They're going to have to do it some time

When I visited Syria in 2008 I remember walking past a school supply shop in central Damascus. In the window was a large map of the western middle east, showing Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. Where the state of Israel should have been, there was a large blank, implying that area may have belonged to Jordan or Syria. It wasn't clear. So although such landmarks as the city of Jerusalem (and other towns and cities), the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee were included, the modern borders of Israel, and certainly the name Israel was completely absent on the map. Remember, this was a map intended for use in schools.


I imagine the maps Hamas use are similarly blind when it comes to any mention of the hated Jewish state. Let us examine why. The state of Israel was created by a joint effort of the British and French, with the active participation of many other countries around the world, including the Soviet Union and the U.S. Penetratingly, no Arab states were consulted. Following the end of WW2 and the exposure of the Nazi death camps, world Jewry were presented with the most powerful argument imaginable to have their own country following nearly 2000 years of the diaspora. In 1948 they began flooding into what was then known as Palestine, pushing aside the Arabs who were living there, dispossessing them of their homes and farms. As you enter the refugee camps near Bethlehem today, above the gates are huge keys, symbolising the keys the displaced Arabs kept with them when they fled. One day, they hope, they will be able to return to the homes they were forced to leave all those years ago.


This is why Hamas and many Israeli Arabs refuse to recognise what they see as the illegal state of Israel. To them it has no right to exist, and they would be happiest if all the Jews buggered off and settled, say, in Alaska (one of the less helpful contributions to the debate offered by Iran's prime minister Armadinajad). They know, I guess, that that is not going to happen, but that's their position, and I for one can't say I blame them. Unfortunately this approach has little to do with what  Germany's chancellor Bismark called realpolitik.


Much of the world is appalled by the disproportionate nature of Israel's latest adventure in Gaza, where a handful of Israeli deaths has to be balanced against over one thousand Palestinian deaths. But the fact that Hamas refuses to acknowledge the state of Israel continues to keep them isolated from world opinion that would be far more sympathetic were they to do so. One of these days they are going to have to deal with real situations, however unpalatable they are. Only then can they win the moral argument against Israel and move on to the only viable solution: not a two state solution- that will never work, but a one state solution: a multicultural Israel with all its citizens enjoying equal human rights.  It's a big ask for a people who have been bullied and exploited for over sixty years, but it's the only way forward