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My Fellow Palestinians: It's Time to Get Rid of Our Leaders and Accept
Israel's Offers for Peace | Opinion
Jan 28, 2024 at 3:20 PM EST
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McConnell Rejects 'Rushing' Two-State Solution Between Israel-Palestine
By Bassem Eid
PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST
47
There's been a lot of criticism of Israel recently for purportedly
rejecting a two-state solution for sharing the territory of what was
once the British Palestine Mandate between two peoples. The truth is
more complex. As a Palestinian who genuinely yearns for a two-state
solution and an improvement in living conditions in the West Bank and
Gaza, I believe this truth must be told: It is Israel—and the Zionist
Jewish community preceding independence—that consistently offered
compromise, dialogue, and a two-state solution. And it is Palestinian demagogues valuing personal power over the good of their people who have rejected these openhanded offers—in favor of endless strife and the
desire that the Jewish community be completely destroyed.
It is the Palestinian Arab nationalist movement that has betrayed the Palestinian people and consistently opposed peace. Unfortunately, the
views of the antisemitic Palestinian political heads often overshadow
the voices of real Palestinians who yearn for peace. Their voices only
rarely are heard, as in a recent protest in Gaza in which women and
children protested against Hamas, blaming the terrorist organization for
the tragedy of their lives and showcasing the divide between the people
and their leaders.
But it's not just Hamas. Palestinian leadership has sold out its people
since the beginning of the last century—even as the Jews tried again and again to offer us a state.
In 1922, the League of Nations unanimously voted to establish the
Palestine Mandate as a Jewish National Home with a map depicting not
only Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, but also what is now Jordan, which
the British instead set up as a separate Arab monarchy, cutting off more
than 75 percent of the original land grant. This vision was drastically diminished by the creation of Jordan, yet the Jewish community saw it as
an opportunity for coexistence.
The response? A series of Arab attacks terrorizing Jews in Palestine in
the 1920s and 30s, which, right under the eyes of British rule,
destroyed ancient Jewish communities in places like Hebron.
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When the British Peel Commission proposed a partition of Palestine in
1937, the Jewish leadership, in a spirit of compromise, accepted it,
despite the small size of the proposed Jewish state. But in what would
become a recurring theme, this gesture of peace was met with outright
rejection from the Arab community. This wasn't just a refusal of terms;
it was a refusal even to entertain the possibility of peaceful
coexistence by Palestinian leaders like Haj Amin el-Husseini, who went
on to serve as a Nazi collaborator in World War II, recruiting Balkan
Muslims for the S.S.
When the United Nations General Assembly voted to divide the Mandate
into Jewish and Arab states in 1947, the Jewish community joyously
accepted their proposal. Yet tragically, the Palestinian Arab leadership
again rejected even a small Jewish state in the territory. They then
invited the armies of seven neighboring Arab countries to invade and
destroy the newborn Jewish state in what became Israel's War of
Independence.
Hamas, Inc_Cover_1
Members of Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement, march in Gaza City on May 22, 2021, in commemoration of senior
Hamas commander Bassem Issa who was killed along with other militants...
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The trend continued with the Oslo Accords of 1993, in which Israeli
leaders generously allowed a genocidal terrorist group called the
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), run by the mastermind mass
murderer Yasser Arafat, to take control over most of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. The year 2000 was a critical juncture. At the Camp David
Summit, Israel extended an unprecedented offer of Palestinian statehood.
They were once again met with Palestinian leadership's refusal—and the eruption of the bloody Second Intifada, a wave of suicide bombings that
killed almost a thousand Israeli civilians.
The betrayal shattered any illusion of a commitment to a peaceful
resolution from the Palestinian side.
Then came 2008, at the Annapolis Conference, where Israel once again
reached out with a proposal for an independent Palestinian state. The
refusal of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to accept this offer was
not just disappointing; it was infuriating. Today, Abbas, who came to
power in 2004, is serving the nineteenth year of his four-year
presidential term, having suspended both elections and the constitution
in the Palestinian territories.
Meanwhile, the Gaza Strip is ruled by the vile Hamas, the ISIS of
Palestine, which, on October 7, 2023, invaded the communities of
Southern Israel, murdering 1,200 souls in a single day of nightmares and
taking more than 240 captives to Gaza. Alongside these murders were
unspeakable acts of sexual assault and continuous abuses of hostages
until today, a grim reminder of the human cost of this conflict.
READ MORE
My Fellow Gazans: We Must Demand the Release of the Israeli Hostages
As Muslim Women, We Must Keep Talking About Hamas' Sex Crimes on Oct. 7 Israel's Supreme Court Must Remain a Strong Check on Power—Especially Now
The sworn objective of Hamas's founding charter is not coexistence but
the obliteration of Israel. Khaled Meshaal, former head of Hamas and
still one of its most senior leaders, clarified just this month Hamas's position on the idea of a two-state solution: "We reject this notion,
because it means you would get a promise for a [Palestinian] state, yet
you are required to recognize the legitimacy of the other state, which
is the Zionist entity... We will not give up on our right to Palestine
in its entirety, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea." He insisted on his belief that Oct. 7 only "enhanced this conviction."
The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict regarding a two-state
solution reveals a harsh reality: Israel has consistently made genuine
efforts toward peace, only to be met with rejection, treachery, and blood-curdling violence by the Palestinian side. This pattern of
refusal, particularly epitomized by groups like Hamas, has been the real obstacle to peace.
It's time to acknowledge this truth bluntly. Those who claim to desire
peace must confront and challenge the rejectionist elements within
Palestinian society, including Hamas. We need to get rid of the
Palestinian establishment who have ruled for 15 years without actually representing the Palestinian people. Only then can we hope to forge a
path toward a peaceful, two-state future.
Eid is a Palestinian human rights activist. He lives in the West Bank.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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About the writer
Bassem Eid
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