This column will ask Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, about their role in perpetuating the Israel/Palestinian conflict.

Prime Minister Netanyahu: Are you serious about the “two-state solution?” The policy of your governing coalition is that the entire Land of Israel, which includes the West Bank, is “exclusively and indisputably the land of the Jewish People”.

You have said you would be open to negotiations about a Palestinian state at some point in the future. However it would have no military or security power. This amounts to limited autonomy, not statehood.

Given all the Israeli settlements and areas declared closed military zones, how much territory would be left for a Palestinian state? It would at best amount to 40% of the West Bank, about 1,000 square miles. The smallest state in the U.S., Rhode Island,is larger than that.

If you were a Palestinian living under the conditions of the West Bank occupation, with Israel controlling every aspect of Palestinian life, with settlers attacking Palestinians without interference from Israel’s army or police, with Israel controlling most of the natural resources, fading hope of a meaningful Palestinian state, wouldn’t you see armed violence as legitimate?

Secretary of State Tony Blinken warned you, albeit in diplomatic words, that “… the relationship between our countries, is rooted ... in shared values. That includes our support for core democratic principles and institutions, including respect for human rights, the equal administration of justice for all, the equal rights of minority groups, the rule of law, free press, a robust civil society.”

Can you identify a single one of those values that your government is upholding? Will the prospect of losing American financial and diplomatic support constrain your anti-Palestinian policies? If not, is there anything that would?

President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority

Do you think that Palestinians bear some of the responsibility for the current conflict? There might have been a Palestinian state in 1948 based on the UN’s Partition Resolution; between 1949-67 when Jordan and Egypt controlled the West Bank and Gaza. After the June 1967 war the Arab states and Palestinians explicitly declared in Khartoum, “no negotiations, no recognition, no peace.”

In former President Bill Clinton’s autobiography he described the proposal he made to your predecessor, Yasser Arafat, and to Israel in 2000. It included: “... 94 to 96 percent of the West Bank for the Palestinians with a land swap from Israel of 1 to 3 percent; the land kept by Israel would include 80 percent of the settlers in blocs … ;

In Jerusalem, Arab neighborhoods would be in Palestine and the Jewish neighborhoods in Israel; the new state of Palestine would be the homeland for refugees displaced in the 1948 war and afterward; the agreement had to clearly mark the end of the conflict and put an end to all violence.”

According to Clinton, Israel accepted the proposal, but Yasser Arafat rejected it. Instead, Palestinians launched a campaign of suicide bombings that murdered over 1,000 Israeli civilians.

Would you accept the Clinton proposal if it were presented today? Apparently not. You insist that the 1948 refugees and their descendants, numbering several million people, would have the choice to return to what is now Israel and receive reparations. That would end the Jewish majority in Israel and thus a Jewish state.

A study commissioned by the European Union examined 156 Palestinian Authoritytextbooks and 16 teachers’ guides. According to the report, their “frequent use of negative attributions in relation to the Jewish people … suggest a conscious perpetuation of anti-Jewish prejudice.” Terrorists are praised, and those killed are referred to as martyrs. Such references appear even in science and math books. One “martyr,” Dalal al-Mughrabi, was involved in a 1978 massacre in which 38 Israelis, including 13 children, were killed. For committing these murders, she is cited as an example of female empowerment. Why are these books still being used in Palestinian schools?

This column blames Netanyahu for the most egregious aspects of the continuing Israel/Palestine conflict. Because it is the more powerful of the two, Israel can build yet more Jewish settlements and continue its rule over West Bank Palestinians. However, the Arab League states and the Palestinians must share significant blame as well. When they thought they had the capability to destroy Israel it was their expressed intent to do so. Neither side is willing to make peace unless it is under terms that would, for good reason, be utterly unacceptable to the other side.

This is my fourth column on Israel/Palestine. Today’s column shows that neither leader is serious about achieving a just and lasting peace. That said, never give up on hope.

Richard Fein holds a master of arts degree in political science and an MBA in economics. If you would like his ”Rays of Hope” list, email him at columnist@gazettenet.com.]]>