Any unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood — whether by the Israeli government through a pull out or by the residents of the West Bank themselves — could solve the peace process impasse and provide a struggling group of people with the opportunity to thrive, but that sovereignty would also reflects a responsibility to ensure security just like any other state, or suffer the consequences accordingly.
The Palestinians have embarked on a years-long effort to develop economic, social and security institutions to enable a future unilateral declaration of statehood, with Palestinian Authority officials calling on the United States this week to support their independence even without backing by Israel. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has suggested that Israel will unilaterally pull out of the West Bank, effectively creating a Palestinian state.
The traditional peace process has clearly not worked, with Israelis and Palestinians having forgone direct negotiations for months. Those types of talks have been repeatedly scuttled, with peace deal after peace deal reaching the same fate as its predecessors in the historical trash bin of missed opportunities.
A new paradigm to establishing a lasting peace for Israelis and sovereignty for Palestinians is essential. That new framework could very well hinge on this concept of a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood, and whether it emerges as a Palestinian or Israeli initiative is largely irrelevant. The outcomes and responsibilities of both parties will remain the same regardless of who decides to declare the formal establishment of a Palestinian state.
The Israeli unilateral declaration of statehood was piloted with the removal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. In that case, Palestinians do not have a fully operational sovereign state because they, among other things, lack control of their border. Nevertheless, the Palestinians in Gaza were provided with an opportunity to dismiss terror and provide Israel with the peace of mind that opening of the borders would not result in rocket attacks on innocent civilians. Instead of choosing to embrace peace, Gaza is a hotbed of terrorism that has resulted in thousands of injuries from the incessant rocket fire on southern Israel.
However, Israel responded in kind. Operation Cast Lead in late 2008 – early 2009 destroyed significant portions of Hamas’ infrastructure and a forthcoming Israeli attack would likely dismantle Hamas.
That same type of Israeli response should be expected in the event the West Bank falls into the same pattern as Gaza, where terrorism and attacks on civilians are prioritized in lieu of true state building for the betterment of society.
In the event the Palestinians declare a state in the West Bank, Israel should not intervene on Palestinians’ borders, allowing commerce to flow freely across the Allenby Bridge with Jordan to boost both countries’ economies.
A freer border, though, lends itself to smuggling, with terrorists able to use ports of entry to bring rockets, guns and other weapons to the doorstep of Israeli cities. In fact, Palestinian terrorists already skirt official borders to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip through tunnels that are regularly bombed by Israel. The supply of rockets is also not likely to abate any time soon, as Iran continues to provide these weapons and will likely increase its relations with terrorists if Israel no longer has control of the border.
Once terrorists begin obtaining these weapons and using them against Israeli civilians, as has been the case with Gaza, the Palestinian authority must take the necessary measures to ensure the security of its neighbors. As a new sovereign state with control over its borders, this new unilaterally declared state has the same responsibilities of other states, such as fighting extremists instead of being a safe haven for terrorism and radical Islam. Ensuring security should be the top priority of this future Palestinian state, and all necessary resources should be allocated to stifling terror activity.
In the event this newly established Palestinian state cannot fulfill the responsibilities of other law-abiding countries, Israel has a duty to intervene to protect its citizens from a rogue country that refuses to dedicate itself to security. That intervention should include, among other things, air strikes that target terror infrastructure and, when necessary, ground incursions to assassinate or arrest terrorists.
While these types of military activity would be encroaching on the territory of a sovereign state, that future Palestinian state would have shown itself incapable of fulfilling the same responsibilities to which other countries must abide.
Global historical precedent not only allows sovereign states to defend their citizens from foreign aggression, as is the case with terrorism, but countries are widely regarded as having a duty to embark on military activity when independent countries are shirking their responsibility to thwart terrorism. Such was the case, for example, in Afghanistan, where United States and European troops invaded to oust the Taliban, which was harboring the infamous terror group al-Qaeda.
Such an action by Israel against a negligent Palestinian state would hold Palestinians and their government accountable for their choices while also adhering to global precedent on how a responsible government must act.
The Palestinians deserve to have a state, even if it is declared unilaterally. However their choices and priorities will determine whether they are pariah state that embraces terror or part of the Western world through opposition to radical Islam. In the event they choose the former, Israeli military action infringing on the sovereignty of that state reflects the responsibilities to its citizens that other countries have and would also fulfill.
Expecting any other response from Israel would demonstrate bias that the Jewish state must respond differently to terror than other countries. Expecting the Palestinians not to quash terror would place the double standard that they do not have to fulfill the same responsibilities as other countries.
In the event of a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, the expectations placed on the rest of the world’s countries should also be placed on both Israel and its new neighbor, whether that’s suppressing terrorism or protecting innocent civilians.
