Cairo summit on Palestine a right step

The trilateral summit at Cairo between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Jordan’s King Abdullah and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday is a timely reminder that the Palestinian issue must be resolved, and it cannot be kept on the backburner forever.

Two immediate problems have been identified before the two-state solution with East Jerusalem capital of the Palestinian state along the 1967 borders. First, ceasefire of hostilities between Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza. Second, resolving differences between Hamas in Gaza and Al Fatah in the West Bank.

A divided Palestinian political leadership cannot pursue the goal of the Palestinian state. There have been meetings between Hamas and Al Fatah earlier too, but there is need for the two sides to meet and forge unity. Perhaps Egypt and Jordan can help by holding a summit involving the two Palestinian sides. The next step would be for Egypt and Jordan to hold summit that would have Palestine and Israel at the table. The Oslo Accords are nearly 30 years now, and their implementation remains a distant goal.

It would be necessary for Israel to realise that it does not pay to engage with a divided Palestine and defer the issue the emergence of a Palestinian state. The violence in the Gaza Strip is mainly due to the endless delay in the Palestinian solution. Israel using its overwhelming military power in Gaza is counterproductive. There is need for consensus among all the Israeli political parties about the need for a Palestinian state which will ensure the security of Israel.

Israel’s leaders must also recognise that they should not push for a more truncated Palestine in the hope that a weak and splintered Palestine will ensure the safety of Israel. It will not. There is need for a viable, united, and strong Palestine if Israel seeks peace. The aggressiveness of Hamas can be countered by peace moves and not by use of Israeli air force. Security of states cannot depend on military might. It has to emerge from mutual trust.

Israel’s leaders must give up the approach that they should bargain hard for the final peace settlement, and the hard bargain implies that Israel would not yield any territory that belongs to Palestine according to the Oslo Accords. The bid of the leaders to push the Palestinian leaders to the wall will weaken the Palestinian leadership and erode the trust of the people of Palestine in their leaders. It is a shortsighted tactic. And it is also a folly to make Palestinian President Abbas in a compromised position compared to the Hamas.

There has been a lot speculation, including in Israel, that the real solution to the Palestine-Israel question is a single state, and the two-state solution does not ensure permanent peace. At this moment, this looks utopian. A single state is possible only when the two peoples, those in the territories of the state of Israel and those in the territories of Palestine agree wholeheartedly that their future lies in living together in a single state. And they must express their willingness through a referendum. And they must be able to write a common constitution to rule themselves. But it needs complete trust between the two people. This is absent right now.

A single Palestinian state would stabilise the whole region, including the immediate neighbours Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. But it cannot be forged in a hurry. There was a similar experiment in the 1950s, when Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic (UAR). It did not work. Right now, two separate states, Palestine and Israel, will be useful in maintaining peace and stability in the region.