Opinion Editorials, March 2016

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 In 1895, the fledgling Zionist movement dispatched a number of rabbis to Palestine to explore the possibility of establishing a homeland for Jews in the predominantly Arab country, then under Ottoman rule.
 
After scouring the country, the rabbis sent back the following message: “The bride (Land of Palestine) is beautiful but she is married to another man (the Palestinian People)”.
 
Today, 120 years later the legitimate husband (the Palestinian People) and the rapist turned-master of the house (Israeli-Zionist invaders) continue the century-old fight for legitimacy and possession of the land.
 
At one point, the arrogant and self-absorbed (Zionist) rapist thought he achieved a final victory over the legitimate husband who obviously lacked the wherewithal to defend, let alone repulse, the powerful beast, the pugnacious settler and colonizer.
 
But the legitimate man of the house was not to be crushed. He survived despite his weakness, vulnerability and poverty.
 
In a certain sense, he survived in spite of logic and history.
 
Today, notwithstanding Israel’s incessant efforts to obliterate the Palestinian and his memory, there are as many Palestinians as there are Jews in the area between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean, including Israel proper, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
 
This is more than just another problem facing the Zionist enterprise in Palestine. This is the ultimate nightmare haunting Israel, rendering its future precarious.
 
Indeed, the fact that Israel and the territories it occupied in 1967 are today populated by approximately 6 million Palestinians (in addition to 6 million Jews) should be viewed as the ultimate strategic failure of Zionism. Of course, this failure was never intended to be. In fact, it was inadvertent as it was inevitable.
 
The re-emergence of demographic realities in Palestine-Israel reminds us of Albert Camus’s iconic words, appearing in his famous play “Le Malentendu” or “In Cross purpose.”

“In a world where everything can be denied there are forces undeniable, and on Earth where nothing is sure we have our certainties.”
 
Thus it seems that Palestinians have survived “in spite of logic” and “in spite of history”, perhaps thanks to Camus’ “forces undeniable”
 
That is precisely the Palestinian odyssey in a nutshell.
 
I have no doubt that history will record that one of the main reasons for Israel’s ultimate demise is the intensive proliferation of Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank which rendered the establishment of a viable Palestinian state utterly impossible. 
 
Yes, it is hard to thank someone for doing you a favor he never intended to do in the first place. But perhaps we Palestinians ought to thank Israel for building that many settlements in the West Bank.
 
I don’t know if Israel knew or not what she was doing.

But the net outcome is the same as the seemingly existential dilemma already facing the Zionist enterprise is irreconcilable, irreversible and inescapable.
 
By definition, a dilemma is a situation where one has to choose between two unattractive choices.
 
The dilemma facing Israel and Zionism today is having to choose between a bi-national state where at least half of the population is non-Jewish (and they are growing demographically at a faster rate in comparison to Jews) or adopting perpetual occupation, repression, and apartheid as outstanding policy pending the appearance of the Messiah, irrespective of his religious affiliations and political orientations!!
 
Israel might very well be entertaining a third choice. After all, Israel is Israel and can be expected to embark on the unthinkable.
 
But the “unthinkable”, however ghoulish it might be could boomerang on Israel and be decidedly suicidal for Jews especially in the future.
 
This is because any foolish act against the Palestinians, such as mass expulsion, which would be tantamount to an actual genocide, would really open the gates of hell on Israel.
 
Because then every expelled man, woman and child would, almost spontaneously and automatically, transform themselves into bombs walking on two legs. And they would meet absolute approval and backing from the 1,600 million followers of Islam and other supporters.
 
Khalid Amayreh is a veteran Palestinian journalist and current affairs political commentator living in the town of Dura in the West Bank.

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