Ask Mustafa Khalil

By Shimon Shamir

Ha'aretz (Israel)
August 17, 2009

In Israeli political discourse, the demand that the Arabs, and especially the Palestinians, recognize Israel as a Jewish state or as the state of the Jewish people has been heard more and more recently. The demand is being presented as an ultimatum, ruling out peace agreements with Arabs who reject it. It is a problematic demand.

Defining Israel as Jewish is an ideological decision and a matter for the country's citizens alone to make. In international relations, recognition of states is based on criteria such as sovereignty, independence and control of territory. A state's ideological definition of itself is not a matter for consideration by other countries as long as it doesn't represent an aggressive threat.

It is not our concern, for example, if Egypt defines itself as Islamic, Arab, African or pharaonic. We recognize Egypt as a political entity, but its ideological character is determined only by Egypt's political community. Countries are recognized by other countries without regard to whether they are communist or capitalist, or whether they are national or multinational in character.

Israel made peace with Egypt and Jordan without demanding recognition of the state's Jewish character. There was no opportunity nor was it reasonable to extract such a demand from them. I recall that after the peace treaty with Egypt was signed, Egyptian minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali and prime minister Mustafa Khalil came to Tel Aviv University in 1980 to speak with the faculty about relations in the wake of the signing. Khalil said emotionally: "We want relations of friendship and peace with Israel, but I must say in all candor that when we speak about the Jews, we never conceive [of them] as a national entity. Of course, for you in Israel and in the Zionist movement, there is a different outlook, but that is our viewpoint in Egypt, and I must present it to you honestly." Khalil was a devoted supporter of peace with Israel.

The demand for recognition of the state's Jewishness serves two purposes. On the conceptual level, it provides a lifeline for those who have always argued that the Arabs are not willing to make peace, even though they now face an Arab leadership that expresses consent in principle for peace with Israel. The Arab peace initiative, which proposes normal relations and an end of the conflict and makes Palestinian refugees' right of return subject to Israel's consent, is especially disturbing to people of this school of thought. All of this is in return for steps by Israel, most of them no different from those required, for example, by the Americans. Therefore, imposing an additional "test" supports Arab rejectionist reasoning.

On the functional level, the demand eases pressure to renew negotiations, particularly after the Israeli government was dragged into recognizing the principle of two states subject to a condition the Palestinians clearly cannot accept. Acceptance of the condition would require the Palestinians to convert their national narrative to a Zionist narrative, which much of the world community also does not accept - as opposed to recognizing Israel as an existing state. Our existence does not depend on what they say.

The state's definition has ramifications on subjects such as the Law of Return for Jews and the right of return for Palestinians and relations between the majority and the Arab minority, as well as the state's language and culture. These, however, are practical problems, some of which should be solved through political negotiations or decision making within the Israeli political process.

The Palestinians fell into the trap that those who demanded recognition of a Jewish state had set for them. Instead of responding that it is not their concern how the Israelis define their state (as Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad recently suggested), they coalesced around a position explicitly rejecting the existence of a Jewish state, which is not their right. Their adamant response has created an obstacle to peace that is the counterpart to the demand for recognizing the state as Jewish.