By Caroline Glick, JPost—
Since Israel was established, the Palestinian veto doomed all efforts to forge peace between the Arab world and the Jewish state.
The Palestinian veto rests on a toxic proposition that Israel’s right to exist is contingent on its satisfaction of Palestinian claims against it. So long as the Palestinians say they are unappeased, Israel cannot expect the Arab world to either recognize or live at peace with it.
The very existence of the veto has ensured that the Palestinians will never be satisfied with any Israeli concession and will never agree to peaceful coexistence with the Jewish state. After all, their global and regional importance is a product of the veto. The Arabs, and much of the rest of the world support the Palestinians because they wield the veto. As holders of the veto, the Palestinians are viewed as the key — or the key obstacle — to Middle East peace. If they give up, or lose the veto, they will lose their position and power to enable or block peace and foment war and instability.
As for the Arab leaders, for generations the Palestinian veto was the key to their own power and stability. It enabled them to deflect the attention of their peoples and of the governments of the world away from their corruption, extremism and failure at home and abroad. It enabled them to scapegoat Israel blaming the Jewish state for the suffering and stagnation of their people.
Given its toxic power, abrogating the Palestinian veto has always been Israel’s highest goal. And given its centrality for both the Palestinians and the wider Arab world, for most Israelis, it seemed like a dream so impossible that it wasn’t even worth dreaming.
The peace treaties Israel signed with Egypt and Jordan were concluded while genuflecting to the Palestinian veto. Egyptian president Anwar Sadat signed Egypt’s peace deal with Israel only after he concluded a framework deal for Palestinian autonomy with then Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin.
King Hussein of Jordan only agreed to sign a peace deal with the Israeli prime minister Yitzchak Rabin after Rabin signed the Oslo peace deal with PLO chief Yassir Arafat on the White House lawn.
Since signing their peace treaties with Israel, Egypt and Jordan have continuously breached them by refusing to implement the clauses of their deals that require them to normalize their relations with Israel. Both use the Palestinian veto to justify their material breaches, which have reduced both “historic” treaties into little more than long-term ceasefires. Continue Reading…