The solution will be born from within Palestine, not from abroad

Israel has become a reality, and its military defeat on the ground is almost impossible. Simply put, Israel possesses a nuclear deterrent, while the leaders of the Palestinian factions offer nothing but slogans, rhetoric, and fanfare - without thinking even for a moment about the reality.

Therefore, the Palestinians have no choice but to search for realistic solutions, even if they cannot achieve them in the short term, or even the medium term.

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Rather, they could be achieved over the long, and perhaps very long, term. The Palestinians should also realize that most of their revolutionary movements calling for the liberation of Palestine were relics of the Cold War between the West and the East in the past, and that the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, created a completely new reality in which the West, and thus its ally Israel, triumphed in a way that the reality of the past no longer exists on the ground today.

This means that the Palestinians have to think of new and realistic solutions that commensurate today’s changing international situation.

A general view of the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem below the al-Aqsa mosque compound, on July 1, 2020. (AP)

It is also very important to note that Palestine’s historic Arab “nursemaid,” which has always fostered the Palestinians, is now facing concerns that have overshadowed the Palestinian cause, making it a lesser priority in comparison with the unprecedented concerns. This has pushed many Arab countries to actively reconsider their priorities, bearing in mind that no insults or claims of betrayal will discourage them from pursuing their orientations and causes.

Therefore, the insistence of Palestinian faction leaders on searching for a new foster home, such as Turkey or Iran, will not benefit them, that is, if this new foster does not use them as a bargaining chip for its own political gains rather than for the Palestinian cause.

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Realistically and rationally, these faction leaders (should they be rational) have to adapt to the requirements and possibilities of the current reality, without leaping straight to the perfect scenario that they think is supposed to happen.

I am fully convinced that the solution to the Palestinian issue should be born from within Palestine and not from outside of it. The Palestinians inside, or as they call them "the Arabs of Israel," are the only ones who are actually able to defeat Israel.

At the beginning of the establishment of Israel, there were merely a few hundred thousand of the Arabs of Israel, but today, there are more than two million. It must be acknowledged that the Palestinians inside Israel can practice their civil rights, and they have rights that the Palestinians do not obtain in most Arab countries, except the Palestinians in the Gulf countries.

They are also represented in the Israeli Knesset. If we were to compare the Palestinian population growth with the Jewish one, we will clearly see that it is growing steadily, more than that of Jews. This means that Palestinians will someday, perhaps in the distant future, inevitably exceed the Jews in number.

A Palestinian child walks near rubble in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on June 21, 2010. (AP)

It can therefore be said, that the most powerful and sharpest weapon that the Palestinians possess and that gives them an edge over the Jews in Israel, are the wombs of their women, and this can be accurately supported by statistics. The Israelis do not possess any deterrent for this weapon. Even the idea of the Judaism of the State of Israel, proposed by the Israeli right, cannot be implemented in practice on the ground, since this idea necessarily requires that the Arabs of Israel be expelled outside of it.

Needless to say, this would not be accepted by the world today in any way. These extremist ideas will remain mere right-wing slogans within Israel, simply used to attract voters.

Nonetheless, would the Palestinians abroad, especially those of them who are politicized so-called Muslims, accept to relinquish the banner of resistance to those inside the territory, and give up the millions of dollars that they siphon from the cause under the pretext of eradicating Israel?

Here is the bottom line: If we assume that they would accept, then there are many who take advantage of the cause, mainly the Iranian Mullahs and the new Ottomans in Turkey, who will consider this treachery and an abandonment of the Palestinian cause because they are exploiting it to achieve their expansion.

A handout picture provided by the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on September 21, 2020 shows him giving a speech in the capital Tehran. (Khamenei.ir /AFP)

What’s left is the Palestinian diaspora, who must be resettled wherever they are; and they would not mind that. In fact, if the Palestinians in Europe, America, Canada, Australia, and even those in the Gulf states, were given the choice between returning to Palestine or staying where they are, they would choose to stay where they are.

This piece was originally published in, and translated from, al-Jazirah.

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