A Left-Wing Appeal

Anyone want to wager whether the Arabs of the formare Palestine Mandate territory will heed his appeal to them?

This one:-

...they must make sure that their strategy will allow a future Israeli government that will replace Netanyahu’s current extreme-right coalition to engage with the Palestinian peace plan.

They must state explicitly that the establishment of Palestine along the 1967 borders would end the conflict. Most importantly: while they would want moral recognition of their tragedy of 1948 and some form of restitution to the refugees of 1948, they should accept something along the peace plan of Yuval Rabin, which states that the right of return will not be implemented except in a few symbolic instances.

Quite unfortunately, there are indications that the Palestinians may continue their unfortunate tendency never to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. In a recent article in the Guardian, Saeb Erekat wrote that the Palestinian right of return is a central issue, and went on to say that, “Israel's recognition of Palestinian refugee rights and its agreement to provide reparation and meaningful refugee choice in the exercise of these rights will not change the reality in the Middle East overnight, nor will it lead to an existential crisis for Israel.”

Akiva Eldar and I have written a rejoinder in which we express our disappointment at Erekat’s formulation...The option of millions of Palestinians settling in Israel would mean no less than the end of the Homeland of the Jews.

It needs to be clear that even liberals like Akiva Eldar and me, who have been for a Palestinian state since long before the PLO and Israel ever talked to each other, have red lines that we will not cross...

Through the demand to actually implement the Palestinian right of return, as Erekat seems to be implying, Palestinians condemn themselves, Israel and the whole region to further decades of violence, trauma and enormous suffering. Their theory that Jews in Israel will ultimately renounce the idea of a Jewish homeland is wrong...there are but two choices: the two-state solution, or descent of the region into chaos that will make earlier rounds of bloodletting look tame.

...If they now try to capitalize on their international advantage to push for the implementation of the right of return, they will repeat their historical mistake of 1947, and once again reject the partition of the area west of the Jordan River...

For further reference.

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