There is an article in the most recent Economist that defines the problem of Israel and Palestine. Almost all of it is there in brief form, but not in a reasonable formulation.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13649239&source=hptextfeature
The theme in most of the article is that President Obama must not just scold Prime Minister Netanyahu for his ill advised remarks, but pressure him to do what most countries (and the Economist) feel is necessary to make peace in the Middle East. That includes pursuing the development of a Palestinian State, halting the expansion of Jewish settlements, stop pressing the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a "Jewish state," recognizing that Israel must eventually withdraw from the Golan Heights, and comply with these wishes without a precondition of the United States frustrating Iran's development of nuclear weapons.
That is the shopping list of governments and individuals that consider themselves on the right side of history.
Then comes the kicker, that defines the problem of all those decent people, and Israel.
"Who would govern the Palestinian state the world wants . . . in the West Bank and Gaza?"
The article concedes that Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party are too weak, Hamas has not done what is necessary to be included in the list of the enlightened. The Economist admits a further problem. "The snag is that the two halves of the Palestinian movement are at daggers' drawn and have fluffed repeated opportunities to reconcile."
The appropriate analogy for what the magazine and others want is a "Hail Mary pass." That comes in the final moments of a football game, when the team with the ball is behind, and far from the goal line. The only possibility is a long pass, and the hope that a member of one's own team catches it.
The Economist puts is this way: The Americans must make the Israelis "more amenable to giving the Palestinians the fair deal--in essence, a proper state of their own--that might bring peace to the two peoples and to the wider region of the Middle East."
The core of the problem is what I've underlined. Why should an Israeli government give the Palestinians what they want, on the chance that it "might bring peace"? When Israel offered the Palestinians a great deal of what they said they wanted, in 2000, there came several years of violence that cost 1,100 Israeli lives, most of them civilians. There is not the trust among Israelis, inside and outside of the present government, to produce what is wanted by the Economist, not even if the American president wraps it in all the good words of assurance for Israel's safety.
Yet another element in the problem is the unwillingness or inability of the Palestinians to play a more complex role in negotiations than making demands. If compromise is part of the process that helps each side sell a bargain to its constituents, the Palestinians have not been playing by the rules. Neither the borders of 1967 nor the return of refugees are sellable to Israeli authorities or the public.
Prime Minister Netanyahu might not be the best emissary to the Obama White House. His words, facial expressions, and body language often express arrogance. He has acquired a reputation of being unreliable, and even slippery. He has been condemned by ranking Americans in language seldom heard from one country's officials about those of another country.
Hopefully, national interest will prevail over personality, so that the American president and Israeli prime minister can conclude their meeting without rancor.
If there was an obvious solution to the problems standing in the way of a Middle East accord, it would not have taken so long to have moved so little. Before reasonable people can ask Israel to do what might help, they must also expect the Palestinians to do some of the things that might help. Those using a formulation like the Economist should recognize that they are putting the accent on the wrong syllable, and are missing an important part of the puzzle..
I welcome comments sent to my e-mail address, below.
Ira Sharkansky (Emeritus)
Department of Political Science
Hebrew University
Jerusalem, Israel
Tel: +972-2-532-2725
email: msira@mscc.huji.ac.il