Why Palestinians Cannot Make Peace with Israel

by Khaled Abu Toameh
July 13, 2015 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6142/palestinians-peace-israel

Translations of this item:

Americans and Europeans fail to acknowledge that in order to achieve peace, the leaders must prepare their people for compromise and tolerance. If you want to make peace with Israel, you do not tell your people that the Western Wall has no religious significance to Jews and is, in fact, holy Muslim property. Palestinian Authority leaders who accuse Israel of "war crimes" and "genocide" are certainly not preparing their people for peace. Such allegations serve only to further agitate Palestinians against Israel.
If Yasser Arafat was not able to accept the generous offer made by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak at the 2000 Camp David summit, who is Mahmoud Abbas to make any concessions to Israel? Arafat was quoted then as saying that he rejected the offer because he did not want to end up drinking tea with assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the first Arab leader to sign a peace agreement with Israel.
No Palestinian leader has a mandate to reach an everlasting peace agreement with Israel. No leader in Ramallah or the Gaza Strip is authorized to end the conflict with Israel. Any Palestinian who dares to talk about concessions to Israel is quickly denounced as a traitor. Those who believe that whoever succeeds Abbas will be able to make real concessions to Israel are living in an illusion.

There are two main reasons why Palestinians will not sign a real and meaningful peace agreement with Israel -- at least not in the foreseeable future.

The first is a total lack of education for peace. The second is related to the absence of a leader who is authorized -- or has the guts -- to embark on such a risky mission.

Americans and Europeans who keep talking about the need to revive the stalled peace process in the Middle East continue to ignore these two factors. They continue to insist that peace is still possible and that the ball is in Israel's court.

The Americans and Europeans fail to acknowledge that in order to achieve peace, the leaders must prepare their people for compromise and tolerance.

In fact, it is inaccurate to say merely that Palestinian leaders have failed to prepare their people for peace with Israel. Instead, one should say that the Palestinian leadership has long been inciting its people against Israel to a point where it has become almost impossible to talk about any form of compromise between Israelis and Palestinians.

Since its inception in 1994, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has devoted most of its energies and propaganda to delegitimizing and isolating Israel. Ironically, this incitement continued even as the PA was negotiating with Israel in an attempt to reach a peace agreement.

If you want to make peace with Israel, you do not tell your people every now and then that the Western Wall has no religious significance to Jews and is, in fact, holy Muslim property.

You cannot make peace with Israel if you continue to deny Jewish history or links to the land. Take, for example, what the PLO's Hanan Ashrawi said in response to statements made by President Barack Obama, in which he acknowledged Jewish history. "Once again, he [Obama] has adopted the discourse of Zionist ideology," she said. "He adopted it when he came to this region, speaking about the Jews' return to their land, and that this is a Jewish state."

You will never be able to make peace with Israel if you keep telling your people and the rest of the world that Zionism was created in order to implement the Jewish project of world domination. This is what the Palestinian Authority ambassador to Chile, Imad Nabil Jadaa, said at a conference on Israeli-Palestinian peace in Santiago.

It will be impossible to make peace with Israel at a time when the Palestinian Authority is telling its people that Jews use wild pigs to drive Palestinian farmers out of their fields and homes in the West Bank. This is what PA President Mahmoud Abbas told a pro-Palestinian conference in Ramallah.

According to the PA, Jews have also used rats to drive Arab residents of the Old City of Jerusalem out of their homes. The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, which reports directly to Abbas's office, claimed in a dispatch that, "Rats have become an Israeli weapon to displace and expel Arab residents" of the Old City of Jerusalem. The agency reported: "Settlers flood the Old City with rats... they release the rats to increase the suffering of the [Arab] residents and force them to evict their homes and leave the city."

These messages are being sent to Palestinians not only by Hamas, but also by the Western-funded Palestinian Authority, which happens to be Israel's "peace partner." The messages are being sent to Palestinians through the mosques, media and public statements of Palestinian leaders.

This is in addition to the PA's worldwide campaign to isolate, delegitimize and demonize Israel and Israelis. PA leaders and representatives who continue to accuse Israel of "war crimes" and "genocide" are certainly not preparing their people for peace with Israel. On the contrary, such allegations serve to further agitate Palestinians against Israel.

