The Palestinian people does not exist.
I came across a revealing quote today:
The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa. While as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.
It’s by PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein in a 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw.
The “Jordan is Palestine” argument is not feasible, whoever is putting it forward.
Without compromising on Israel’s right to exist, a mechanism needs to be found to enable the Palestinian arabs to enjoy the same kind of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” that other peoples enjoy.
A Palestinian state will not achieve this, and will probably be a disaster for both Israel AND the Palestinians.
Expulsion of the Arabs from the former territory of Palestine MIGHT achieve security for Israel, but the practical experience of doing this would be so terrible that world opinion, including Israeli opinion, would recoil in horror from the deed.
The only realistic solution is to carry on as things are, and hope that eventually moderation will prevail.
The Palestinian arabs are not, in themselves, an “evil” people (in the way that the German people in the period 1933-45 can be described as evil). The Palestinian arabs have done many evil things, but they remain broadly an uneducated, unsophisticated tribe of peasant farmers, and like most peasant farmers they are fanatically attached to “their” traditional farmlands and carry on blood feuds against other communities who try (or succeed) to displace them.
The question is: how many generations need to pass before the Palestinian arabs forget their attachment to their traditional lands?
Comment by andrew — 11/24/2003 @ 5:11 am