- The Palestinian leadership has consistently resorted to unrestrained violence against Israel, impeding numerous efforts to establish a lasting political solution.
- Accords have seen Israel make concessions, such as territorial compromises and the evacuation of Jewish settlements, demonstrating a commitment to resolving conflicts through diplomacy and compromise.
Moreover, in every peace agreement with its Arab neighbours since the 1970s, Israel has included a clause for a phased establishment of a Palestinian state, contingent upon its peaceful coexistence alongside Israel. However, the Palestinian leadership consistently undermined the terms of these agreements actively obstructing regional peace efforts with the Arab nations.
Efforts to establish a resolution between Israel and the Palestinians, fostering peaceful coexistence in the historically Jewish territory, have a long and well-documented history.
Various initiatives by Great Britain, the League of Nations, the UN, the USA, the Quartet, and Israel itself have been undertaken. Regrettably, all these peace endeavours have consistently encountered Palestinian refusal, always accompanied by outbreaks of violence towards Israel and the Jewish community.
From a historical standpoint, it is regrettable that the Palestinian leadership has consistently resorted to unrestrained violence against Israel, impeding numerous efforts to establish a lasting political solution.
This pattern dates back to earlier initiatives such as the 1937 proposal by the British-led Peel Committee, which aimed to divide the land between Jews (17 per cent) and Arabs, known as Palestinians (83 per cent), as well as the UN-approved Resolution 181 in 1947, which sought to divide the country between the two peoples.
Already the day after the UN partition decision, the Israeli Arabs led by Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini rejected the plan and declared: "The dividing line will be nothing but a line of fire and blood."
The day after the partition plan and in order to prevent its implementation, the murdering of Jews all over Israel began. In 1948, the regular armies of Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt invaded Israel, while armed “Palestinian” militias attacked Jewish citizens.
Despite persistent Palestinian refusal, Israel has successfully negotiated peace agreements with Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994), as well as more recent agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan (2020). These accords have seen Israel make concessions, such as territorial compromises and the evacuation of Jewish settlements, demonstrating a commitment to resolving conflicts through diplomacy and compromise.
Moreover, in every peace agreement with its Arab neighbours since the 1970s, Israel has included a clause for a phased establishment of a Palestinian state, contingent upon its peaceful coexistence alongside Israel. However, the Palestinian leadership consistently undermined the terms of these agreements actively obstructing regional peace efforts with the Arab nations.
In this manner, since the 1970s, the PLO, the official representative organisation of the Palestinians, has challenged the leadership of the Arab countries hosting it, leading to its repeated expulsions from Jordan, Lebanon, the Gulf countries and Tunisia.
It's important to recognise that the disaster of the Palestinian people is just as great – they are held captive by their extremist leadership, which fails to provide them with a way forward and praises violence instead of pursuing peaceful co-existence among the world's global community. A society that encourages violence and murder is an unviable society that will struggle to establish a state. Therefore, my compassion extends also to the Palestinian people.
Despite these challenges, in 1993, a historic agreement known as the Oslo Accords was signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The agreement, mediated by the United States, marked a significant step towards achieving a "two-state solution" and putting an end to the cycle of violence and suffering between Israelis and Palestinians.
During this momentous event, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a decorated general and veteran of Israel's wars, extended a hand of peace to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, even though for decades Arafat was responsible for terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in Israel and abroad.
As part of the Oslo Accords, Arafat and the top members of his party were granted permission to establish their presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Oslo Accords required the Palestinian Authority (PA) to renounce terrorism and violence, aiming for a "two-state solution" with Israel.
However, as has frequently occurred in the past, the Palestinian side has once again chosen to disregard its obligations in the agreement and engage in organised violence, fomenting unrest among the general Palestinian population and inciting aggression towards Israel.
Subsequent to these events, there were additional efforts by Israeli leaders to achieve a peaceful resolution. In 2000, Prime Minister Barak proposed transferring 92 per cent of the West Bank and 100 per cent of the Gaza Strip to Chairman Arafat. Later, in 2008, Prime Minister Olmert increased the offer.
Despite these extensive Israeli concessions aimed at fostering a "two-state solution" with the Palestinian leadership, these initiatives also proved unsuccessful, primarily due to the Palestinian leadership's prioritisation of violence and internal power struggles to gain influence in intra-Palestinian conflicts within future Palestinian state territories, particularly concerning their main rival, the extremist Islamist group Hamas, rather than seeking a political solution with Israel.
Hamas emerged as a prominent adversary to the Palestinian Authority in the late 1980s, consistently criticising the PA's perceived willingness to compromise with Israel. Consequently, Hamas has posed a significant political threat to the PA within the Palestinian territories, leading to negative implications for the Palestinian people themselves.
This was particularly evident during the 2006-2007 Palestinian elections, which occurred following Israel's full (military and civilian) disengagement from Gaza and the withdrawal of its forces in 2005.
Through violent means against the PLO, Hamas gained control over the governing institutions in Gaza, resulting in the expulsion of PLO members to the West Bank and the loss of many lives.
In October of this year, the familiar pattern of Palestinian refusal and violence persisted. Prior to a devastating attack by Hamas on Israeli southern villagers on October 7 , reports circulated in international media suggesting that Israel and Saudi Arabia were nearing a historic agreement, which included, among other things, a solution for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
This time as well, as all times in the past, the Palestinian leadership brought disaster to the Palestinian people by choosing to side with the crimes and terrorist rampage of Hamas over seeking a political resolution with Israel.
Indeed, Hamas has caused significant and distressing devastation in Israel, with over 1,400 murdered and 240 Israeli civilians, including infants, mothers and the elderly, being kidnapped.
However, it's important to recognise that the disaster of the Palestinian people is just as great – they are held captive by their extremist leadership, which fails to provide them with a way forward and praises violence instead of pursuing peaceful co-existence among the world's global community.
A society that encourages violence and murder is an unviable society that will struggle to establish a state. Therefore, my compassion extends also to the Palestinian people.
Israeli diplomat and spouse of the Israeli ambassador