A Dismal Week for Peace-making

It was a dismal week for peace-making in the Middle East. Ostensibly without the advance knowledge of his coalition partner, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's Interior Minister announced plans for the construction of 1600 housing units in an ultra-Orthodox community east of the Green Line in Jerusalem, precisely on the day of Joe Biden's visit to Jerusalem. Netanyahu has apologized for the timing of the announcement but not for its substance, continuing to insist to the Knesset that his will not be the first Israeli government to compromise on Jerusalem. By dreadful extension, it seems, his will not be the Israeli government to finally negotiate a two-state solution with the Palestinian Authority, ensuring at last the end of the occupation, permanent security for Israel and dignity for the Palestinian people.

Netanyahu's most sacred obligations as the Prime Minister of the State of Israel are to assure the lasting safety of the people of Israel and to protect the heartfelt dream of most Jews, both in Israel and around the world, that the State of Israel be both a homeland for the Jewish people and a democracy. He must work toward this goal at a time when many around the world would dismantle the State of Israel as a Jewish homeland, and some world leaders are coming to regard Israel as an extreme and violent nation. In this context, refusing to negotiate over obviously Palestinian villages in the area known as East Jerusalem is profoundly counter-productive, if not downright disgraceful.

Sadly, there was bad news for peace this week in the Palestinian community as well. Also during Biden's visit, students belonging to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party named a public square in Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, who in 1978 carried out an attack in which 70 Israelis, including 38 civilians, 13 of them children, and one a beloved nature photographer, were killed. The attack took place not in occupied territory but on a beach between Haifa and Tel Aviv. The depressing photo in the New York Times suggested that Ms. Mughrabi's memory has become iconic for young Palestinian women. I deeply honor women's empowerment work in the Palestinian community, but not by glorifying attacks obviously directed against civilians in the heart of Israel. The Palestinian Authority, attentive to the diplomatic need of the moment, at least had the good sense to postpone an official celebration of the newly dedicated square until after Biden's visit. Still, to honor Dalal Mughrabi as a national hero is to engage in glorification of violence, which in turn terrifies Israelis, blocks the path toward peace, and thus obstructs progress toward the deepest goals of the Palestinian people.

As ever, grave mistakes continue to be made by both sides in this ever-deepening tragedy. One can only pray that the current crisis will intensify non-violently, forcing a shift in momentum, finally, toward peace.