Or so some people claim…
If the Palestinian Arabs wanted a state next to Israel, they could have had one years ago: Twice they were offered states. In 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak made PA Chair Yasser Arafat a very good offer that included all of Gaza, 95% of Judea-Samaria and part of Jerusalem. Arafat turned it down and made no counter offer. In 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offer PA Chair Mahmoud Abbas an even better offer, and was turned down.
The Palestinian Authority continues to say that it wants a two-state solution, but this is merely a strategy: a position it presents for consumption in the West and as a step toward its true goal, which is first weakening and then destroying Israel. This goal takes precedence over establishment of a permanent and peaceful state on part of the land.
Palestine was for centuries in the hands of Muslim occupiers. Islam says that land that was under Islamic control belongs to Islam and can never be relinquished. Israel is a thorn in the side of Muslim Arabs.
After the Israeli victory in the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the Arabs perceived that destruction of Israel via war would not be possible. And so they developed a plan to weaken Israel in stages, and thus was the fiction of Palestinian Arab desire for a two-state solution floated.
Fact: Although the PLO led the world to believe they amended their charter in 1996, it was not changed: they voted for a committee to make the amendments, but the committee never met. The PLO charter continues to call for the destruction of Israel.
Fact: The Fatah constitution calls for “Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence,” (article 12) and “Establishing a…state with complete sovereignty on all Palestinian lands, and Jerusalem [as] its capital city…” (Article 13).
Fatah is the dominant party of the PA.
PA TV regularly refers to Israeli cities such as Haifa and Ashkelon—which are on the Mediterranean coast and would be in Israel if there were a two-state solution—as “Palestinian.”
Palestinian Authority maps and logos show a Palestinian state that covers all the area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.