Palestinian state? You're joking, of course

Why won't a Palestinian state emerge? Because neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians want it


Globalists are still obsessed with a Palestinian state. But there are several reasons for the Palestinians’ reluctance (not to mention the Israelis) to reach an agreement about a two-state solution, and a lasting end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

  • FIRSTLY, Any Palestinian leader who has recommended an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been denounced by his people as a traitor and killed. That outcome would seem quite a disincentive. As the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said, “Do you want me sitting up there having tea with Sadat?” Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1978, was assassinated for it by his own people in 1981.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, now in the 19th year of his four-year term, cannot recognize Israel as a Jewish state. To do so would contradict a basic doctrine of Islam -- that any land once conquered by Muslims, as the entire region was under the Ottoman Empire until its collapse in 1922, must forever be regarded as belonging to Allah and preserved by Muslims as a waqf [a holding or endowment]...

In Islam, the world is divided into two groups: the Dar al Islam (The House of Islam) and the Dar al Harb (the House of War). The struggle (jihad) must persist until everyone resides in the House of Islam, either as a Muslim or as an inferior, tolerated resident who accepts the sovereignty of Islam.

Included are territories conquered by Islam -- Andalusia in Spain, much of Portugal, Sicily, Malta – all of which were once part of the "House of Islam.”

  • SECOND, modern Islamic theology claims that Jews do not exist as a nation. Muslim theologians refuse to recognize the existence of Jewish Kingdoms on Land of Israel; according to them the First and Second Temple and all Jewish history are fiction and myth. Furthermore, Abraham (Ibrahim), Moses (Musa), David (Daud) and Solomon (Suleiman) were the forefathers of Islam, "stolen" by Judaism. Jews, they believe, do not constitute a nation, but a disparate group of tribes who happen to be practicing Judaism . As such, Jews supposedly do not have the right to own land and statehood.


  • THIRDLY, In the Arab culture, “honor” and “land” are paramount values. “Honor” does not allow "dhimmis”– “protected” people who were captured and chose to live as tolerated, third-class residents paying “protection” [the jizya tax], instead of converting to Islam or agreeing to be killed -– to own land. Dhimmis may not dictate their wishes to the "People of Allah". Israel, according to this belief, even in the borders of 1967, is purportedly Arab land. Both Egyptian President Sadat, as noted, and Jordanian King Abdullah I were assassinated by Muslims – King Abdullah I in 1951 – for advocating peace with Israel.
  • FOURTHLY, From a Palestinian perspective, Israel is a non-Muslim, supposedly “colonial”, alien entity, and a “cancer” on the body of the Arab world. Generations of Palestinians have been brought up on such views promoted in schools, mosques (here and here), the media, summer camps, sports and even in crossword puzzles.

The Hamas Charter with its goal of destroying "the Zionist entity" has not yet been canceled. An instructional book, the Palestinian Terminology Guide , released by the PA Ministry of Information, suggests alternative meanings to the following terms: "Israel" is replaced by "The Israeli Colonialist Occupation;" "Israel's Defense Minister" by "Israeli Minister of War," and the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) by “Israeli occupation forces.” "Martyrdom-Seeking Operation" replaces "Suicide Bombing", "Temple Mount" by "Hiram al-Sharif", "Wailing Wall" by "Al-Buraq Wall" and, finally, the "Shield” or “Star” of David" is replaced by "Six-pointed Star".

  • FIFTHLY, PA President Mahmoud Abbas, like his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, represents a generation of revolutionary "national liberation movement" militants, nurtured in The Peoples' Friendship University in the former USSR. An abundance of sympathizers, both in the West and Israel, allows Palestinians often to realize their aims of replacing Israel through unilateral actions, without negotiating any of the disputed areas as agreed to in the Oslo Accords. The donations that the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have received since 1993 could have turned the West Bank into a thriving area, and Gaza into a “New Singapore” or “Dubai on the Mediterranean,” however, the leaders evidently had other priorities for that cash.




