by David Warmflash

Created on: August 12, 2009

Although extremists on both the Jewish and Palestinian sides are extremely vocal, most people today seem to accept the fact that the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River is inhabited by two nations. The Fatah conference in Bethlehem is encouraging. Recently, Israeli Jews and some Hamas leaders even met for some sort of dialog and, perhaps more importantly, Fatah, whose message is that they could accept the existence of Israel as part of a two-state solution, has been given a long-needed boost. Once again, a negotiated peace, establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, seems plausible. But there are some sticking points:

Palestinian leaders still demand a "right of return", which is to say the right for Palestinian refugees to immigrate both into regular Israel, and the new Palestinian state. Not only is this not necessary to the future of Palestinian nationhood, but since Israelis never will accept it, it's an obstacle. At the same time, many in Israelis take issue with the idea of giving Arab East Jerusalem -consisting of neighborhoods which never have been fully integrated into Israel- to the new Palestinian state and sharing sovereignty over the Old City. Giving in on this point will have no negative effect on Israel's security.

It goes without saying that Israel needs to freeze on settlement growth. For peaceful co-existence, Palestinians require a state that can thrive, which requires territory that for the most part is contiguous and includes access to water wells and other natural resources. Recently, according to a report in the Washington Post, the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank was counted at approximately 300,000. Would they all need to leave? Not necessarily. While there certainly need to be two independent states, some sort of loose confederation may be warranted as a means of encouraging both sides to give in on the sticking points.

The Palestinian right of return can be either of two things: If it means that 4 or 5 million Palestinians actually would immigrate to Israel and become Israeli citizens, it would mean the end of Israel -which is why Israel won't accept it. In recent years, though, I think the right of return has served more as an excuse for both Hamas and the Israeli right to make their supporters think that peace is not possible. So I think what the Palestinians need is a face-saving gesture. They need to be offered a scenario wherein the right of return is symbolic.

My proposal is

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