(1) if Israel is the Jewish state, the peace cannot be established since the Jewish state cannot provide equal rights to its Arab citizens, and
(2) if the Jewish settlements in the potential territories of a future Palestinian state are built, the peace cannot be established since the settlements there are an indication of Israel’s aggressive intentions to seize more Palestinian lands.
However, both assumptions are wrong and it is not too difficult to prove.
To prove the wrongness of both assumptions we have to define the peace Israel and International community are trying to establish.
A peace treaty between Palestinians and Israel should not only end the state of hot/cold war between them but most importantly should define the proscribed behavior of both parties that prevents the peace treaty from becoming just a cease-fire for preparing a next war.
To ensure the true peace, the proscribed behavior on the part of Israelis should include the following provisions.
I1. The state of Israel should not resist the establishment of the Palestinian state as an Arab state the legal foundation of which would be Muslim Koranic tradition in its non-violent interpretation.
I2. The state of Israel should not deprive its Arab citizens from the same social, human and religious rights that the Jewish Israel’s citizens have, including the right to Islamic worship in mosques and communities (assuming that the Arab citizens would not violate in the public arena the Jewish Torah-based legal foundation of Israel).
I3. The state of Israel should not work against international guaranties on respecting and preserving the Israel-Palestine borders which should be negotiated.
To ensure the true peace, the proscribed behavior on the part of Palestinians should include the following provisions.
P1. The state of Palestine should not resist the state of Israel being officially proclaimed as a Jewish state the legal foundation of which is the Torah and Jewish tradition.
P2. The state of Palestine should not deprived its Jewish citizens from equal social, human and religious rights that all Arab citizens have, including the right to Jewish worship in synagogues and communities (assuming that Jewish citizens would not violate the Arab Koran-based legal foundation of Palestine).
P3. Taking into consideration numerous Palestinian statements where the goal of Palestinian people was proclaimed as elimination of the Jewish state, the state of Palestine should not resist its demilitarized status to make Israel accept its demilitarized independence.
The proscribed behavior of the state of Israel, which is required for the true Israel-Palestine peace, has already agreed upon by the state of Israel while the Palestinian leaders are refusing to accept their proscribed behavior.
Here is what Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu just recently stated:
“We want two states for two peoples: a Jewish state, a Jewish nation state—Israel, living in peace with a demilitarized Palestinian state. Unfortunately, the Palestinians do not negotiate. They ran away from negotiations. They ran away from [Ehud] Barak, they ran away from [Ariel] Sharon, they ran away from [Ehud] Olmert, they ran away from me. … What they do is they refuse to negotiate… run to Hamas, which calls for our destruction, go to the U.N. and try to get sanctions on Israel. They refuse to negotiate and then try to get boycotts on Israel for there not being negotiations, which they refuse to enter.”
The Palestinian authority answered this Netanyahu’s statement in the following way:
“Nimr Hammad, a political adviser to Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas compared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi Germany's Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels Thursday. … Netanyahu is using Goebbel's propaganda strategy in order to persuade the international pubic that the PA is the source of stagnation in Arab-Israeli peace negotiations.”
Thus, the Palestinians are not going to negotiate with the state of Israel. That means they are not willing to accept their proscribed behavior to establish their independent state. Why? The Palestinian National Charter created in 1968 and still being the guidance for Palestinian statehood provides the answer.
1. Article 2 of the Charter says that Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate (that is from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea), is an indivisible territorial unit.That means there is no territory for the state of Israel for the Jews at any borders.Thus, the Charter forbids the Palestinian leaders to take upon themselves the obligation P1 in the proscribed behavior needed for establishing the true peace with Israel.
2. Article 15 of the Charter says that the liberation of Palestine is a national duty and it attempts to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine. The Charter describes the real Palestinian goal of establishing the Palestinian state – not to accept the Jews as equals in Palestine but expel all of them from Palestine.
Thus, the Charter forbids the Palestinian leaders to take upon themselves the obligation P2 in the proscribed behavior needed for establishing the true peace with Israel.
3. Article 10 of the Charter says that Commando action constitutes the nucleus of the Palestinian popular liberation war that requires war escalation, comprehensiveness, as well as mobilization of all the Palestinian popular and educational efforts in the armed Palestinian revolution.Thus, the Charter forbids the Palestinian leaders to take upon themselves the obligation P3 in the proscribed behavior, which is to be demilitarized, needed for establishing the true peace with Israel.
If the Palestinian National Charter forbids the Palestinians from taking upon themselves the obligations needed for the true peace, the only avenue to reach the true peace is for the International community to force the Palestinian leaders to change their Charter and include in it the proscribed behavior needed for the true peace.
The true peace could be advanced only if
(1) the Palestinians agree to accept the state of Israel as a Jewish state (as a response to Israel’s acceptance of the state of Palestine as a non-jihadist, peaceful Muslim state), and
(2) the Palestinians agree to treat the settlement’s Jews as equal citizens of the Palestinian state (as a response to Israel’s acceptance of Israeli Arabs as equal citizens).