Steve Lear

This article is written for those individuals who currently do not support the idea of a two-state solution.

In March 2012, I journeyed to the Middle East to participate in my third experience with the Palestinian people via an organization called Encounter. This program, according to its website, “provides the only oppor­tu­nity for main­stream American Jewish leaders to visit Palestinian terri­to­ries in the West Bank. …A plural­istic group of Jewish leaders meet Palestinian civil­ians and leaders in Bethlehem, Hebron, or East Jerusalem and engage in thoughtful conver­sa­tion about the complex­i­ties of Israel and the conflict.”

As always, I was looking for some progress between Jews and the Palestinian-Arab world.  There was some forward movement in that I sensed that the Palestinians felt as much frustration with their own government as with the Israelis.  However, I was hoping that these bright, dedicated, non-violent Palestinian activists would voice more acceptance for Israel to exist as a nation-state for the Jewish people. Unfortunately, that did not occur.

Both groups have rights to the land

The question of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state within the Middle East must be answered if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to be resolved. At the same time, it is imperative that the Palestinians’ right to exist as a nation continue to be affirmed as well.

To understand Israel’s right to exist, it is important to understand the history of the Jews in the area. Because Muslims and Christians have also ruled over the territory for long periods of time, the assertion that either Jews or Arabs have sole right to the land is incorrect.

As Judea Pearl, UCLA professor and father of the late Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, points out, both Jews and Arabs were recognized by the League of Nations and the United Nations General Assembly as “equally indigenous” to the land, “the former by an unbroken historical and national bond (though lacking in physical presence) and the latter by physical presence (though lacking in national bond).”[1] Recent history has led to Jewish control of the territory after the United Nations’ proposed—and accepted— partition plan of 1947. The international community deemed the idea of the State of Israel legitimate, and Israel’s achievement of member status in the United Nations in 1949 solidified its rightful political place in the world.

Both Israelis and Palestinians have achieved nationhood

In 1882, French philosopher and theologian Ernest Renan wrote about the concept of nationhood in his essay, “What is a Nation?” During this period in Europe, nationalism based on language and ethnic background was on the rise, as was patriotism. Some minorities were experiencing renewed discrimination, and some, like the Jews, were beginning to identify themselves in terms of nationhood. During this time, some Jews turned to socialism, and others to Zionism. [2]

The “right to exist” does not just stem from a historical or political context. Renan argued that nations are built on traditions of shared sacrifice, collective endeavors, and consent. He wrote that a nation is based on…The culmination of a long past of endeavors, sacrifice, and devotion… To have common glories in the past and to have a common will in the present; to have performed great deeds together, to wish to perform still more—these are the essential conditions for being a people.

Renan wrote that racially based considerations “have [played] no part in the constitution of modern nations” because “there is no pure race.”[3] Also, it’s impossible to base politics around ethnicity alone because of the mixed blood and heritage of the supposed “ethnicities.”[3]

Moreover, language and religion by themselves are not sufficient to establish a nation. In particular, religion alone can’t be the basis of a modern nation because religious belief is a matter of individual conscience. [3] In other words, simply getting a group of Jewish émigrés together would not be enough to justify calling Israel a nation.

Interestingly, Renan maintained that shared suffering does more than happiness or success to contribute to the successful formation of a nation. “So long as this moral consciousness gives proof of its strength by the sacrifices which demand the abdication of the individual to the advantage of the community, [a nation] is legitimate and has the right to exist.” [3]

Israel meets these many criteria for nationhood that Renan established. Israelis have a collective memory and have sacrificed for the land. They are devoted to the territory, to bettering it, and to bettering themselves. And they are willing to sacrifice, as evidenced by the compulsory military or community service in which the vast majority of Israelis participate. Simply put, Israel has a philosophical, in addition to a well-established political, right to exist.

Turning to the equally important case for a Palestinian state, the Palestinians, like the Israelis, have met the criteria proposed by Renan for establishing a true nation. Moreover, Renan emphasized the importance of the consent of the governed for any nation. Although they have their own elected officials, Palestinians continue to live under Israeli military occupation, to which they have not agreed.

How can we make progress?

To achieve lasting security for both the Jewish and Palestinian people, we must change attitudes before we can change tactics. Let’s start by ending the denial that has existed for 120 years. I’m calling upon both the Jews and the Palestinians to stop questioning each other’s right to exist. Let’s accept that there is room for both an Arab state and a Jewish state. In 2024, let’s agree that this is a fact and move forward from this position. The Jews need to be more patient. The Palestinians need to embrace modernity. And the rest of the Arab world, as well as Europe, needs to support a Palestinian state so that it can mature – but not at the cost of Israel.

Sources

1. Pearl, Judea. “Judea Pearl discusses his Op-Ed on Zionism.” Los Angeles Times. March 27, 2009. <http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2009/03/judea-pearl-dis.html>.
2. http://whathappenedbeforethat.net/european-jewish-history
3. Renan, Ernest. English translation of Qu’est-ce qu’une nation? Oeuvres completes de Ernest Renan. [What is a nation? Complete works of Ernest Renan] Paris: 1947-1961. Vol. I, pp. 887-907. <http://www.cooper.edu/humanities/core/hss3/e_renan.html>.