Palestinians must accept that violent terror tactics have failed to stop Israel - opinion

The American elections have ended. Donald Trump is now president-elect. He has appointed Marco Rubio as secretary of state, Elise Stefanik as ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel and Pete Hegseth is to be the defense secretary. The latter two have visited locations throughout Judea and Samaria. And Israel-supporter John Ratcliffe has been picked to direct the Central Intelligence Agency.

In 2015, Huckabee visited the ancient Shiloh site and announced, “Judea and Samaria are an inseparable part of the State of Israel and everyone needs to understand that.” In another interview, he said that “Israel needs to control Judea and Samaria” and a Jewish presence on the ground is “a factor leading to regional peace.”

On another occasion, he noted that with its 3,500-year history in the area, Israel has a much stronger link to those areas than Americans have to Manhattan. In 2017, he told CNN: “I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria” and admitted: “There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They are communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.”

Those are voices from afar. Up until now, Arabs-cum-Palestinians could have depended on other opinions from presidents and prime ministers, international diplomats and heads of all sorts of NGOs. In the past, even senior Israel politicians have addressed what they would think as a Palestinian Arab.

One, Ami Ayalon, former head of the Shin Bet, stated to Maariv newspaper on September 24 that if he were Palestinian, he would have fought those who stole his land “without limits.” Earlier, in March this year, speaking to the ABC television network, he declared that if he were Palestinian, he “would fight against Israel” and “would do everything” to achieve liberty.

Back in March 1998, on the Educational TV Channel in a program called Personal Encounter, Ehud Barak, just before becoming prime minister, told interviewer Gideon Levy: “If I was [a Palestinian] at the right age, at some stage I would have entered one of the terror organizations and have fought from there.” He did, however, attempt to mitigate his words, noting the methods employed by the terrorists were “heinous” but he awarded legitimacy to their “resistance.”

NEEDLESS TO say, statements like those of Barak and Ayalon were not only foolish but incredibly unhelpful to Israel’s efforts to achieve some sort of peace as they reinforced the mystique of the legitimacy of a “Palestinian resistance.”

But today’s situation with the incoming Trump administration, to speak in an understatement mode, has been vastly altered. In this new political, diplomatic and strategic reality, if I were an Arab Palestinian, what would I do now?

One sign that at least one prominent figure is giving the matter some thought is the fatwa issued by Salman al-Dayah, former dean of the Faculty of Sharia and Law at the Hamas-affiliated Islamic University of Gaza. In it, he condemned Hamas’s October 7th 2023 attack on Israel. True, he may be unrepresentative, as he is a quietist Salafi, but salvation can come from odd directions.

According to the MEMRI site, Dayah urged Hamas leaders to be “humble” and focus on the welfare of Gazans, and to establish a government that unites Palestinians and provides for their needs, while refraining from antagonizing a much more powerful Israel.

However, the situation demands a broader public opinion consensus, especially, given the authoritarian nature of the politics of Palestine’s Arabs, among the leadership, from PA President Mahmoud Abbas to his successor and the other PLO chiefs who still rule, not to mention a change in the entire educational system.

If I were a Palestinian...

IF AN Arab of Palestine would ask me what he should do now, this is my advice to him or her.

Accept the fact that for over a century, the armed violent terror campaign against the returning Jews to Zion has failed. You killed people and destroyed property, yet that did not halt or discourage the Jews from reconstituting their national home. We came, even clandestinely, and we resettled our patrimony. In truth, your campaign has only resulted in causing more damage to the Arabs.

If “to live peacefully in the area, [Israelis] have to reach an agreement with the Palestinians” – as Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh was quoted saying in a Reuters report from July 20 this year – then he and his employer need to grasp that it works the other way around. Arabs need to reach agreement with Israel. Enough playing the victimization card by attacking, losing and then dictating conditions for an agreement.

Israeli willingness to compromise and yield – as demonstrated by multiple partition plans rejected by the Arab world before the State of Israel was founded; withdrawals and, throughout the post-1967 years, plans for autonomy; various supposed options such as a condominium sharing of administration with Jordan; and then Oslo and even the Trump “Peace to Prosperity” outline – has been met with responses from indifference to the “Three No’s” (No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel) to walkaways from hand-drawn maps on napkins, and worse: renewed violence and terror.

The situation, I would hope our counterpart would realize, is that a true peace arrangement needs to be seen as one that should improve the lives of Arabs and therefore, he must truly desire it. He must value his own people’s livelihood more than a position of ideological extremism.

Resistance must be renounced. The incitement needs to stop. The pay-for-slay program is to be halted. Peace and coexistence educational programs are to be instituted to undo 30 years and more of hatred of Jews and the goal of eliminating Israel.

A new Palestinian must develop. He need not be submissive. He must be awarded all civil rights and social privileges, and he should fulfill all commensurate requirements, from taxes to national service.

I would hope that if I were a “Palestinian Arab,” that’s what I would do. Will he?

The writer is a researcher, analyst, and commentator on political, cultural, and media issues.