Daily Alert Archives

Arabs Spurn the "Two-State Solution"

[Jerusalem Post] Gerald M. Steinberg - Israel is not the reason for the lack of a Palestinian state - this is the responsibility of the Palestinians. For more than six decades, Arab leaders rejected every opportunity to create an independent state that would have also left Israel intact. In November 1947 - 20 years before "the occupation" following the 1967 war - Arab officials spurned the UN partition plan, which embodied the "two-state solution." In sharp contrast, the Zionist leadership grasped this opportunity, despite the minimal territory allocated to the nascent Jewish state. During the Oslo process in the 1990s, Arafat could easily have negotiated the terms of a two-state solution, had he been interested in this outcome. However, most Palestinian officials and leaders have given priority to preventing Jewish sovereignty and rolling back the recognition of Israel as the Jewish homeland. Hamas openly declares that its primary objective is destroying Israel; an independent Palestinian state is secondary, at best.
2009-04-10 06:00:00
Full Article