Recently there has been a lot of talk in diplomatic circles about trying to get Israel and the Palestinians to talk again.
Reconstruction and relief in Gaza was at least part of the motivation. Jordanian King Abdullah II visited the US and also raised the issue.
What everyone seems to be ignoring is that big elephant in the room; recognizing Israel as a legitimate state.
The Hamas leaders in Gaza won’t talk to any Israeli representative directly. They negotiated the latest cease-fire using Egyptian intermediaries. Their foundation documents call for the replacement of Israel by an Arab (Palestinian0 State. Israel must cease to exist.
Their political rivals on the West Bank, the Fatah party, that rules from Ramallah, is no better. Their foundation documents have the same base. Incidentally, Fatah, or if you prefer, Palestinian Authority, representatives haven’t met with Israelis for years. They have been boycotting the discussions. Why? because they cannot get Israel to agree to commit suicide. There are a number of practical issues that could be discussed without making a Palestinian State. Of course, there are other subjects that also need to be agreed on. The Palestinians want a border on the 1967 cease-fire lines. They want complete control of at least half of Jerusalem. They want everyone who ever lived in Palestine, and all their descendants, to receive Palestinian citizenship (and not voluntarily. but by decree!). They even have raised the possibility of having Israel pay them reparations for any and every imaginable reason arising out of the conflict.
What they don’t want to discuss is any form of recognition of Israel as a Jewish State. The Palestinians rejected the UN partition plan of 1947, which was a General Assembly recommendation (non-binding) but are not adverse to asking that parts of it be considered as requiring actions by Israel (with no such requirement on themselves, because, after all, they never accepted it). They accept Israeli electricity, but are unwilling to pay for it.
I could go on, but what’s the point? There won’t be an Israeli-Palestinian peace until the Palestinians, and the rest of the world, realize that the road to a better life can be traveled by granting acceptance to those they spend so much of their time and fortune trying to dispossess.
Wetherhorn 