Pursue Peace based on
Arab and Palestinian Embrace of Zionism
“Neither peace nor security will be possible as long as the Palestinian ideology, founded on the negation of Zionism, continues to exist” (From the book “October Return”).
In a speech in Parliament on February 18, 1947, British foreign secretary Ernest Bevin, known for his hostile attitude to Zionism and the Jewish pre-state community (Yishuv), explained his country’s failure to fulfill the terms of the Mandate to re-constitute a National Home for the Jewish People in their historic homeland: “His Majesty’s Government have thus been faced with an irreconcilable conflict of principles … For the Jews, the essential point of principle is the creation of a sovereign Jewish State. For the Arabs, the essential point of principle is to resist to the last the establishment of Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine”.
This is the core of the Conflict, and it has remained unchanged: The Jews want a sovereign Jewish state and the Mandate Arabs, now known as Palestinians, are determined to resist to the last the very existence of Jewish sovereignty anywhere in the land. This is not a dispute over territory, but over the right of the Jewish people to exist as a sovereign people in their ancestral homeland. The violence, wars, terrorism and suffering are all the result of this denial of the Jewish right to national self-determination in even a part of the Land of Israel. Israel’s security and foreign policy challenges stem directly from this rejection.
Peace, true peace, could only be realized when the Arabs, and especially the Palestinian Arabs, will end their century plus long war against Zionism. Peace will come only when this ideology, which has brought so much suffering and destruction, and which can be described as “Palestinianism”, is replaced by a positive aspiration to live alongside a Jewish state rather than on its ruins. This requires millions of Palestinians, especially those living in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jordan, finally recognizing that they are home and not “Palestine refugees” and have no right to settle within the sovereign State of Israel in the name of “return”.
The vision of Oz Party is to pursue peace based on replacing “Palestinianism” with Arab Zionism, which is simply an Arab recognition of the equal right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their historic homeland. This is a vision which, even if not realized soon, must serve as the organizing idea of Israel’s foreign and security policy, from which daily actions derive. After decades of attempts to achieve peace through shortcuts that have brought us no closer to genuine peace, it is precisely this long-term vision, pursued patiently, day by day, that could finally lead to real progress, perhaps even sooner than expected.
