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For decades, “Palestinian leaders have rejected every Israeli peace overture while systematically promoting a culture that rejects peace and glorifies terrorism,” Ron Dermer wrote in the Washington Post on Friday.
By Ezra Stone, United with Israel
“The extension of Israeli sovereignty to certain territories in Judea and Samaria will not, as many critics suggest, destroy the two-state solution. But it will shatter the two-state illusion,” Israel’s ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer wrote in a blunt Washington Post opinion piece this week.
Dermer adds that not only will the current “two-state illusion … never happen,” it is preventing the emergence of “a two-state solution that might advance peace.”
Dermer wrote the op-ed in response to resistance in the U.S. and Europe to Israel’s plan to extend sovereignty over Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, where around half a million Israelis live.
Under Netanyahu’s plan, Israel will annex territory in Judea and Samaria that it gained from Jordan in 1967’s Six-Day War, when four Arab nations launched an onslaught on Israel. Judea and Samaria served as the Jewish people’s breadbasket during biblical times and preserved a continual Jewish presence throughout millennia of occupation by the Romans, Islamic armies, the Ottomans, the British, and the Jordanians Hashemite family
For decades, Palestinian leaders have demanded control of Judea and Samaria for an “independent state,” despite the fact that the so-called Palestinian people never existed before the creation of the Jewish state, nor has there ever been a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria
Dermer sees Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria as a step that will “open the door to a realistic two-state solution and get the peace process out of the cul-de-sac it has been stuck in for two decades.”
“For 20 years,” Dermer continues, “Palestinian leaders have rejected every Israeli peace overture while systematically promoting a culture that rejects peace and glorifies terrorism, including by providing a lifetime of financial support for terrorists who murder Jews.
Dermer reminds the world, “The rejectionism of Palestinian leaders has been no surprise to those who understand that this century-old conflict has never been about establishing a Palestinian state. It has always been about rejecting the Jewish state.”
Unfortunately, “The past two decades of Palestinian intransigence, incitement and terror” has not “convince[d] many international leaders to reconsider their assumptions and rethink their approach to the peace process,” and “they continue[] to ignore the root cause of the conflict and [keep] doubling down on a failed strategy, hoping to thread a needle through the so-called final status issues (territory, security, Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, etc.) that could magically weave together a deal.”
Dermer encourages the world to accept “reality on the ground” and stopping making “unrealistic proposals that have zero chance of being implemented.”
Finally, Dermer exposes the hypocrisy of those who condemn Israel’s “unilateral” annexation plan for Judea and Samaria, but also “applauded Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005,” a move that “empowered Hamas, endangered Israel and dealt a heavy blow to the prospects for peace.”
“By shattering the two-state illusion and advancing a two-state solution, Israel hopes [annexation] will open up a realistic path to peace,” Dermer concludes.
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