Solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict not in sight

At the time of the Oslo accords, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat promised not to indulge in any act of terrorism against Israel. The Palestinian Authority has never honoured it.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and US President Joe Biden have, at least, one thing in common -- commitment to the two-state solution (2SS) to solve the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his address to the United Nations General Assembly the other day, Lapid announced his vision for solving the conflict. Early this month on October 4, some senior Biden administration officials, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, reportedly met Palestinian Authority Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al Sheikh and discussed "US interest in supporting peace and stability, preserving the path towards negotiations for two states and advancing equal measures of security, prosperity and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike." Will the Lapid-Biden idea work?

Observers say that the grand idea of the two leaders is that Israel and Palestine coexist peacefully and prosper. But no such vision can work without a due reciprocity on the part of the Palestinian leadership, the other party to this conflict. In the wake of the Oslo interim agreements between Israel and then Palestinian Liberation Organization in the 1990s, the Palestinian Authority was supposed to take over the territories the Israeli military evacuated. It was supposed to fulfill the national aspirations of the common Palestinians -- establish law and order and prevent any violence against Israel.

The Palestinian leadership has miserably failed on this count. At the time of the Oslo accords, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat promised not to indulge in any act of terrorism against Israel. The PA has never honoured it. In 2000, it did not stop the outbreak of the Second Intifada against Israel. Former Israeli Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, came forward with a concrete partition plan. The PA has continued to reject all such plans.

Current Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is anything but moderate. He has continued to reject the idea that Israel should be a Jewish state. He has been busy spreading the culture of hatred and violence against Israel. Abbas keeps accusing Israel has committed '50 Holocausts' against the Palestinians. Hamas, which controls Gaza, views Israel's mere existence as religious sacrilege.

Eminent Israeli strategist Efraim Inbar says that former Palestinian leader Arafat established a corrupt, inefficient, lawless, and authoritarian political system. He ruled by divide-and-rule tactics. He allowed competition between leaders, agencies and even militias. His successor Abbas could not transcend his master (Arafat)'s political legacy. He shied away from confronting the armed gangs. In the process, the PA lost control of Gaza to Hamas, too has failed to acquire a monopoly over the use of force in Gaza, allowing armed organizations and clans to exist in the region.

Inbar adds the future of the two-State Solution appears to be dark. Because of the continued lack of reciprocity on the part of the Palestinian leadership, Israel's positions, too, have hardened over the years. There has been a noticeable decline in Israeli support for Israeli concessions to the Palestinians. Only a third of Jewish Israelis support the 2SS paradigm today.

With intermittent Palestinian terrorism from the West Bank and Gaza becoming a launching pad for thousands of missiles aimed at Israeli civilians, most Israelis have stopped believing that the Palestinians can ever be a partner for peace.

(Jagdish N. Singh is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He is also Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, New York)

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