US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's upcoming visit to Israel and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman's comments on Israeli sovereignty signal the return of this diplomatic issue to the forefront of the public and media agenda. Ironically, these developments are taking place in a week the Palestinians mark their annual "Nakba Day" on May 15. Although the end of the British Mandate on May 15, 1948, paved the path for Israel's establishment, it also led to the War of Independence, which the Palestinians observe as their national "catastrophe."
Indeed, the Palestinians' decision to reject the UN Partition Plan on November 29, 1947, and launch their armed struggle against the Jewish community has proven to be a fateful mistake, the first of many the Palestinians made, but they choose to mark the day annually and use it to enflame the street against Israel.
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This year, Nakba Day falls under the shadow of the Trump administration's "deal of the century" and Israel's intention to apply sovereignty in parts of Judea and Samaria. It should come as no surprise that voices in the Palestinian camp are talking about another Nakba, which could be the final nail in the coffin of the idea of a Palestinian state.
Similar to the Nakba of 1948, however, the Palestinians have brought this current catastrophe on themselves through a series of decisions they've made throughout the years, chief among them the employment of violence and terror, along with dependence on others, whether the United Nations or European Union, instead of taking responsibility for their own fate. Ultimately, the Palestinians would do well to leave the question of what transpired in 1948 to the historians, and in any case, their attempts to force the Palestinian narrative on Israel was always destined for failure and only prevents the sides from moving toward conciliation.
What's particularly interesting this year is the almost complete inattention, and even apathy to the point of boredom, that Nakba Day is arousing across the Arab world, but also among many Palestinians in Judea and Samaria and Gaza and among Arab Israeli citizens. All these have apparently decided to move forward instead of remaining stuck in the past, let alone mortgage their futures to people who have proved time and again that all they're capable of is delivering calamity upon calamity to the Palestinian people.
The fact that Israel doesn't have a Palestinian peace partner at present puts the ball back in its court and obligates it to make tough decisions alone. It is amid this backdrop, and not because of the Palestinians, that it's appropriate to remember the Israeli story in the War of Independence, and mainly two quotes by David Ben-Gurion, the architect of that victory. One statement, about a "tragedy for generations to come," was said in reference to the government's refusal to accept his recommendation to order the IDF to launch a military operation to seize control of Judea and Samaria. The second comment was that although the war was a tremendous achievement, we didn't get everything we fought for, and this task should be left for future generations.
Israel's leaders should remember these comments by Ben-Gurion in this fateful hour, as they approach decisions that cannot be "tragedies for generations to come" or leave future generations to finish a job they might be incapable of completing.
