Prime Minister Netanyahu says he does not believe in a Two-State solution for Israel/ Palestine. Hamas believes the same. It is dedicated to wiping out Jews and the State of Israel. The juvenile chant: “Palestine shall be free from the River to the Sea,” means “No Israel.” Both are wrong.
It has always been clear that there has to be room for both Israel and Palestine in adjacent states with secure borders. The Palestinians, famous for never missing an opportunity, almost had a solution, negotiated by President Bill Clinton, two decades ago. Yasser Arafat got cold feet; his wild men were adamantly opposed to any solution recognising Israel’s right of existence even though it was the Biblical home of the Jews thousands of years ago, when there were no Palestinians. No sensible person today expects the Palestinians to disappear because the Jews were there first. If we followed that argument in South Africa, everyone who is white and everyone who is black would have to leave the country to the original people: the Khoi-san.
Hamas never expected to win the current war. As a terrorist organisation it does not care how many lives are lost. 25000 or 50000 deaths make no difference to it. What counts to the absent leaders of Hamas, living in luxury in foreign lands, is marshalling funds and propaganda victories where Hamas atrocities are considered to be of no real importance, while Israel becomes the big bad wolf.
South Africa and financial backer, Iran, supported by terrorist groups, dictatorships, and mostly anti-democracies, and opposed, by most of the democracies, trapped itself in a public romance with Hamas. The distraction of the ICJ has removed attention from what counts: how to make and keep the peace in the Middle East?
Opposition Leader, John Steenhuisen, was dead-right in calling for peace and the negotiation of a Two-State solution. This has been DA policy forever. It was also government policy under the ANC for the past 30 years.
If this moment passes, look forward to more decades of hatred, hostility, poverty for Palestine, and furious and understandable self-preservation by Israel. They cannot commit suicide or allow themselves to be murdered.
Years ago, I visited India with Frene Ginwala, then the Speaker of the South African Parliament. I fell in love with India. A revelation was the city of Chandigarh, serving as the joint capital of two Indian states, Haryana and Punjab. Both state Parliaments are built on the same site and the two governors live in the same street.
It occurred to me then, that in this there might be a solution to the hitherto intractable problem of Jerusalem, claimed by both Israel and Palestine.
With a sincere attempt to find solutions, requiring magnanimity and perhaps the exchange of some territory, I am convinced that we could see peace and increasing dignity, prosperity, and influence for Palestine and Israel. For that to happen, the PLO must step up to ensure it is not elbowed aside by Hamas.
South Africa settled its life-threatening differences, avoiding civil war; Israel and Palestine could become the second modern miracle. What a pity Naledi Pandor and President Ramaphosa now have clout only with terrorists, and none with the other side. We might have played a vital role in those negotiations. Now we will not and cannot.
Douglas Gibson is a former opposition chief whip and former ambassador to Thailand. His address is [email protected]
This article first appeared in The Star newspaper.
