and has not adopted a plan for solving the Arab/Israeli conflict. In fact, that venture created conflict and imposed itself by adopting a solution for the ‘Jewish question' even while creating a ‘Palestinian question'.

Hence, the Zionist venture considers a Palestinian state a negation of the Israeli state.

Irrespective of the erroneous belief that this idea is confined only to the Israeli extreme right, the basic idea of Israeli existence is protection, expansion and maintenance of the Zionist venture. Israeli political trends refuse a Palestinian state no matter what borders and sovereignty it may have.

A Palestinian state, being a negation of Israel is the viewpoint among an important sector of the Israeli public and even more deeply rooted in the Israeli establishment, especially when the ‘right of return for Palestinian refugees' is discussed.

All political factions adopt the same viewpoint: The Zionist venture is a negation of the Palestinian venture. This is because Israeli occupation (like all other occupations) is not and cannot be democratic. If the Zionist idea and movement are identified with colonialism, Zionism cannot be democratic.

Depriving millions of Arabs of their rights is a blatant violation of the Israeli ‘declaration of independence' and to the claimed moral basis of Zionism emphasising the ‘right of all people to self-determination', which they pretend to believe — until the right is claimed.

Professor As'ad Abdul Rahman is the Chairman of the Palestinian Encyclopaedia.