Why Netanyahu’s demands are unreasonable

The gap between the reality on the ground and the virtual reality in the minds and rhetoric of Israeli officials has reached astonishing proportions.
It is understandable that a political leader facing elections, and perhaps the end of his career, if not his personal freedom, might resort to exaggeration to boost his standing. But the claims and conditions Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attaching to the US-brokered ceasefire effort go far beyond political spin.
The most glaring example is Netanyahu’s insistence that the Palestinian resistance must unilaterally disarm. The demand is presented in a vacuum, without any explanation of how, or by whom, such disarmament would occur. Palestinian fighters, who have endured unprecedented losses alongside their communities, have not been defeated. Israel has inflicted massive destruction, but it did not win the war; nor has Hamas — or any other resistance faction — surrendered. The notion that they would simply hand over their weapons without any political quid pro quo is divorced from reality.
Hamas leaders, including Khaled Meshaal, have said that they are open to a long-term hudna (truce). Several have stated they would relinquish weapons to a legitimate Palestinian government — but certainly not to an occupying army. And no country can reasonably be expected to accomplish militarily what Israel failed to do over two years with overwhelming force.
If Israel is serious about de-escalation, it can help to achieve that goal by allowing Palestinians to govern Gaza and manage the process of dealing with fellow Palestinians. But that leads us to Israel’s next inflated demand.
Israel wants the Palestinian Authority to stop cooperating with UNRWA, the UN agency mandated to serve Palestinian refugees. This demand contradicts the recent UN General Assembly vote renewing UNRWA’s mandate for three years. Netanyahu appears to believe that if UNRWA disappears, so too will UN Resolution 194, which is the internationally recognized basis for the right of Palestinian refugees to return.
This fantasy persists even though Israel rejected a comprehensive Arab and Muslim peace initiative offering normalization in exchange for withdrawal from the occupied territories. That plan addressed the refugee issue responsibly — through negotiations producing outcomes agreed on by all parties. In such a framework, Israel would have a say in the final settlement. Yet it insists on unilateral dictates that cannot stand.
As if these demands were not enough, Israel now insists that the Palestinian government implement “de-radicalization” measures. Let us unpack this. 

Despite 59 years of illegal occupation, Israeli leaders still portray themselves as the victims.

Daoud Kuttab

A population enduring a two-year genocidal war — waged by a state whose prime minister and defense minister are wanted by the International Criminal Court — is being asked to become less radical, to appease its tormentors. Palestinians who face daily settler violence, land theft, home raids, financial strangulation, and the systematic violation of every agreement Israel has ever signed, are accused of extremism because of their school curriculum.
The suggestion is not merely absurd. It is an inversion of reality.
Despite 77 years of dispossession and 59 years of illegal occupation and settlement construction — in clear violation of international law — Israeli leaders still portray themselves as the victims. They expect Palestinians to lay down their arms, accept endless occupation, ignore the theft of their land, and abandon any claim to a just resolution of the refugee crisis Israel has created.
Sadly, some officials in Washington and other capitals still indulge these fantasies. They either misunderstand or choose to ignore the Palestinian experience. Encouragingly, however, their numbers are shrinking, even if they continue to wield disproportionate influence and act to pressure international bodies — from UN rapporteurs to ICC judges — to suppress dissenting voices.
But regardless of political pressure, it must be said plainly: The demands of Netanyahu are as unreasonable as they sound. Those who promote or endorse them are complicit in prolonging war crimes and in denying the Palestinian people their fundamental right to self-determination.
What is needed now is not more distortions, but an Israeli reality check — and an international community willing to insist on it.

• Daoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journalist and former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He is the author of “State of Palestine Now: Practical and Logical Arguments for the Best Way to Bring Peace to the Middle East.”
X: @daoudkuttab