I came to Israel as a fledgling ole hadash from the USA where I went to study, shortly after the Lebanon war in the 1980s. My naivety, ignorance, the influence of the society that I lived in, and the fact that I have a "leftist" and humanist inclinations, formulated my approach to the Israel-Arab conflict along the lines of "Israel has enough land, if we end the occupation and dısmantle settlements, give the Palestinians hope for a peaceful future, then there will be peace". I would put most of the blame on Israel for the continuation of this conflict. "If we just could show a little goodwill..."
I have been living in Israel for over forty years by now and have witnessed a constant blind hatred and hostility from our neighbours, including those with whom we have made peace. Having lived here through countless Gaza operations, non stop rocket attacks, two Gulf Wars and a bloody intifada, I would undoubtedly offer a very different perspective to my younger self of that time. But I don't know if I could convince the younger me of 40 years ago.
The change I have undergone is a process and does not have a single breaking point. Oslo kept my hopes and thoughts for peace alive. The unbelievable terror that followed, Arafat's refusal to accept peace even though he got everything he wanted at Camp David, the fact that Olmert made even more concessions to Abbas than Barak which were also refused, and the devastation that the Obama era brought to the Middle East pushed me like all the Israelis, towards a more right-wing view. Don't get me wrong. I still think that the settlement policy is wrong, but it has been a while since I last claimed that settlements, Jerusalem or borders were the only and greatest obstacles to peace.
When I was living in the U.S., I remember listening to a debate between Israeli and Arab students: An Israeli university student began his speech by saying, "Let’s agree on something first. Do you accept that Israel has the right to live?" This question took me by surprise. I remember thinking, "No way! This guy is too much, is this really an issue even now? I am sure most Americans are on that very the same page 45 years later. "Is this really an issue?????" But similar to the words of Yehudit Ravits’ song, “What is seen from here cannot be seen from over there”.
Over time, I learned that this is still an issue, perhaps the most important one. Much of the world either doesn't understand this, or doesn't accept the idea of a Jewish state. Israel is still fighting a war for its existence. For the Arabs a a “two states solutıon” means one a 100% Arab and the other an Arab Jewish state with a predominant Arab majority. In short, the idea of a Jewish state is still not accepted. The biggest obstacle to peace is not Jerusalem or the occupied territories. It became also very clear to the world on October 7 and the aftermath that the root cause is the rejection of a Jewish state.
Einat Wilf is a graduate of Harvard, INSEAD and Cambridge. She is an academic who was an advisor to Shimon Peres at the time, and a member of parliament from the party founded by Ehud Barak for a few years. On the left of the Israeli political spectrum, Dr. Wilf believed that once the Palestinians had their own sovereign state, Israel would finally live in peace. The entire Israeli left, like her (and myself), believed that a two-state solution, peace negotiations and territorial concessions could resolve the conflict. I learned a lot from her. Without comparing myself to her, the path we have taken and the point we have reached are probably identical, as for many Israelis.
After years of witnessing what happened, and as a result of her research, Dr. Wilf has proven that the problem is not just about borders or settlements, but a Jewish State. And the instrument to implement the denial of a Jewish state is essentially based on the Palestinian demands for "the right of return to their pre-1948 lands." Today, she is one of the strongest proponents of this view and is totally convinced that there can be no peace until the right of return is completely abandoned.
According to the Palestinians, their return will not be through a peaceful deal. After the October 7 attack, Hamas leaders (many of whom are no longer alive) proudly declared that this attack was the beginning of their comeback.
I have been following and learning from Dr. Wilf since her time as an MP. Her 2020 book "The War of Return" describes how the root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict is the Arabs' refusal to accept an Israeli state and how their demand for the right of return to the Palestinians as a weapon to destroy Israel, is kept alive. The most important factor in this is UNRWA, whose true face has at last been exposed since October 7th. UNRWA has been waging this war forever under the disguise of helping the Palestinian refugees, helped by the naïve western world.
Peace is yet to come.
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