This is the type of incitement, in fact, that drives more Palestinians into the open arms of the Palestinian Authority's rivals, first and foremost Hamas. If you keep telling your people that Israel does not want peace and only seeks to destroy the lives of the Palestinians and steal their lands, there is no way that Palestinians would ever accept any form of reconciliation, let alone peace, with Israel.

Yet this is not only about the lack of education for peace or anti-Israel incitement.

It is time for the international community to acknowledge the fact that no Palestinian leader has a mandate to reach an everlasting peace agreement with Israel. That is because no leader in Ramallah or the Gaza Strip is authorized to end the conflict with Israel.

If Yasser Arafat was not able to accept the generous offer made by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak at the 2000 Camp David summit, who is Mahmoud Abbas to make any form of concession to Israel? Arafat was quoted back them as saying that he rejected the offer because he did not want to end up drinking tea with assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the first Arab leader to sign a peace agreement with Israel.

In many ways, Abbas can only blame himself for the situation he faces today. If you are telling your people that you will never make concessions, how can you ever sign a peace agreement with Israel?

Those who believe that whoever succeeds Abbas will be able to make real concessions to Israel are living in an illusion. It is time to admit that no present or future Palestinian leader is authorized to offer even the slightest concessions to Israel. Any Palestinian who dares to talk about concessions to Israel is quickly denounced as a traitor.

These are the two reasons why the "peace process" in the Middle East will continue to revolve in a vicious cycle. In order to make peace with Israel, you need to prepare your people for peace with Israel. This is something that the Palestinian Authority has failed to do. And that is why we will not see the emergence of a more moderate Palestinian leader in the near future.

Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)

© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Related Topics: Israel, Palestinian Authority

Recent Articles by Khaled Abu Toameh

Hamas Must Be Defeated, Not Legitimized, 2024-11-10
Iran's New Plan: Lost Gaza, So Take West Bank, 2024-09-05
Iran's War Against Israel - From the West Bank, 2024-08-28
Palestinians' Musical Chairs: Replacing One Mohammed with Another Mohammed, 2024-03-01
Palestinians Need New Leaders, Not New Governments, 2024-02-26

receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free gatestone institute mailing list.

Comment on this item

21 Reader Comments

Meir • Dec 1, 2024 at 15:25

Unfortunately, what you have written is correct. I heard a similar analysis from Dr. Tawfik Hamid, who said land giveaways would not settle the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Dr. Hamid said that the issue is religion. There would be no conflict if all Jews in Israel converted to Islam.

Reply->

Joel Steinberg • Oct 14, 2016 at 15:07

Mr. Toameh,
You make sense. Of course Mr. Abbas cannot make peace with Israel, for if he tries, Hamas would eradicate him. So what is the answer? Thinking it through to a logical conclusion would seem to mean eradicating the enemies of peace. So, as with all human endeavors is their the will to do this? Likely yes, but requiring some very careful constructed plans. The bait? A true peace would finally enable Palestinian parents to raise their children in a harmonious environment.

Reply->

Linde Barrera • Jul 16, 2015 at 19:03

Seems like Imad Jadaa is just like the fisherman at the river, who upon seeing the hippopotamus for the first time says: "There is no such animal" !!!

Reply->

Sarah Weinberg • Jul 15, 2015 at 12:53

Thank you for your sage words. Please keep on speaking the truth.

Reply->

Amdalem • Jul 15, 2015 at 05:05

Thank you

Reply->

Sam • Jul 13, 2015 at 23:00

Is anybody like our John Kerry paying attention to this painful and accurate quick-take summation of why we're spinning our wheels in mud? Apparently not. Information like this never comes up when the issue surfaces. It's the same old, same old. Israel is building those wicked houses again, how can there be peace? At some point the concerns noted here will take precedent over Israel's "Home Improvement Syndrome", and maybe someone will call on the other side to tone down the rhetoric and recognize blatant lies and vicious fabrications don't lead to peace and harmony among the sides in the conflict. You'll note, except for the missiles and other attacks within the country, Israel rarely, if ever, bad mouths or insults the other side. The other side is hardly what you might consider "politically correct" when it comes to Israel.

