Bahrain normalizes ties with Israel: What Next?

Palestine complains that the Arab states should withhold normalization until a final peace agreement has been achieved between Israel and Palestine, that “pressure” on Israel is needed for Israel to “agree” to peace.

But what does Palestine want that peace to be?

Israel, along with the US, has put numerous proposals on the table, which over the course of many decades Palestine has turned down, without bothering to make a counter-offer.

During the Obama administration, with the most pro-Palestinian US president in history, it was not even possible to entice Palestine to return to peace talks.

With the recent news from Bahrain, Palestine is running out of friends willing to wait indefinitely. This is not a good thing for those of us who want a fair and equitable peace for Palestinians as well as Israelis. At the same time, Arab refusal to recognize Israel has quite obviously paid no dividends for the Palestinians.

This is not an endorsement of Netanyahu! It’s a sympathetic recommendation to the Palestinian government to put its own plan on the table, something with some reasonable chance of success. Something need to change, and one hopes that this kind of a shock to the system might jolt Palestine into formulating a reasonable, sensible proposal, one that Israel could accept, and one that the international community would be able to push.

Withdrawal to the Green Line is impossible as long as it leaves the Kotel under the control of Palestine — Israel will never agree to give up the Kotel. But variations are possible, and Israel has proposed many over the years.

The Right of Return is not possible as long as it would mean millions of new voters, who would swamp today’s Israeli citizens, Arab and Jew alike; but residency and free travel across all of Israel/Palestine is possible, with citizenship and voting rights in a free Palestine.

But none of it will happen without some inkling of a realistic plan from Palestine.

IsraelPalestinePeace has frequently argued that Israel should stop offering plans and withdrawing them; the government of Israel should leave its proposal on the table permanently. Today, however, Israel has agreed in theory to the US peace plan, which remains available as a starting point, although clearly insufficient as a final plan.

Instead, Palestine protests Israel’s diplomatic success by refusing to accept tax payments that Israel owes it, thus starving its citizens. The idea is that new images of suffering Palestinians will shock the world into action. But action for what?

If the governments of Israel and Palestine truly won’t even bother discussing peace anymore, then the Palestinian and Israeli people should do so, not vague outreach/normalization efforts, but a true effort to negotiate peace at the grass roots level.

^^^

This article originally appeared on the IsraelPalestinePeace blog. Read archived stories here; see a detailed plan for peace here and here.

Image by 12019/Pixabay.