Israel falls victim to its own rhetoric

The original Saudi Peace plan was rejected by Israel because it clearly stated that a settlement must include the Right of Return for the Palestinian refugees. (Right of Return is the most fundamental law in Israel, however it only applies to Jews.) The new version of the Saudi Peace Plan, now dubbed the Arab Peace Initiativ (Initiativ for short), no longer states “Right of Return”. The new formula is “Just Solution of the Refugee Problem.” Israel has stated that the Initiativ is interesting, that it is a good starting point for negotiations, but that they cannot accept the refugees Right of Return.

The response from Israel implies two things:
1) We are not really interested in peace
2) Right of Return is a just solution

The first implication is clear due to the fact that they purposefully misread the text so as to make the suggestion harder to swollow than it is, making it seem as if it’s the Arabs who are stubborn. Any sound reading of “Just solution” would be that it is an issue we must negotiate about in order to reach something that is just to all parties. Israel’s reading however states that this cannot be negotiated, hence it must be removed from peace negotiations altogether. Anybody who knows anything about the issue knows that a peace with no solution concerning the refugees, is no solution at all. Hence, by implication, we (Israel) have no interest in reaching a solution.

The second implication is by far the most interesting. In order to make the The Arab Peace Initiativ negatable Israel has been forced to make an admitance it otherwise would not have dared to make, and surprisingly few commentators have caught this point. The Arab Peace Initiativ solves all of Israel’s stated problems as well as modifying the biggest sticking point from “Right of Return” to “Just Solution”. Interestingly Israel has then re-modified the text from “Just Solution” to “Right of Return” in order to make the initativ unreasonable. Does this not imply that Israel consideres the terms “Right of Return” and “Just Solution” to be interchangeable? If this is the case Israel will in fact have made their greatest admitance as of yet – We are responsible for the refugee’s plight, and justice will only be fulfilled once they are given their right of return. This is in a sense also a double admittance: Yes, right of return is just, and no, we will never grant it.