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U.S. Peace Plan Critics Shouldn't Encourage Palestinians to Make Another Mistake

(JNS) Jonathan S. Tobin - All those denouncing the new U.S. peace plan are advising the Palestinians to stick to their refusal to talk until a new American president takes office. It is the worst possible advice anyone could give. Rather than encouraging the Palestinians to start negotiating, the "experts" are applauding their decision to reject the proposal out of hand. Sadly, they are once again serving as enablers for a Palestinian Arab leadership that has, over the course of the last century, failed their people miserably as they pursued a futile war against Zionism. Palestinian political culture is one in which any recognition of Israel's legitimacy is not merely a form of treason, but a complete betrayal of Palestinian identity. That's why Abbas was meeting with representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, rather than with Trump and Netanyahu at the White House. Abbas is saying "no" to Trump for the same reason that the Palestinians have been saying "no" to every compromise that has been mooted to solve the conflict since the 1930s. No Palestinian leader has the courage to make peace with Israel, no matter where its borders are drawn. Palestinians are right to say that Trump is asking them to surrender. But what they must surrender is their dreams of eliminating Israel. What Trump is offering the Palestinians is the best chance they're going to get to achieve a measure of independence, and eventually even prosperity. Anyone who advises them differently - whether out of disdain for Trump, or because they are fixated on forcing Israel to retreat to the 1967 lines and evicting hundreds of thousands of Israelis from their homes - is merely encouraging them to make the same mistake Palestinians have made every other time they had a chance to end the conflict and move on with their lives.
2020-01-31 00:00:00
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