Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president and founder of J Street, the pro-Israel, pro-peace national organization, spoke last week to a group of students about America's role in the recent peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. J Street aims to change the political dynamic surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, specifically by mobilizing broad support for a two-state solution.
Despite the futile efforts of countless negotiations since the Oslo Accords in 1993, there are some reasons to be optimistic about these latest peace talks. Secretary Kerry and President Obama have shown an unprecedented commitment to the issue. In fact, it was the President's speech in Jerusalem and the Secretary's unrelenting shuttle diplomacy between Ramallah and Jerusalem that laid the groundwork for these peace talks. Further, the leaders of both the Palestinian Authority and Israel have publicly endorsed the two-state solution as the only viable end to the conflict. Most importantly, a majority of Israelis and Palestinians share this opinion.
Yet, in the four months of these talks, they have deteriorated in an all too familiar routine of intransigence and grandstanding. Unabated Israeli settlement expansion has led to the resignation of the Palestinian negotiating team. The recent killing of a 19-year-old Israeli soldier by a 16-year-old Palestinian has led many members of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, to call for an Israeli withdrawal from the peace talks. If the two sides continue on their current path, this round of talks will meet the same fate as those of the past: Each side will attempt to blame the other, as incitement and violence will replace the very peace the talks intended to reach.
Jeremy Ben-Ami argued that at this critical stage, it is more important than ever for the United States to show real leadership and act as a mediator. He stated that a failure to reach a peace deal would result in Israel being further isolated by foreign countries and Palestinians continuing to suffer from Israeli occupation.
In the coming months, the United States will likely present its own peace plan. That plan will require both Israelis and Palestinians to make difficult choices in pursuit of a resolution. Israelis, Palestinians and Americans must now prepare to support their leaders as they make these difficult compromises. Now is the time to prepare for peace.
For decades, leaders have paid lip service to the two-state solution, but actually preparing for peace requires raising awareness about what the two-state solution specifically entails. J Street's "2 Campaign" seeks to build an American constituency that supports the two-state solution not only in theory, but also in practice.
Any real two-state solution must be geographically predicated on the 1967 borders, a position that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to accept. Israelis must realize that continuing settlement projects greatly diminishes the viability of a contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank. Israelis must also concede that Jerusalem is currently a united city of two peoples. In any solution, the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem would become the capital of the newly formed Palestine.
The Palestinians have compromises of their own to make. The essence of the two-state solution is that it grants self-determination for both the Jewish people and the Palestinian people. Thus, any conception of a massive Palestinian right of return to Israel proper is antithetical to the basic logic of the resolution. Just as settlement expansion undermines the Palestinian identity of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the right of return undermines the Jewish national character of the state of Israel. Former Israeli prime ministers have agreed to allow a certain number of refugees to return to Israel in a symbolic gesture. Through this measure, monetary compensation or resettlement in the new state of Palestine or a third country, there are ways to grant the right of return without infringing on Israel's right to decide its own national character.
Many of these points are difficult not only for the Israelis and Palestinians, but also for Americans who may question their government's involvement in proposing this type of compromise. Yet, it is important that we stand behind the moderates within the Israeli and Palestinian communities and marginalize the extremists who seek to spoil the negotiations.
To be clear, the two-state solution is not a quick fix to an old conflict. It is merely an improved political arrangement, one in which Palestinians are granted the right of citizenship in a state of their own, and Israelis ensure their future in a Jewish, democratic state. It will not, however, relieve the Palestinians of generations of trauma and exile, nor will it guarantee an end to violence against Israelis. But this pragmatic solution will greatly improve the long-term situation for both peoples and provides an opportunity for further justice and reconciliation. Now is the time to prepare for peace.
