In light of the current US-led negotiations for peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, I think it will benefit the readers to acquire the perspective of history.
To begin, this conflict did not always exist. In 1919, Emir Feisal, the leader of the Arab national movement, said, “We Arabs … look with deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement … We will wish the Jews a hearty welcome home.” The next year, Palestinian violence began against the Jewish people.
The people of Israel strived for peace with their neighbors even before the nation was established by the ending of the Balfour Declaration in 1948. In 1937, the future Israelis eagerly accepted the British proposal for a Jewish state containing only 4 percent of the original British mandate. Even though the remaining 96 percent was proposed for Arab land, the Arab leaders rejected it, instead choosing to slaughter the Jewish people on the streets. In 1947, the British offered an even smaller piece of land for the Jewish state, leaving a larger chunk for the Arabs, but the Arabs leaders still rejected the peace offer. After the Jewish war of independence in 1948, offers of peace were again given to the Arabs, who again rejected them. To reward the Israelis for their peace efforts, Arab terrorists killed more than 1000 Israeli civilians.
In 1967, the Israelis again offered land for peace to the surrounding Arab states. The Khartoum Resolution of the Arab states rejected this offer, stating that there would be no peace, no negotiations and no recognition of the Jewish state. Again, the Israeli citizens paid for their peace offer with their lives. Even the Oslo Peace Accords of the 1990s, where Israel again gave land for peace, were unsuccessful. With a country smaller than the state of New Jersey, the Jewish people will eventually run out of land to offer.
The violence that the Palestinians had agreed to renounce in the Oslo Peace Accords continues to this day in the form of terrorist attacks, suicide bombings, and rocket launches on civilian cities. Despite the repeated offers by the Israelis of land for peace in previous and current decades, the Palestinians and surrounding Arab nations continue to refuse, insisting on violence instead. In order for the current negotiations to be successful, the leader of the Palestinian Authority must officially recognize the state of Israel, the Jewish people’s right to exist, and agree to renounce all further attacks and terrorism against the Israelis. For this, the people of Israel will gladly accept a two-state solution.
Rebecca Ringuette