It has been nearly 80 years since the major European Allies notionally carved up the non-Turkish lands off the Ottoman Empire pending its collapse. It has been nearly 80 years since Britain, in a typical divide-and-rule strategy ambiguously promised the same part of that land … Palestine … to two different groups: to Arabs to help fight the Ottoman Empire and to Jews to help get the Zionists behind the war effort.
Now, after much bloodshed, those two groups have agreed to co-exist on that same land. It is by no means the end of the matter and the arrangements are fragile and will require further development. But now Palestinians have a degree of autonomy over their affairs in Gaza and the West Bank and they have elected their own president, Yasser Arafat, at an election at the weekend.
Mr Arafat received about 85 per cent of the vote. Overall the turnout was about 60 per cent, in an election which was boycotted by fundamental Islamist groups. The election has also been marred by allegations of fraud made against Mr Arafat’s Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, but international observers, including former US President Jimmy Carter, have called the elections essentially fair despite the
complaints. The election was also marred by allegations that Israeli security forces made voting difficult in some places, especially in East Jerusalem.
None the less, it is quite apparent that Mr Arafat has the democratic support of the Palestinian people and has a clear mandate to continue negotiating on their behalf with Israel to cement and develop the self-rule and peace process. There is now a Palestinian state of sorts. It has representation, of sorts, in the United Nations. But there is still a fair way to go before anyone could confidently predict lasting peace in the Middle East.
The sticking points will be the Golan Heights, south Lebanon, East Jerusalem, Jewish settlers in the Occupied Territories, water and infrastructure in the new Palestinian state and the return of Palestinians exiled to other Arab states. None of these is easy to resolve.
Israel has major security worries with returning to Syria the Golan Heights, which it occupied in the 1967 war. But if it does not, Syria will continue to support extremists in southern Lebanon in their attacks on Israel.
On East Jerusalem, many Israelis demand that Jerusalem be the undivided capital of Israel, contrary to a Palestinian aspiration that it be their capital. (At the election, Palestinians living in East Jerusalem were required to lodge postal votes.)
Jewish settlers continue to occupy land and water in the Occupied Territories. They demand support from the Israeli Government, restricting its capacity to fulfil Palestinian demands to cut the settlements. Lastly, the new Palestinian state has no control over immigration into Palestine.
Even so, the world will hope that the results of the weekend’s election will provide the wherewithal to enable peaceful solutions to these impasses. The dramatic about faces by both sides in the past eight years from seemingly intractable positions to reach this stage show it is possible.