Return Address

Abbreviating Efraim Karsh's recent article in The New Republic Online....

Palestinians have rewritten their national narrative over the last 56 years, into an unblemished story of victimhood that makes Israel, rather than Arab states, the sole culprit of their "nakba", the catastrophe of the 1948 war.

In a televised speech last Sunday Abbas described the proclamation of the State of Israel as an unprecedented historic crime and vowed his unwavering refusal to ever "accept this injustice." Accompanied by a virulent anti-Israel media campaign, the events reached their peak at midday, when sirens were sounded throughout the Palestinian controlled territories and people observed a minute of silence to mourn Israel's creation. In some areas, gunmen opened fire into the air as a sign of mourning.

...Abbas's statement in the wake of Arafat's death was then excused as posturing for the January 2005 elections for the PA chairmanship, but the incontrovertible fact is that it was fully commensurate with his and the PLO's statements and actions during the 1990s, not to mention those of the more militant religious groups.

All of which leaves little doubt that the right of return is not a bargaining chip but rather the heart of the Palestinian grievance against Israel.

One therefore hopes that in his upcoming meeting with Abbas (slated for the end of May) George W. Bush will inform the Palestinian leader in no uncertain terms of his unequivocal and non-negotiable rejection of the right of return--which, after all, negates the vision of two states living side by side in peace. But until Palestinian leaders renounce the right of return, there is every reason to believe that it is a one-state solution they have in mind - and it's not a Jewish state.....

Efraim Karsh is the head of the Mediterranean Studies Programme at King's College, University of London.

For the full article see the Updates page of the AIJAC site