Shorashim Insight into the News,( Moshe Kempinski)
At a meeting in Washington, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with top Arab League officials to discuss the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. This Saudi proposal that has been on the table for a long time proposes the 22 Arab countries normalizing ties with Israel in return for a withdrawal from lands that Israel took during the war of 1967. ( which Israel contends was a defensive war)
Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim, who led the delegation, agreed that any deal should be based on a two-state solution based on the armistice lines which existed before June 4, 1967.
Yet he then expressed support for a proposal by US President Barack Obama for a “comparable and mutual agreed minor swap of the land” between Israelis and Palestinians to reflect the realities of the burgeoning communities on the ground.
The head PLO negotiator, Saeb Erekat said Tuesday that a concession by the Arab League that Israel and the Palestinians trade land was already an official position.“This is not something new,” Erekat said in a statement. “The Arab delegation presented the official Palestinian position: Upon Israel’s unequivocal acceptance of the two-state solution on the 1967 border, the State of Palestine as a sovereign country might consider minor agreed border modifications,” he said.
Some Israeli politicians who have not yet come to realize what most Political pundits in the world have come to understand ,that the “two state Solution” is not viable, expressed great satisfaction. Israel’s negotiator Tzipi Livni who was put into that position as a result of the political haggling that created Israel’s current ruling coalition gushed forth on a Israeli radio news show ;
“This is very good news,”It’s definitely an important step ..I welcome it.”
The only problem with that enthusiasm is a simple fact that keeps getting missed.
President Obama speaks of a “two state for two peoples” solution.
Prime minister Netanyahu speaks of a “two state for two peoples” solution.
You will never hear a Palestinian or Muslim leader speak of a “two state for two peoples” solution . You will only hear them say that they are interested in a “two state solution”
They believe in the formation of a Palestinian state and then will accept another state on what is termed Muslim WAQF land. Yet this other state will also eventually become a Muslim state. . It is anathema to Muslim theology and to all the political entities that subscribe to that theology to accept any Jewish control of land that was once “liberated” for Islam. Therefore the promoting of the concept of a “two State solution” works very well. The nuance is missed by most western ears.
In a speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a Joint Meeting of the United States Congress in 2011 ,he said “My friends, this must come to an end. President Abbas must do what I have done. I stood before my people, and I told you it wasn’t easy for me, and I said… “I will accept a Palestinian state.” It is time for President Abbas to stand before his people and say… “I will accept a Jewish state.” He was attacked by worldwide media for making this seemingly unimportant issue, a stickler point. Yet he did not , at that time, miss the nuances of Palestinian political talk.
If that nuance will be missed by the politicians of the west or of Israel then we will, again. Enter into very dangerous waters.
In a speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a Joint Meeting of the United States Congress in 2011 he said “My friends, this must come to an end. President Abbas must do what I have done. I stood before my people, and I told you it wasn’t easy for me, and I said… “I will accept a Palestinian state.” It is time for President Abbas to stand before his people and say… “I will accept a Jewish state.” He was attacked by worldwide media for making this seemingly unimportant isuue a stickler point. yet he did not at that time miss the nuances of Palestinian political talk.
Perhaps they should all read what HaShem said to Joshua:
“Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.
(Joshua 1:2-4)