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The Palestinians Have Never Accepted a Two-State Solution

(Times of Israel) Einat Wilf interviewed by Raphael Ahren - Former Labor MK Einat Wilf believes the Palestinians are miles away from accepting the idea of dividing the land and are still hoping Israel will soon disappear. Her new book, The War of Return, co-authored with former Ha'aretz journalist Adi Schwartz, provides an in-depth analysis of the Palestinian refugee problem. The War of Independence has never ended, Wilf and Schwartz maintain. Officials at the Palestinian Authority today are convinced that masses of "refugees" will soon "return" to their homes in Jaffa and Haifa, ultimately destroying the Jewish state. The issue of refugees "is the core of the conflict," Wilf said, "because no other issue reflects more deeply the continued Palestinian, and more broadly Arab, view that Israel is temporary." The international community's longstanding position on the refugee question - including support for UNRWA, the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees - is among the main reasons the Palestinians continue to foster the ethos of return, according to Wilf. The Palestinians interpret the West's support for UNRWA as support for the right of return. "What we're showing [in the book] is that the Palestinians have actually never, not for a single moment, accepted the two-state solution. There was never a moment where they said: We're done, we understand that the other state will never be Arab or Palestinian and that it will belong to the Jewish people."
2018-07-31 00:00:00
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