The conflict over Arab–Jewish Palestine is often discussed in terms of solutions, but this analysis posits a stark reality: the fundamental aspirations of both sides are irreconcilable, making a peaceful resolution currently unattainable.
Nikolaos van Dam
We often speak about possible solutions for combining an Arab Palestine with a Jewish Israel. Various models have been proposed. The main ones are:
- A fully Palestinian–Arab Palestine.
- A fully Jewish–Israeli Israel covering all of Palestine.
- A one-state model in which Jews and Palestinians live together as equals in a democratic system.
- A Palestinian–Arab state alongside a Jewish–Israeli state, the so-called two-state model.
Which of these models is the most realistic? Or, realistically speaking, is a peaceful solution possible at all? You actually needn’t read any further, because the answer is a clear no! And that is so self-evident that it is remarkable how rarely this point is being raised. It might even be an unrealistic question, because the realities on the ground have long overtaken the (im)possibility of the first three options.
The Jews seek a purely Jewish state with as few non-Jewish inhabitants (goyim) as possible under the slogan ‘only for Jews’ instead of ‘not for Jews’ (nicht für Juden). This has been the aim of the leading Zionist figures — as is evident from the statements and writings of Ben-Gurion, Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky, and others — from the very beginning, despite appearances that might suggest they once wished otherwise.
The Palestinians, who from the outset resisted the influx of so many Jewish immigrants from Europe — but whose views, despite numerous surveys and polls, were consistently ignored — naturally prefer not to live together with the Jews who have oppressed them for decades, taken their land, expelled them, and committed endless series of war crimes and human rights violations against them, all under the tolerant if not approving eye of most Western countries.
Thus, if there is still any possible solution at all, it can at most be one following the two-state model. Yet, Israel has for many years deliberately made every effort to render that model into an impossibility, through the continual creation of new facts on the ground that are contrary to international law – like the numerous Jewish settlements. The Israeli Zionists believe — as they have for decades — that they can ultimately get away with this, aided by the support of the United States and the acquiescence or even endorsement of other Western states.
Perhaps Israel may in the end succeed in ‘cleansing’ all of Palestine of its indigenous Arab inhabitants. But even if that were to happen, it would not mean that Israel could thereby achieve voluntary peace with the Arab countries in the region. Hostility would persist — just as animosity in Europe toward Nazi Germany would have persisted in the hypothetical case that Nazi Germany had won the Second World War.
And it should be noted here that even more than half a century after the end of the Second World War, strong anti-German sentiments still remained clearly perceptible in many parts of Europe, despite the fact that peace with Germany had long been restored, Germany had become a democracy and the Nazi regime had been fully defeated.
Nazi Germany would in any case never have been granted eternal life.
Likewise, it may be expected that the Zionist Israeli regime will eventually have to give way — a development that, certainly in the absence of a two-state ‘solution’, is merely a matter of time, even if it may require a very long breath.
Nikolaos van Dam is a former Dutch ambassador to Indonesia, Germany, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Egypt, and Iraq, as well as Special Envoy for Syria. As a young diplomat, he served in Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinian Occupied Territories, and Libya.
Website: http://nikolaosvandam.academia.edu
