An Israeli military guard tower - with surveillance cameras and two robotic guns that can fire tear gas, stun grenades and sponge-tipped bullets - watches over the Aroub refugee camp in the West Bank. Photo / Mahmoud Illean, AP
An Israeli military guard tower - with surveillance cameras and two robotic guns that can fire tear gas, stun grenades and sponge-tipped bullets - watches over the Aroub refugee camp in the West Bank. Photo / Mahmoud Illean, AP
Opinion by Tony Kan
OPINION
Recently, there have been calls for resetting our foreign policy with respect to Israel.
For decades now, New Zealand has founded its policy on Israel on the idea of a two-state solution: the idea that a Palestinian Arab state could exist in peace alongside the modern stateof Israel.
This idea is dependent on a number of assumptions: That the Palestinian leadership is interested in peaceful co-existence with the Jewish people; that peace in the Middle East is predicated on the establishment of a Palestinian State based on pre-1967 borders; and that the Palestinian leadership are more interested in the welfare and prosperity of its people than they are interested in the destruction of Israel and its people.
We have sufficient history to see that each of these assumptions has been proven wrong. Time and again, each Palestinian regime has shown that it has no appetite for peaceful co-existence with Israel.
The language in the Arab rhetoric is clear: the annihilation of the State of Israel is the end goal, and that relentless and deadly violence will be pursued until this goal is achieved. It is an all-or-nothing philosophy that is prepared to grind its own people into perpetual poverty and suffering.
During the 2000 Camp David Summit, the Palestinians were offered nearly all of their demands. Amongst anyone who is familiar with such negotiations between people, a truly remarkable offer.
Yet the Palestinians declined it, setting off the second intifada. The Gaza peace-for-land deal only resulted in even more violence. The Palestinians have now received more foreign aid than Europe to rebuild after the Second World War.
And what have they done with it? They have used it to fund hatred, murder and misery.
The Abrahamic Accords have shown that there is an appetite for peace in the Middle East.
The normalisation of Israel’s relations with Sudan, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Jordan shows this. Even Saudi Arabia has allowed Israeli civilian aircraft to fly through its airspace.
These are monumental signs that the other Arab Middle Eastern nations are tiring of Palestinian narrow-mindedness.
The current Palestinian regime will try to turn us against Israel by accusing it of not holding to Western liberal values while pushing a totalitarian society within their own jurisdictions.
Today, Israel is a shining light in the totalitarian darkness of the Middle East. It demonstrates that Middle Eastern peoples can live together in a true democracy, where their vote counts, where there is no threat of governmental coercion as to how they can vote, where one’s civil liberties are protected by law, where its citizens have access to healthcare, education and state welfare assistance, where Palestinian Arabs can study law and fight for justice, where people can truly live and become whatever they lawfully wish.
Tony Kan. Photo / Supplied
The Palestinian Regime needs to understand that its current goal of annihilating Israel, by fostering a grievance industry that enriches its leaders through the suffering of its people, has been discredited.
New Zealand has to reset its foreign policy in regard to the Middle East.
Only by showing that this current regime has no credibility, will a new regime emerge that is free of corruption and willing to enter into genuine peace negotiations with Israel.
Only by strengthening our trade and diplomatic relations with Israel will we positively reinforce the regional behaviours we so desire.
We do need a foreign policy reset.
We would be fools to continue to persist with the current policy that superficially shows even-handed support to the Palestinian Arabs, and yet has had so little success in bringing peace over so many generations.
- Tony Kan is the president, NZ Friends of Israel Association Inc.
