An recent op-ed from Richard Cohen in the Washington Post demonstrates why so many people are misinformed when it comes to the Middle East, and Israel/Palestine in particular.
Aside from the questionable introduction, Cohen’s piece has some serious factual errors. First, he states the following:
What the Arab world seems to appreciate is that America will never agree to what the Arab world most wants — an Islamic state where a Jewish one now exists.
Which is complimented by this:
What they want, and what they have been told repeatedly they deserve, is a return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel and control over all of Jerusalem. These are both out of the question as far as Israel is concerned. It is not willing to give up its capital and, in a relatively short time, its Jewish majority.
Of course, Cohen offers no evidence that the Arab world wants and “Islamic state” in the place of Israel, because it doesn’t exist. He also states that the Palestinians want control over all of Jerusalem, which is also simply false. They want Arab East Jerusalem – that’s it. These could be simply mistakes from someone who has not researched this issue enough, in which case he shouldn’t be writing about it. If he has done his research, he is simply lying.
Virtually the entire world, with the exception of the United States and Israel, has been in agreement about the two-state solution as outlined in UN Resolution 242 which indeed recognizes that Israel exists and gives Palestinians a capital in East Jerusalem, not the whole city. There have in fact been several peace initiatives by Arab countries since the occupation began in 1967, all ignored or rejected by the US and Israel. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made an offer for peace in 1971 that was rejected because Israel refused to return to the 1967 borders (which would give Palestinians control of East Jerusalem). There was also the Saudi Arabian proposal of 1981, which again was in line with 242 in that it demanded only East Jerusalem, that was rejected. And perhaps most significantly, the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 (similar to the others), reaffirmed at the Riyadh Summit of 2007, has not been accepted by Israel and certainly doesn’t make many headlines in the US when the topic is brought up.
Cohen is indeed correct when he states that Israelis are not willing to give up their capital; but he is wrong if he thinks someone is asking them to do so.
Filed under: Israel/Palestine
