by Charles Cooke, CAEF Government Relations Representative
Recently, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, called for a reinvigoration of the two-state solution. She stated in an interview on CTV with journalist Ms. Kapelos, “I think because this conflict is so difficult for Israel, so difficult for the Palestinians, so difficult for the world, not only in Canada because we've seen the rise of antisemitism, the rise of Islamophobia and just the rise of tension,” she said. “But that's the case here, that's the case in Europe, that's the case south of the border, that's the case in Arab countries,” she added. “So more than ever, many, many countries are preoccupied by the state of the region.”
Joly said she believes that was “not as much the case” before the Oct. 7 attacks, which have renewed a global focus on the Middle East, prompting her to have “many conversations” on the topic with her counterparts in the region, because “it is also in the interest of the world to see a two-state solution happening.” The Canadian government has been calling for a two-state solution in the region, renewing that push in a recent joint statement with Australia and New Zealand, which also calls for “efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire.”
“We've also said that Hamas being a terrorist organization should not be involved in any future governance of Gaza,” Joly told Kapelos. “Because we believe that there is a path towards a two-state solution, and we need to make sure that we get to that two-state solution process.”
All this after the horrific attack of October 7, 2023 and the ongoing captivity of Israelis.
In this context, a new push for a two-state solution is ludicrous and extremely ill-timed. Just where is this “path”the Minister refers to? A two state solution would reward Hamas for its violent and ongoing acts of violence. It sends the message to Hamas and all terrorist entities in the world that violence works and violence can achieve their goals. This sends a terrible message and will invite more global terror.
The revitalized initiative of any two-state solution will also be a security nightmare for Israel and not bring peace to the region or Israel. It will bring the opposite.
Palestinian Arab society and culture is simply not capable nor desirous of peaceful co-existence with Israel. One only need look at their education system that teaches hatred of Jews and martyrdom to children even from age 3.
The pay-for-slay program of the Palestinian Authority (PA) that rewards families for acts of terrorism is another example. The PA President, Mahmoud Abbas, has to date not ended the program. He has not condemned the October 7 attack. He has in fact extended a salary to those who massacred Jews on that date.
Thus, it is a given that Hamas and the PA are of the same cloth. It is apparent that without wholesale de-radicalization of Palestinian Arab society, there is no possibility of peace and Israel would be a great risk by agreeing to the two-state solution. This project must be undertaken just as it was after World War 11 in Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. Today, the world benefits from these two modern and peaceful states. As Elliott Abrams has so well written,
“Opinion polls suggest that very many Palestinians, and not just those in Hamas, consider the State of Israel illegitimate, want it eliminated, and favor ‘armed struggle’. That is, their Palestinian nationalism is not positive—is NOT about building a democratic, prosperous, peaceful state of their own—but negative, mainly about destroying the Jewish state. According to a recent poll, if the last parliamentary election were repeated now, Hamas would win an outright majority.”
What then is the nature of the Palestinian state that Western governments are demanding? A terrorist state? A state with a coalition government that incorporatesterrorists, based on admittance of Hamas into the PLO? A state that is an autocracy where “armed struggle” against Israel is widely popular and is prevented only by severe repression by local authorities? Will any Palestinian Arab government become increasingly unpopular if they resist the popular will for another war to achieve annihilation of Israel? Or, conversely, a state like Lebanon, where the authorities are too weak to restrain the terrorist entity Hezbollah, and in fact have become complicit in the group’s activities? And creating that state is supposed to be the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Despite all this, Israelis are supposed to be reassured that a Palestinian state will be no threat to them because it will have no army and will be “demilitarized.” Israelis are not so dumb—nor should we be.”
In the near term, a Palestinian Arab state will be a disaster for Israel. And only Israel will bear the terrible consequences. Perhaps, in a generation when de-radicalization of Palestinian society will have been achieved, the Western “two-state solution” mantra could be possible.
But only maybe.
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