How the Palestinians Can Achieve a Palestinian State
SHANKS, HERSHEL
PERSPECTIVE How the Palestinians Can Achieve a Palestinian State I admit to being very pro-Palestinian. I even favor a Palestinian state. It's not hard to sympathize with individual Palestinians....
...Where is the sensible, moderate element among the Palestinian leaders...
...If democracy could take root in an Arab society, it was (and perhaps is) most likely with the Palestinians...
...Everyone—except, perhaps, the Palestinian leadership—recognizes that if there is ever to be a Palestinian state, progress toward that goal will be gradual and proceed in stages...
...The obvious answer is that everyone knows the price of dissent in Palestinian "democracy"— "ten bullets in the chest," as Arafat told Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij...
...They could have had a state in all of the West Bank at any time between 1948 and the 1967 Six Day War, when Jordan controlled this area...
...Embracing Saddam Hussein and cheering the Scuds is only the latest...
...Then work with that...
...They shoot themselves in the foot every chance they get...
...I favored passage of a law by the Knesset that would have required Israeli soldiers to make the following statement to any Arab driver stopped at a checkpoint: "I'm sorry, sir...
...If Jordan's King Hussein hadn't foolishly attacked Israel on the first day of the Six Day War, the West Bank would still be ruled by Arabs...
...True, you have discomfited Israel, but you have always suffered more yourselves...
...Within the last few weeks we have heard murmurs of change in the territories...
...I wish we didn't have to do this, but everyone's security requires it...
...In the last year of the intifada, more Palestinians have been killed by Palestinians—for "collaboration"—than were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces...
...I believe Israel made a mistake after 1967 when it continued Jordan's 1957 ban on political parties in the West Bank...
...I doubt that now they can begin with even as much autonomy as they could have had under the Camp David Accords...
...The Palestinian future lies not in how violent you can be, but in how effectively you can demonstrate your ability to handle your own affairs democratically and your peaceful acceptance of Israel...
...That is why I, a Jew, must speak out, not to inveigh against the Israelis or to ululate over the injustices the Palestinians have suffered but to plead with them to look at their situation realistically, to look at the only strategy that has a chance to produce a Palestinian state that will include territory west of the Jordan River...
...I wish they had been encouraged more by Israeli leaders to develop their own moderate, even if nationalistic, institutions...
...Why is there no Palestinian equivalent of Shalom Achshav (Peace Now...
...Why isn't there a single Palestinian (except from the extreme Right) who speaks out against the current leadership...
...So my advice to Palestinians is this: Look at your situation realistically...
...I think unnecessary humiliation grated on the Palestinians more than anything...
...The Palestinians are among the best educated and most sophisticated Arabs...
...Demonstrate to the world that you are capable of democratically handling your own affairs...
...The Palestinians could have demonstrated not only their peaceful intentions, but their ability to handle their own affairs in a democratic manner...
...If you can manage your local affairs—such as those offered to you by the Camp David Accords— you will be in a strong position to demand more—and perhaps ultimately a sovereign state...
...New Palestinian voices are arising—voices, for the first time, of moderation...
...What a powerful case they could then have made when they demanded a state of their own...
...Why do the Palestinian people have a choice only between Arafat and the more extreme Islamic fundamentalist organization Hamas...
...Who would like to be a Palestinian living in the West Bank under Israeli rule (although, admittedly, it's better than being a Palestinian living in Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia or almost any other place in the Arab world—even before the Persian Gulf war...
...Imagine what a strong position they would be in today if they had accepted autonomy...
...May I please see your identity papers...
...The 1978 Camp David Accords, in which Egypt made peace with Israel, offered the Palestinians five years of autonomy and, after three years, the opportunity to begin negotiations on the final status of the territories...
...Just get to know them as individuals...
...The Palestinian future lies not so much with Israel as with yourselves...
...They could have had a state if they had accepted the 1947 UN Partition Plan...
...Isn't it time to try another way—the only way that has any chance of achieving the state you so fervendy desire...
...The trouble with the Palestinians is their leadership...
...Show what you can do...
...At each step, you have lost ground...
...Take a tough negotiating stance, but accept whatever limited autonomy (by whatever name) you can negotiate...
...Even after their defeat in the Six Day War, they could have gotten back the West Bank if they had made peace with Israel...
...Surely this is true of the intifada...
...What the Palestinians could have had in 1948 and 1967 or even in the years immediately after 1967 is no longer available...
...For 43 years you have tried violence...
Vol. 16 • August 1991 • No. 4
