50 years of failed strategy is nothing to commemorate

Israel is strategic in everything it does. It annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, 13 years after occupying it. It classified those in racist settlements such as Gilo as Israeli citizens, changing the label from occupied territories to “Israeli lands.” Israel is good at manipulating public perceptions, redefining terms and planning.

They have one philosophy: Take what you can get then slowly change it. Arabs have one philosophy too: Take all or nothing. Of course, we have nothing. We have rejected everything.

Jews started with small settlements in the late 19th century, expanded them to bigger cities in the 20th century then accepted half the state, as proposed by the UN in 1947. They knew the partition plan was ridiculous, but instead of rejecting it they embraced it, because they were confident that whatever they take they can grow. In accepting half the state, they fought and seized 50 percent more.

Palestinians can change and do the same thing as the Israelis. They can accept whatever land is abandoned by Israel, and have faith and confidence that in the long run they will expand and take over the rest. The Israelis know that. They recognize that if the Palestinians ever establish a state, it will grow and eventually absorb Israel. The sheer weight of Arab demographics in peace would suffocate Israeli nationalism.

But Palestinians have no faith in themselves. They only have their suffering, victimization and anger. Sadly, some Palestinians have found gratification in that suffering, building institutions that champion conflict and extremism rather than realistic solutions, and that feed emotions and clamor for all or nothing.

They want to turn the clock back to 1947 or even before, and have one democratic state where they say Christians, Muslims and Jews will be equal. But they cannot, so they create an industry for their suffering and commemorate their tragedy.

Palestinians must break free from this mental bondage and define a new future based on growth and confidence that we can achieve this. Otherwise we will pass along to the next generation of Palestinians and Arabs another commemoration of 75 years, then 100. By then, will Palestine exist anywhere outside our angry memories? Ray Hanania is an award-winning Palestinian-American former journalist and political columnist. Email him at rghanania@gmail.com.