Reply->

Gary Katz • Jul 13, 2015 at 21:44

The peace "negotiations" have been going on so long, I wonder what they actually talk about anymore. Both sides know their own red lines, and the other side's red lines. Obviously, there's a large gap between the two, which certainly can't be breached while the PA educates even young children that all of Israel belongs to them and that their highest aspiration should be to become martyrs. The conflict might end if 2 things occur: 1. The Palestinians get so tired of the conflict, they decide to take what they can get and be done with it; and, 2. The international community stops funneling billions into the bottomless pit of Palestinian waste and corruption. If the money spigot dries up, Palestinian leaders will have to change their focus from destroying Israel to developing an actual economy and infrastructure.

Reply->

Marina • Jul 13, 2015 at 19:01

Thank you for stating this clearly. Why do you think Europeans and Americans do not understand these obvious facts? What do they try to achieve with this so called "peace process"?

Reply->

Mike Holloway • Jul 13, 2015 at 18:37

Thank you very much for how you're framing this. Israel needs much more like it. You make the obvious point, that tends to get lost with peace advocates, that the Palestinians aren't truly interested, or able, to negotiate. At the same time you're acknowledging Israel's need to settle this matter of the Palestinians and not, as is often the case, simply ignoring that something has to be done with them. Most importantly, you aren't coaching the point in the usual extreme right wing propaganda that appeals only to a small fraction of the audience out there, and is off putting to the people that need to consider the point.

But, I would have liked to have seen an acknowledgement that much of the focus in the two state solution puts the ball in Israel's court simply because the Palestinians don't know what to do with the ball. The unspoken implication that no one likes is that Israel has to take unilateral action. Wouldn't everyone be better off acknowledging right up front that the Palestinians are going to remain hostile?

Reply->

Carl • Jul 13, 2015 at 15:56

Khaled Abu Toameh is right that there is no diplomatic solution, but he is totally wrong in his explanation. He writes: "There are two main reasons why Palestinians will not sign a real and meaningful peace agreement with Israel -- at least not in the foreseeable future. The first is a total lack of education for peace. The second is related to the absence of a leader who is authorized -- or has the guts -- to embark on such a risky mission."

No! The reason for the conflict with Israel is stated perfectly clearly in the Hamas Charter. The reason is that the sacred doctrines of Islam command Muslims to make war on the Jews and to subjugate them or to kill them. The very existence of Israel is a violation of Allah and Islam. We are dealing with an Islamic holy way against the Jews, especially on a territory which the entire Muslim world considers to be Islamic.

Don't forget that the Islamic Republic of Iran is Israel's deadliest enemy, and the Iranians are not even Arabs, let alone "Palestinians". The Iranians are motivated to be Israel's mortal enemy only by Islam. Therefore, any education for peace with Israel and the Jews would be a violation of the sacred doctrines of Islam. No Muslim leader can violate Allah's commands and survive. It makes no difference whether we are talking about Arafat or Abbas or anyone else. This is a religious war by Islam against the Jews, and no Muslim can end it.

Reply->

Elisheva • Jul 13, 2015 at 13:13

This article makes the situation very clear and concise. Why Western leaders or even many Jews are blind to the truth is beyond me.

Reply->

Michael Sackett • Jul 13, 2015 at 12:31

The only solution to the entire Palestinian problem is for the world to stop funding the PA, Hamas, and Hezbollah. That also means strict sanctions on Iran and on Russia's influence in the Middle East. If the US and the UN would stop giving funds to the PA the entire structure of the Palestinians would collapse within six months. The average Arab in the West Bank and in Gaza would not be affected greatly, since 95% of those funds never reach the general population. It seems a simple solution to getting the Arabs to sincerely sit down to negotiate. Close the US checkbook and it will happen. Until funds are cut off, we are deluding ourselves into thinking any other concessions or actions will bring them to a meaningful negotiation.

Reply->

Doug Mayfield • Jul 13, 2015 at 11:44

"There are two main reasons why Palestinians will not sign a real and meaningful peace agreement with Israel....The first is a total lack of education for peace. The second is related to the absence of a leader who is authorized -- or has the guts -- to embark on such a risky mission."

But why is their no education for peace? Why is there no Palestinian who believes in peace and who can rise to a position of importance in the Palestinian movement?

The fundamental causation of this dire situation is the ideas, the beliefs, held by the Palestinians.

