The Third Intifada is About the Post-Two-State Future
The two-state solution is, effectively, dead. It was mortally wounded long before today’s terror attack on a Jerusalem synagogue, which marks a third intifada. The final straw came with the Gaza war this past summer, when Hamas rockets and tunnels showed why it would be insane to let Palestinians to rule more than a portion of the West Bank. The Obama administration’s addiction to pressuring Israel has also destabilized diplomacy.Sweden’s Gaza refugee contradiction
But the attack on the synagogue in Har Nof sends a different message: namely, that Jews and Arabs may not be able to live together easily even in the same country. There are areas of coexistence–in Haifa, for example, where locals joke that they get along because Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed never came there. There are also Arabs who serve with distinction in the Israeli military, and at the highest levels of the Israeli government.
Yet that could be more difficult in future. David Brinn of the Jerusalem Post wrote candidly today: “When two of the regular staffers entered my office in the afternoon to empty the trash bin and replace it with a new nylon bag, I found myself for the first time tensing up and watching their every move out of the corner of my eye.” His feelings are, no doubt, shared by many well-meaning Jewish Israelis–and reciprocated by Arab Israelis, too.
Now that Sweden has assessed that Palestine meets the criteria of a state, is it prepared to address this longstanding Palestinian refugee narrative, along with UNRWA’s role in perpetuating it? The way to do so would be to issue a clear statement that Palestinians living in Palestine (the West Bank and Gaza) would no longer be recognized as “refugees.”Spanish Parliament Recognizes 'Palestine' After Jerusalem Terror Attack
If the Swedes fail to take this simple and logical move, the implication would be that their recognition of Palestine is intended not to promote peaceful co-existence between Israel and Palestine, but rather to perpetuate dangerous and irredentist policies that have long characterized the Palestinian narrative, not to mention the refugee agency that purports to speak in its name.
The lower house of the Spanish parliament, the Congress of Deputies, passed a resolution Tuesday to recognize a Palestinian state. The vote came in the wake of a gruesome Palestinian terror attack Tuesday morning that targeted Jews praying at a synagogue in West Jerusalem, which drew widespread international condemnation.Israel decries Spanish vote on recognizing Palestine
Reuters reports that the resolution received the support of all political parties. The support for Palestinian statehood follows similar resolutions in the UK, Sweden, and Ireland, and is conditional on a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
It is merely symbolic–but on a day of terror, is a potent symbol indeed.
“The declaration of the Spanish parliament only distances the chance of reaching an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, because it encourages the Palestinians to become more extreme in their positions,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.
“It would have been better if the Spanish parliament had instead chosen to do the right thing by condemning the abominable slaughter carried out by inflamed Palestinians in a synagogue in Jerusalem.”
Late on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu accused the international community of ignoring the bloodshed and seeking instead to reward the Palestinians, in a thinly veiled reference to the vote.
“Unfortunately, there are some who are trying even now to give the Palestinians a prize… of a Palestinian state, which doesn’t even recognize the Jewish state,” he said.
“We won’t put up with this.”