In an effort to end the fighting in Gaza, the Arab League issued a declaration at a United Nations conference on reviving the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, condemning the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and calling on the terrorists to release all hostages it is holding, disarm, and end its rule of Gaza.
It’s an amazing document. Unfortunately, it’s also a non-starter. The document calls for a two-state solution, which is something that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly and firmly rejected.
More problematically, the plan also calls for a “right of return” for Palestinians displaced by Israel’s war for independence in 1948. It also calls for the return of their descendants, who today number 5 million.
In fact, the addition to the declaration of the “right of return” allowed the Arabs to agree to all the rest of it. Knowing that “right of return” would be rejected by the Israelis outright, the Arabs felt perfectly safe in calling on Hamas to disarm and give up control of Gaza.
“In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State,” said the declaration.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has neither the will nor the means to disarm Hamas, although it would dearly love Israel to do that so it could take over governing authority in the enclave.
The declaration was signed by seventeen countries, plus the 22-member Arab League and the entire European Union.
The “New York Declaration” sets out a phased plan to end the nearly eight-decade conflict and the ongoing war in Gaza. The plan would culminate with an independent, demilitarized Palestine living side by side peacefully with Israel, and their eventual integration into the wider Middle East region.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution and has rejected the meeting on both nationalistic and security grounds. Israel’s close ally, the United States, is also boycotting, calling the meeting “unproductive and ill-timed.”
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon late Tuesday sharply criticized the some 125 countries participating in the conference, saying “there are those in the world who fight terrorists and extremist forces and then there are those who turn a blind eye to them or resort to appeasement.”
Much was made by other delegates of the Arab League’s condemnation of the Hamas murder of 1,200 innocent Israelis on October 7.
Jean-Noël Barrot, the French foreign minister, said the agreement was “unprecedented” “on the part of Saudi Arabia and the Arab and Muslim countries who for the first time will condemn terrorism, the acts of terror on the 7th of October, a call for the disarmament of Hamas and expressed their hope to have a normalized relationship with Israel in due time.”
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It only took the Arabs two and a half years to demonstrate their humanity and condemn the October 7 atrocity. What’s to celebrate?
The declaration may be significant as a mile marker to end the current conflict. But as an indication that the overall Arab-Israeli conflict is closer to being resolved, it falls far short of any realistic advances.
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