The PA is Islam-driven. Many followers of Islam believe that the only way to deal with those who disagree with them is to murder or enslave them. Any Palestinian who argues for peace will be imprisoned and while there, probably murdered.

Unless Islam changes, there will be no peace for the PA or anywhere else in the Middle East.

Reply->

Elena • Jul 13, 2015 at 10:27

Khaled Abu Toameh is, unfortunately, the only Arab living in the Middle East that I have ever heard of who understands the basic idea that any group of people must first be prepared for change before they can accept it. Educating for peace is an advanced concept that few people -- even in the West -- understand and know to be true. He is right that "moderate" Palestinian leaders will not emerge soon or even later.

The Arab mindset is closed to reality. It knows only the fantasy of Arab victory and cannot conceive of the idea that in order to improve their immediate lives they need to accept new ideas and stop demonizing Israel and the Jews. This will not happen since they get so much support for remaining stuck in their past failures. One wonders, if Toameh "gets it," why is it then that the rest of the Arab people do not and probably never will.

Reply->

Pinchas Baram • Jul 13, 2015 at 09:34

should be an op-ed in the NYTimes, Wash. Post, Chicago Tribune, etc., or the major European papers and outlets. This particular article must be widely distributed in the media and academic world. It cuts through a lot of soggy stereotyped thinking. Thank you, Khaled Abu Toameh and Gatestone!

Reply->

Ruth

Pinchas Baram • Jul 13, 2015 at 12:25

Yet another excellent article from Mr. Abu Toameh. I send on all your articles to my family and friends around the world in the hope that they will begin to comprehend the realities in Israel.

Thanks to you and Gatestone for sending out this important message!

Reply->

Ora

Pinchas Baram • Jul 13, 2015 at 15:08

Pinhas, you say that this particular article "should be an op-ed in the NYTimes, Wash. Post, Chicago Tribune, etc., or the major European papers and outlets. This particular article must be widely distributed in the media and academic world. It cuts through a lot of soggy stereotyped thinking." Yes, it should but it will never be. Do you think that the facts cited by Khaled Abu Toameh are not known to Western leaders and Western media? Facts are irrelevant to people with an agenda and at the moment the politically correct way is thinking is that Israel is bad and that the Palestinians are the poor victims of Israeli oppression. Well, the Palestinians are the victims but of their own so-called leaders. As far as Abbas is concerned, he is waiting for the world to force Israel to make more concessions, which is why he himself probably won't be making any of his own.

Reply->

Ora

Pinchas Baram • Jul 13, 2015 at 15:08

Yes, it should but it will never be. Do you think that the facts cited by Khaled Abu Toameh are not known to Western leaders and Western media?

Facts are irrelevant to people with an agenda and at the moment the politically correct way is thinking is that Israel is bad and that the Palestinians are the poor victims of Israeli oppression.

Well, the Palestinians are the victims but of their own so-called leaders. As far as Abbas is concerned, he is waiting for the world to force Israel to make more concessions so why should he make any concessions.

Reply->

JB Silver • Jul 13, 2015 at 06:50

Mr. Abu Toameh has written another masterful, insightful article, and deserves the thanks of all who care about true peace in the Middle East.
But will the 'Peace Camp in Europe, i.e. Israel, listen to him?
I tend to doubt it, sadly.
Best Wishes.

Reply->

Albert • Jul 13, 2015 at 05:53

There will never be peace for Israel only from time to time an absence of hostilities as it is with Egypt and Jordan. Israel forever will have to have defenses handy to protect itself. That is the grim reality

Reply->

David M

Albert • Jul 13, 2015 at 10:59

Kuddos to Toameh! He usually has his finger right on the Arab pulse and he's done it again. One major problem he did not address is the naivete' of US leadership. Messrs. Obama and Kerry really believe that it is Israeli intransigence which makes peace deals impossible.

Both leaders have expressed the same thought: if only the Israelis would make another concession or two, the "Arab Angels of Peace" would descend and milk and honey will once again flow in the Holy Land! It would be "Milk and Honey" pouring from the massacre of Israelis.

When no Arab leader, as Toameh has written, is prepared to really speak to the Arab masses about peace then how can Washington continue to promote the fable that it is the Israelis who are "blocking peace"??

Reply->