It appears that, when it comes to Israel, elements of the ALP would rather play counter-productive undergraduate politics than make any serious contribution to Middle East peace. The motion passed at the weekend’s Victorian State Labor Conference, calling for the Federal Government to recognise a state of Palestine within this term of federal parliament is phrased as saving the two-state solution. In reality, however, resolutions, such as this are setbacks to the peace process.
The crucial fact, which this motion clearly ignores, is that the reason there is no peace is the intransigence of the Palestinian leadership, which has rebuffed all efforts to achieve a two-state resolution.
The Palestinian Authority simply walked away from generous offers of statehood from Israel in 2000, 2001 and 2008 without even making a counteroffer, even though these met all the internationally accepted parameters for a two-state peace. The 2008 offer, for example, gave the Palestinians land equivalent to all of the West Bank and Gaza, a capital in east Jerusalem, control of all Muslim holy sites and a limited return of refugees, with financial compensation for the rest.
Meanwhile Hamas turned Gaza into a terror enclave after Israel totally withdrew from the territory in 2005 in the hope of encouraging peaceful coexistence.
Read the article by Colin Rubenstein and Jamie Hyams in The Australian.