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Palestinian Recognition of the Jewish State

[Middle East Strategy at Harvard] Robert O. Freedman, Visiting Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University: If there is to be a long-lasting peace between Israel and a Palestinian state, Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is a necessity. Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is central to ending the conflict. While acknowledgment of Israel as a Jewish state was not a component of Israel's peace treaties with either Egypt or Jordan, in neither case was Israel involved in the type of existential conflict with these countries as it currently is with the Palestinians - a conflict in which it often appears that the assertion of one people's national aspirations negates those of the other people. Thus it is necessary for both sides to recognize the legitimacy of the other's national aspirations. Finally, and perhaps most important of all, it is necessary for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state to replace the image of the Jew as dhimmi, or second-class citizen, with the image of the Jew as a member of a national group exercising legitimate national rights, just as the Palestinians themselves do. Once this is done, the chances for a long-lasting peace between Israel and a Palestinian state will be greatly enhanced. Walter Reich, Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a former Director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: The Palestinians and other Arabs actively deny that religious Zionism (as opposed to political Zionism) betokens a Jewish connection with the land that's very real and very ancient. In fact, the Jewish claim to the land, including Jerusalem, is so old, and so far predates Islam or the Palestinians, that it's extremely threatening and elicits repeated denials of historical reality. Thus the repeated insistence throughout the Muslim/Arab world that the Jews have no historical basis for their claim to Israel. Freedman also believes that the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is important because it would replace the image among Palestinians of the Jews as dhimmi, or second-class citizen. But given the religious currents that have become manifest across the Arab/Muslim world in recent years - and the non-stop insistence in sermons, textbooks and other teachings, especially in the West Bank and Gaza, that Jews are evil usurpers and will never have a right to be in Muslim lands - I don't see that happening, either among Palestinians or elsewhere in the Arab/Muslim world, for a very long time, probably generations. Robert Satloff, Executive Director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy: If it is to be successful, a Palestinian-Israeli permanent status agreement will end all claims that each national group has on the other. If it is indeed to end all claims, once and for all, it will have to address not just issues raised by the 1967 war, but issues left unaddressed from the 1948 war. The first and foremost is recognition of what the relevant UN resolutions repeatedly called "the Jewish state." Without an unambiguous statement of recognition, it is difficult to imagine that any agreement will indeed have ended all claims. It is not surprising that an Israeli government has made this demand a sine qua non of a permanent status agreement. What is surprising is that no Israeli government has made this a sine qua non until now. The U.S. voted for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine 62 years ago. The U.S. should not be indifferent to Israel's request that endorsing its status as the Jewish state be enshrined in a permanent status agreement designed finally to end the conflict over Palestine, once and for all.
2009-09-04 08:00:00
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