This is from the point of view of the Palestinian Arabs

One aim of Abbas seems to be to preserve his own wealth, estimated at $100 million and prosperity of his sons, who own the largest businesses in the Palestinian Authority.

If donors keep throwing gigantic amounts of money at one – especially unconditionally -- why not take it?

Why should he and his ‘fat cats” take responsibility for public administration when they can, without exposing yourself to the slightest risk and without doing anything, collect gigantic funds around the world and transfer them to their bank accounts in Abu Dabi and Swiss banks?

An opinion poll conducted by Birzeit University's Arab World for Research & Development (AWRAD) revealed that after the October 7 attacks

  • 98% felt more proud to be Palestinian;
  • 89% supported al-Qassam Brigades of HAMAS;
  • 90% responded that "coexistence is increasingly impossible";
  • 98% said that [pay attention: after the monstrous massacre of Jews] they will "never forgive and never forget." What a monstrous paradox!

This is from the point of view of the Palestinian Arabs. 




Now let's look at it from the point of view of the mass of Israelis

Even before October 7, 2023, the Israelis in their entirety had turned away from the idea of ​​“peaceful coexistence.”

Much Israeli resentment seems a result of sad empirical experience. In the early 1990s, most of the Israeli public supported peace agreements and concessions. The optimism, however, soon faded away. Twice -– during the term of Prime Minister Ehud Barak at Camp David in 2000, and under that of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Annapolis in 2008 -- Israel offered the Palestinians (Palestinian Presidents Arafat and Abu Mazen, respectively) maximum concessions: about 94-95% of the West Bank (with the option of exchange for other territories) and East Jerusalem (within the framework of US President William Jefferson Clinton’s plan). Olmert was ready to consider returning 1,000 refugees a year for a period of five years on “humanitarian” grounds -- and in addition, to establish a program of “family reunification”, which, in practice, means absorbing tens of thousands of Arabs. Olmert agreed to allow "safe passage" between Gaza and Judea. Olmert even offered to transfer the control over Temple Mount to a consortium: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the U.S., Israel and the PLO. Abbas refused without so much as a counteroffer.

After rejecting Clinton’s plan, Arafat launched a terrorist campaign the "second intifada" – which took the life of more than a thousand Israelis.




Do the Sunni countries in the region really want an Iran-backed terrorist Palestinian State? 

Waves of deadly terror attacks against Israelis resumed in the mid 1990s and at the beginning of the 21st century. In a situation where every attempt to achieve peace turns into another bloody war-experiment, most Israelis have apparently concluded that they would be better off without "peace".

After the rapes, tortures, beheadings, and burning babies alive on October 7, 2023, the very idea of ​​peace with the Palestinians looks to most Israelis like a mockery or sick joke.

Finally, we can ask ourselves: do the Sunni countries in the region really want an Iran-backed terrorist Palestinian State? After seeing what the Palestinians have done to every country that has tried to help them – Jordan, which they tried to overthrow during Black September (1970-71), then Lebanon , where they began an unprovoked war in 1992, were exiled to Tunis, and finally to Israel – which, in 1993, with the benefit of 20:20 hindsight, foolishly granted the Palestinian authority legitimacy.

Of course, the last thing they want is a "Palestinian state" - a hotbed of terror, violence and instability, a haven for jihadists of all stripes and Iranian puppets.

At this point, whatever happens with a ceasefire or not, the region clearly does not seem ready for any kind of “Palestinian State” - to say the least.


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Alexander Maistrovoy——

Alexander Maistrovoy is a graduate of Moscow Univ. in Journalism, worked there in his field and made aliyah in 1988. He works at the Russian language newspaper Novosty Nedely, has had articles posted on many internet sites and authored “Ways of God” about different religious and ethnic groups in the Holy Land, and with Mark Kotliarsky the Russian book Jewish Atlántida.