Defying all pessimistic expectations by the Arabs, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, gave consent to the initiative made by the US President Barack Obama. Such initiative suggested that setting up the Palestinian State was the only means to put an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. In a speech he gave last Sunday, Netanyahu confirmed his acceptance to setting up a Palestinian State. He only stipulated that, the Palestinian State to be set up should be demilitarized, with no army and no forces. He also imposed as a condition to setting up a Palestinian State that, the Palestinians give up the Right to Return idea, happily admitting the jewishism of Israel. That is, an official give up of the rights of the Arab Citizens of Israel; that small group of people who stuck to their most beloved land, refusing to leave her as well as enduring the horrors of being treated as Second-Class Citizens inside their own lands. However, the acceptance of these conditions means giving up the existence of a Palestinian army. It also means admitting the Israel control over water sources as well as internal circumstances, which means in turn, giving up the most important constituent of a state, i.e., sovereignty. Nevertheless, why should sovereignty matter?! Why should the rights of the poor Palestinians who stayed in Israel matter? Why should the rights of the poor Palestinians who were expelled from their home and remained homeless for 60 years matter?! Why the heavens should the Palestinian land, got profaned every minute by the Israeli settlements, matter?! For the sake of setting up a Palestinian State, why should all these things matter?!
As suggested by Obama, Netanyahu agreed that a state should be set up for the Palestinians. This is, actually, a very important political gain. It is true the suggested state shall never have the basic constituents of a sovereign state; yet, it still has a flag and a national anthem, which were not objected by Netanyahu. But, is this not enough?!! Actually, it is too much; states are nothing but flags and anthems. A Flag is the symbol of any state. If demonstrators against any state were to have a desire to express their anger with that state, they would, first of all, burn its flag. So generously and without reservation, the Israeli Prime Minister bestowed the Palestinians the right to a flag; to a symbol! On the other hand, an anthem is the symbol of entity. That is the reason why it is played during special national events. Moreover, if a certain government wanted to give a special welcome to a special visitor, it would play for him the national anthem of his own nation. Again, Netanyahu showed extreme generosity when he gave the Palestinian the right to an anthem. I have observed many of the Arab reactions towards Netanyahu's speech. I discovered, as usual as ever, that we did not understand it. Some journalists wrote that, Netanyahu tried to mislead the whole world when he, at the beginning of his speech, used the expression of "Palestinian State", used in Obama's speech. But he kept on depriving the expression of all its meanings, they continued. Other journalists would wonder, which Palestinian State had the man talked about, while he completely refuses to give up not only joining the occupied city of Al-Quds to the state of Israel but also, regarding it as the eternal capital city of his country. They added: the man refuses to stop everyday processes of setting up Israeli settlements inside the Palestinian lands, though such processes are illegal. A third group of journalists said that Netanyahu entirely ignored Peace Initiative raised by Arabs seven years before; an initiative that stipulated recognition of the State of Israel and normalization of relationships with it in return for full Israeli retreat from the occupied lands. Others wrote that, Netanyahu wanted both peace and land, which means he wanted to take everything without giving anything. To be known, a careful reading of Netanyahu's speech would simply reveal what I have said at the beginning of my talk; when he gave them the right to a flag as well as an anthem, Netanyahu can be said to have given the Palestinians too much good. This is really too much. Both the flag and the anthem are the symbol of any state. If it was not for them, there would be no state at all. Symbol is everything. As far as the meaning of these values is concerned, Netanyahu has bestowed the Palestinian a symbolic Palestinian. He has given them a most jellylike state; once Palestinians hold it from one side it slides from the other. However, if the Palestinians tried to take hold of it from both sides, it would turn into a thick liquid without the least degree of consistency.
