State of Refusal
On a Palestinian state.

By NR Editors
From the November 5, 2001, issue of National Review

resident Bush joins a long list of people who have kicked around the idea of a Palestinian state, only to be kicked by it in return. The United Nations partitioned British-held Palestine into Jewish and Palestinian states as long ago as 1947, but the Arabs said no. Between then and the Six Day War of 1967, Egypt and Jordan were responsible for Palestinians, but said no again to statehood for them. Everyone then spent years in search of a yes, however small, from the Palestinians themselves. At Camp David last year, Yasser Arafat on their behalf pronounced the most thumping of noes. Since when, it has been intifada and suicide bombers without interruption. Arafat and assorted Islamic fanatics are presently in competition to see who can kill the most Jews. The latest victim is Israeli cabinet member Rechavam Zeevi.

Israel has been at its wit's end to extract the missing yes in some form or another. Israel created the Palestine Authority that today is Arafat's fiefdom, and would willingly grant it statehood. But on one condition: that this state provide concrete evidence that it has the resolve and the rule of law indispensable to peaceful coexistence.

President Bush understands that security is a life-and-death issue for Israel. But how to put it lastingly in place on the ground? A state is supposed to be able to convert the Palestinians to peace, but there cannot be peace until the Palestinians have a state. The chase for the elusive yes has become one of those circular arguments that do not distinguish between cause and effect.

In the end — the very long delayed end — a state of Palestine may be the right solution. The practical difficulties nevertheless are enormous — several Arab countries might well go on saying no. The time for Bush and others to experiment is after the defeat of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and anyone else who incites the Palestinians against Israel in pursuit of selfish ambitions. Only after the Palestinians have acted in their own interests and given an unqualified yes to peaceful coexistence can their emerging state be considered on its merits. Speculating — or even worse, temporizing — now over Palestinian statehood will be interpreted all over the Arab and Muslim world as a sycophantic bid for friendship, therefore a sign of weakness, and a good reason to rush out to the nearest anti-American demonstration.

Without Israeli approval and ratification, Palestinian statehood must remain notional. For the administration to spend political capital on the question at this moment, when Palestinian factions are competing to kill Jews, is to oblige Israel either to ensure that any Palestine state is stillborn, or else consent to running its own existential risk. That's a no-win choice for everyone.