Arab leaders should stop talking about peace, the need for peace, the long ongoing stalemated process and the need to revive it. It may never happen regardless of the chit-chat and chin-wagging!
This is simply because Israel doesn’t want peace or the kind that would be a respectable solution accepted by the Palestinians and seconded by the Arab world no doubt. Israel has been dilly-dallying the Arab world since the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991.
#Palestinians will have an "entity" but not a "state"
— The Palestine Project (@PalestineProjct) February 21, 2022
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz explained that he had chosen to use the word "entity" as opposed to "states" as a way of marking his rejection of an Israel returning to the pre-1967 lines.https://t.co/QSS6uMmdC7
The basis for any peaceful solution should be the two-state concept - Palestine and Israel existing side-by-side. Indeed this is what the Palestinians long called for, a state based on the 1967 borders and accepted by the region under the so-called Arab Initiative of 2002. Even Hamas have said it would mull over the idea.
“Israeli War Minister” Benny Gantz told the Munich Security Conference on Sunday that Palestinians will have “an entity”, not a state. In the future, Gantz said, Palestinians will have an entity, but not a full-fledged state, according to The Jerusalem Post… pic.twitter.com/xsXeoi1q43
— Koh Ken (@ybOk6jec26PQlIG) February 21, 2022
But this seems to be further from the minds of Israeli policy-makers who long felt this is unacceptable and unrealistic and wouldn't fathom such talks. For sure, especially under the current Israeli government, Jewish politicians are talking to leaders across the Arab world in a warm manner and cordially, but they seek to put the idea of Palestinian independent statehood with self-determination, at the back of their mind and of that of everyone else regardless of international law and UN resolutions.
Take the recent views compounded by the Israel Defense Minister Benny Ganz recently put forward at the Munich Security Conference and under the eyes of the international community. They are not shocking as they are - dare I say - ‘truthful’ ‘transparent’ and says a lot about the ‘Zionist mind’, how it thinks and what it really believes. Ganz may have said things that even Benjamin Netanyahu, in his days, preferred to popularize under the table.
Ganz is definitely reflecting the views of Israel’s extremist, rightist, leftist, Arabist, Muslim government. Without mincing his words and regardless of the many Arab leaders he is talking to, including that of Palestinian leader Mahmood Abbas, he is putting it this way: Palestinians may have an ‘entity’ but not statehood. He said an Israeli "return to the 1967 border will not happen," and Israel will not give up its Jewish settlements on the West Bank and reiterating the fact that "an Israeli return to the pre-1967 is not going to happen".
Ganz added that what the Palestinians can, at best, hope for, is to have an "entity" that is short of statehood. He added this is because of Israel's security needs and considerations which makes an independent state an impossibility. Interesting comments, for Gantz should be thanked for being so frank and transparent.
'A nuclear deal, if signed with #Iran, does not mark the end of the road, action must be taken to ensure Iran does not continue to enrich its additional facilities', says Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz at #Munich conference pic.twitter.com/MMU7gAVWEB
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) February 20, 2022
Therefore, what Palestinians could hope for is the present continuation of the status quo one that is being cemented by the fact that relations between Israel and Arab states are becoming more friendly under the Abraham Accords of countries like the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. However, Saudi Arabia continues to hold out despite the 'backroom" pressure it is being placed under to normalize with Israel.
Also speaking at the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said a rapprochement with Israel will only be made after a solution to the Palestinian cause is made.
#News: “The priority now is to find an arrangement so that #Israel and #Palestine can sit together and have a peace process that can be worked on,” #SaudiArabia Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said. https://t.co/9HWqckpUvD
— That's Enough (Anti-war Coalition) (@Thatsenough0) February 22, 2022
He was speaking to the Israeli Maariv daily and said what needs to be done is get the Israelis and Palestinians to sit together and start taking a "peace process that can be worked on" adding "the integration of Israel in the region will be a huge benefit not only for Israel itself but for the entire region."
So this is the point where everyone is at. The Palestinian issue is no longer in limbo as it was during previous times, but Israel want to move it forward according to its own terms and specifications, of trying to force its leaders into a political submission by making friends with the Arab countries. But that doesn't mean it will succeed or will it? Many parties, according to the Israelis want to jump on the bandwagon of peace normalization!
We watch the next moves with trepidation and just a little bit of dismay!
