Mick Hartley

Einat Wilf, interviewed by Ksenia Svetlova:

On the Abraham Accords:

Anything that leads the Arab world to embrace us, even the name “Abraham”, I think was especially significant. I know the UAE is a small country, but it’s an influential country that chose a direction for the Arab world and the Muslim world where they have a different conception of Islam, a different conception of Arab identity. I sometimes call the Abraham Accords collateral benefit, saying we’re not the central story here. The central story is Arab leaders who are rethinking Islam, who are rethinking what it means to be Arab, who are basically saying that anti-Zionism doesn’t have to be the core of Arab. That Islam is compatible with the acceptance of the Jewish people in their land. That’s what matters.

I think what matters is the bigger trajectory of Islam, of the Arab world and then part of it will be the acceptance of the Jewish people here, a very important step. It’s not a coincidence that the Palestinians who really, for a century, have been fed on this idea that their entire purpose and goal in life is to destroy the Jewish state. For them, the Abraham Accords were experienced as a sense of betrayal. I understand that. It is a betrayal in the sense that they were used to being supported in trying to the Jewish state. But I hope that ultimately the Palestinians will go in the direction of the Abraham Accords rather than the Abraham Accords going in the direction of the Palestinians.

On UNRWA:

UNRWA is essentially an organization, still temporary, that was hijacked by the Palestinians, beginning in the ’60s, to become a Palestinian organization. It’s a Palestinian organization, and we should be very clear on it. It’s run by Palestinians. It serves Palestinians. It’s essentially the education system and the welfare system of the Palestinian people waiting to take over the State of Israel. That’s what UNRWA is.

UNRWA only exists in order to basically allow the Palestinians to say the war of 1948 is not over. Even into the fifth generation, we are still refugees from that war. One day we will return and liberate Palestine from the river to the sea when Israel is gone.UNRWA was basically the anecdote to the loss in 1948. In 1948, they wanted to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state. They failed and UNRWA was established as a way of saying we’re not done. We’re going to wait and wait generation after generation….

But what UNRWA is, and that’s the most valuable thing that UNRWA gives, it’s not the money, it’s not the education, it’s not the welfare. It’s the international legitimacy under the letters “U.N.”, funded by western states. That’s the value. Because from the Palestinian perspective, they look at UNRWA and they say the world is with us, the letters, “U.N.” The west is with us because UNRWA is funded by Europe and America. So for them, it means that America and Europe are actually behind the idea that Israel is temporary. That’s where the damage is.

Once you understand that this is what UNRWA is, then there is no need to replace UNRWA. There’s actually only need to get rid of it. Because once the Palestinians begin to understand that they are not refugees from a war that ended 75 years ago, just like Germans and Poles, and Hindus and Muslims, and Ukrainians and Bulgarians, and Italians are not refugees from the 1940s. They are not. All these other refugees got a very clear message. The war is over. Wherever you are is wherever you stay and you move on. Even if you lost your home, it’s sad, it’s tragic, but you move forward.

The Palestinians are stuck in this backward looking limbo and that’s why the war continues. They are not refugees. They do not possess a right of return. No one has a right of return to another sovereign country and they are not special. Once they begin to internalize it they become a forward looking people, a people who are focused on building for themselves rather than destroying for others….

We saw this war how UNRWA was terrible in the context of Hamas. Hamas was able to say, we’re not responsible for Palestinian civilians. And that’s not just Hamas. This is an old Palestinian view that they are not responsible for anything. They will wage wars. They will lose them. They’re never responsible. In their vision, the world is responsible.

Hamas can basically say we’re using all the money, all the cement to build tunnels, to build an army so that we can liberate Palestine from the river to the sea on behalf of the Palestinian people. And the things that Hamas would have had to take care of like education and welfare, and health care, are basically outsourced to UNRWA.