Marwan Muasher Initiative

In an optimistic tone that is not devoid of awareness of the complexities facing both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the serious initiative, worthy of pause and discussion, published by Dr. Marwan Muasher in Foreign Affairs magazine on 10-27-2024, deserves dialogue and attention, first at the Palestinian level before any other party, and especially with the official institution, the Palestine Liberation Organization and its various circles.

Dr. Al-Maasher’s initiative or proposal is full of titles and concepts that need to be reconsidered from his point of view, for example:

- It is time for a fundamental shift in how the world deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Instead of focusing on a two-state solution, international leaders should focus on ensuring that Palestinians and Israelis have equal rights.

- Foreign governments should pressure both peoples to agree to common rules and principles.

- Arab countries must abandon old ideas and abandon loyalty to the two-state solution.

- This new proposal will not be based on promoting the two-state solution, but instead focuses on promoting the rights and dignity of both Palestinian and Israeli societies.

- Dealing with the truth to accept and implement this vision requires new leadership by Israelis and Palestinians.

Finally, Dr. Marwan Muasher is counting on international pressure to achieve this trend.

The idea proposed by Marwan Muasher is not new, as he says, but he enriched it with details, perhaps to achieve his goal of achieving success. Rather, it is new and old, and it had previously attracted the attention of many Palestinian leaders, but, to be honest, it was not proposed with the detail provided by its owner.

It is necessary to acknowledge that the obstacle to the achievement of this idea is not any Palestinian party at all. The Palestinian leadership, and I do not exclude anyone from it, whether President Abbas, or the leaders of the factions united within the framework of the PLO, or even the Hamas movement, is proposing the idea of the two-state solution as a temporary transitional option, and not a final strategic solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Thus, the complete strategic solution for Palestine is integration into a single state: a binational Arab-Hebrew state, and a dual Palestinian-Israeli identity, with multiple religions: Islamic, Christian, Jewish, and Druze as well, or within the framework of what it called a federal union between the two parties.

When Dr. Al-Muasher acknowledges that “there is simply no large Jewish constituency in Israel – the colony – that supports equal rights for the Palestinians,” and how can this be achieved and Israeli acceptance of this idea be achieved, he answers by saying: “The short answer is international pressure,” and frankly he avoids talking and acknowledging that the international community, which is the decision-maker with the five countries: the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy, is with the colony, supporting it, including the crimes and massacres that the colony has committed and continues to commit daily against the Palestinian people, and in contrast to that, the Russian and Chinese camp supports Palestinian rights, respects the choices of the Palestinians and works to do them justice.

The solution is the struggle within the Palestinian and Israeli societies, and they are the decision makers, and they alone, and no one else can achieve this goal, and the strongest and most effective Israeli party and the decision makers is the ruling coalition consisting of: 1- The extreme right-wing political parties, 2- The extremist Jewish religious parties and with them the triple opposition: 1- Yair Lapid, 2- Benny Gantz and Lieberman, who are also right-wing parties, as indicated by the votes within the Knesset on Palestinian issues, including the decision to reject the establishment of the state and the decision to criminalize UNRWA and other decisions indicating the content of the right-wing orientation that rejects all solutions: 1- The two-state solution, 2- The one-state solution and any solution that responds to Palestinian rights, and the only solution for them is the Israeli solution, based on: 1- Occupying, swallowing and colonizing the entire map of Palestine, 2- Reducing the Palestinian human presence on the land of their homeland according to the solution presented by Smotrich, the "decisive plan", which is to get rid of the Palestinians by voluntary departure, or forced departure, or remaining without political rights at all.

Dr. Marwan Muasher's idea is noble and forward-looking, but it does not have legs to stand on before working to penetrate Israeli society and gain significant Israeli biases, so that the struggle becomes a partnership between Palestinians and Israelis together, on the basis of rejecting Zionism, occupation and discrimination, to reach complete equality for both parties on the land of Palestine.