Real Issue: Israeli, Palestinian Nationalism

Jordan's King Abdullah visited Washington this month amid reports that Jordan is willing to permanently settle Palestinian refugees on its soil, adding to widespread fears in the region, especially in Lebanon, that a U.S.-led campaign is under way to settle refugees in host states. On the Palestinian side, many are insisting on the return of refugees to their original homes in Israel. Neither option has a serious chance of success, for the issue at hand is not merely the humanitarian task of settling refugees. It is also a question of Jewish and Palestinian nationalism.

Israelis and Palestinians have nationalist red lines that no leader can cross: No Israeli government can accept the massive return of Palestinians into Israel in a way that threatens the Jewish majority, and no Palestinian leader can sign an agreement that does not grant a future Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza the right to accept as citizens any willing Palestinian refugees. The sooner the negotiations address the space between these lines, the better.

The core of the Oslo accords was not their messy and problematic terms, but the mutual recognition expressed in short letters exchanged by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, in which Rabin responded to Arafat's pledge that "the PLO recognizes the right of Israel to exist in peace and security" with a message that "the government of Israel has decided to recognize the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people." For majorities on both sides, this recognition was the basis of hope.

For many Israelis, the hope emanated from the prospect of a solution that protected Israel's Jewish character. For many Palestinians, the Israeli recognition of the "Palestinian people" contrasted with reference to their problem as one of refugees, or as a problem of "Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza," as previous Israeli leaders had framed it. It raised hopes of establishing a state in the West Bank and Gaza to embody Palestinian nationalism and accommodate homeless refugees. It is this hope that made it possible for many Palestinians to forgo the drive to return to their original homes in Israel. These core Israeli and Palestinian aspirations define the boundaries of what is possible.