Dreams and Realities

In a story which follows this editorial, we make the point that for a long time now the PLO has no longer been insisting that Palestine should be a unitary, secular state where Jews, Christians and Moslems could live together on an equal footing, and has instead reconciled itself to accepting a separate Palestinian state which would share the territory with the existing Israeli one. When statements like this one are made, someone is sure to bring up the question of the Palestinian National Charter, which still rejects the concept that there should be an Israeli state at all. Why, it is often asked, haven't the Palestinians changed their charter, if they have sincerely had a change of heart?

The short answer is that the PLO hasn't really had a change of heart. It still thinks that a secular society for all is better than a state created solely for people of a certain religion. What has changed is its perception of what it might be possible to achieve. It is ready to settle for a more limited goal. But to reach even this goal is proving extremely difficult. As long as it hasn't reached it, why should it abandon its vision of what would be an ideal solution for Palestine?

On the other side of the coin, seldom if ever mentioned, is the fact that Israel has never abandoned its own official vision of its ideal state—one to which all Jews of the world should eventually be "in-gathered." With ten million or so Jews still on the outside—far more than Israel could comfortably hold on its present territory—surely this is a prospect just as intimidating for the Palestinians and other Arabs as the PLO Charter appears to be for Israel. In practical terms, of course—since not all Jews are willing to be in-gathered—this Israeli goal may be as impractical for Israel as the Charter's goal has turned out to be for the Palestinians. Yet unlike the PLO, Israel has never offered to lower its sights, even unofficially. It is still the only country in the world which has never got around to defining its borders. Its dream of a greater Israel filled with all the world's Jewry is still held up as official policy. It constantly promotes the idea that a good Jew should be living in Israel. It dangles financial inducements to go. It keeps alive its "Law of Return," which allows a Jew who has lived all his life in Poland or Australia to become a citizen of Israel within moments of setting foot there. And while all this is going on, it expects the Palestinians not only to submit to an Israeli fait accompli which denies them a homeland, but even to abandon their dream of what that homeland could be like.