OPINION: True supporters of Israel must back the creation of a Palestinian state
Richard Miron argues that Labour's pledge to recognise Palestine as part of a process is a good first step for the benefit of both Israelis and Palestinians and against extremism
If you care about Israel’s future, now is the time to declare your support for Palestinian statehood.
That has to be the cry of all those who want to see Israel as a secure, Jewish, and democratic country. The failure to support that call only lends strength to those extremists on both sides who dream of one state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
And so the Labour Party’s manifesto pledge to recognise a Palestinian state is a welcome initial step. It says that recognition must be part of, ‘a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.’
Labour’s call follows the symbolic recognition by Norway, Ireland and Spain of a Palestinian State .
These moves are vital in putting the issue of the two-state solution back on the diplomatic agenda when it is at risk of disappearing. And such a solution is the only way to avoid the abyss that awaits both peoples if they continue on their existing trajectory.
The current Israeli government is driving Israel at speed towards that cliff edge. In a recent leaked speech the far-right Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich spoke of changes he’s made to the administrative system for Jewish settlement in the West Bank, allowing him and his fellow ultra-nationalists a free hand to flood the occupied territory with more Israeli citizens. In his speech he describes, ‘a revolution’ that will ‘bring a million people to Judea and Samaria (The West Bank)’.
If such a move succeeds, it will not only scupper the chances to create a Palestinian State, it will destroy Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.
Smotrich’s plan supported by Bibi Netanyahu is for one – Jewish – State between the River and the Sea. It mirrors the aspirations of those on the Palestinian side – like Hamas – who ultimately want the same land for a theocratic Islamic State. They are also not averse to Smotrich’s intentions, seeing them as a stepping stone to their own plans.
We are witnessing an unfolding slugging match between two sets of extremists who see compromise and accommodation as the enemy.
What they most fear is a two-State solution where the land is divided and both peoples get to live in security in control of their own affairs, without interference from the other side.
Ami Ayalon, a former decorated IDF Commander in Chief of the Israeli Navy, and head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, was in London last week. In interviews, he offered full-throated support for recognition of a Palestinian State on the West Bank and in Gaza.
‘This is the only way for us to achieve security and maintain our identity.’
Ayalon is not naive and he knows that the path to a solution is set with numerous obstacles.
The Palestinian Authority is not fit for purpose and needs to be fully reformed from top to bottom so that it can legitimately rule over both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and not pose a threat to Israel. Any state under its leadership would have to be demilitarized and would require the active involvement of the international community – alongside Israel – to ensure it complies.
In addition, the presence of hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers in the West Bank who are given a free hand by the Israeli authorities to act as lords of the land and run riot, is incompatible with a two-state solution.
And the fate of Gaza which has become a hell-hole for its two million residents, and a no-go zone for tens of thousands of Israeli citizens who live on its periphery, can only be ultimately addressed through a political not a military solution.
Ayalon knows that undertaking such a path to Palestinian Statehood is not a gift to Hamas for the atrocities of October 7th and but riposte to its genocidal agenda.
The creation of such a state, he says, will give Israel, ‘a great present’ assuring it of its long term security and viability’.
In 2015, the late Amos Oz, one of Israel’s greatest writers and a modern-day prophet for peace, warned of the consequences of failing to establish a Palestinian State alongside Israel. It would mean, ‘there will be a single state here, and if there’s to be a single state here it will be an Arab state, from the Sea to Jordan. If there is to be an Arab state here, I do not envy our children and grandchildren.‘
He warned that a precursor to this situation would be,’ a dictatorship of fanatical Jews, a dictatorship with religious and racists traits, a dictatorship that will oppress with an iron fist both the Arabs and its Jewish objectors.’
Oz’s nightmarish vision is threatening to become a reality. Netanyahu and his allies incite against those – including the families of the hostages – who oppose his policies. The police under the command of the far-right extremist Itamar Ben Gvir beat those who demonstrate against the government. For the Palestinians also, they offer only less freedom and more violence.
On the Palestinian side, Hamas is becoming ever more popular with each passing day of conflict. The fighting in Gaza and the increasingly oppressive environment for Palestinians in the West Bank serves its purposes.
Both Israelis and Palestinians are teetering on the edge of an abyss and under these circumstances external efforts to bring them back from the brink are critical.
Creating a Palestinian State with the involvement and support of the international community is therefore the only way to stop Israel from tumbling to disaster. And the sooner this happens then the better for all.
- Richard Miron is a former spokesman at the UN and a former BBC journalist
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