Excerpt from "Bring Me Comfort"

“It’s not that I agree with the martyrs,” Mahmoud said. “But I do believe that it is an inevitable result of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza wishing to fight the oppression.”

Inevitable? Surely there were other ways? I felt like saying, but I chose not to speak and instead listened as the conversation continued.

“Their civil rights haven’t even been recognized for who knows how long, let alone their national rights,” Gamal added.

“I do understand those points,” Ze’ev said, his lack of emotion in sharp contrast to the disorder in my mind. I became very tongue-tied when a subject was close to my heart, like this one, was under discussion. “But the Palestinian people are fighting not for a two-state solution but in order to take over all the territories.”

“We have a legal right to all the territories,” Mahmoud said.

“While you believe that and do not take into consideration that to the Jewish people this is our homeland, and we have no other land in the world, this conflict is never going to end,” Ze’ev said with an air of finality.

“And that’s the way it often feels,” Gamal said somberly. “As if this were going to go on forever.”

“Our trust has been sourly tested,” Mahmoud went on, “by the Israelis continuing to build settlements in our territories. It has definitely weakened our expectations on the occupation ever ending. So what incentive does that give us to recognize Israel’s right to exist?”

“The settlements are a stumbling block, there is no doubt,” Ze’ev agreed. “But it is hard for me to hear you talk about having your trust challenged when almost daily your people are blowing up mine.”

“What the current fighting tells me,” Gamal said, “is that the Palestinian people will not rest until our rights are returned to them. It is not just a matter of statehood. But having a state would be the culmination of having our rights restored.”

“And all these negotiations that have been going on for so long now are not getting anywhere because rights cannot be negotiated,” Mahmoud stated. “We do not want your charity.”

It was an interesting way of looking at it that had not occurred to me before. I was enjoying listening to them talk, although I felt uncomfortable in part because I was a romantic and hated to think of Israel having any fault, although my rational mind knew that it did.

“Listen, Mahmoud, I hear you, I really do,” Ze’ev sighed, “but the bottom line for us is that Israel must remain a Jewish state, otherwise it really has no raison d’etre. The Palestinians must come to terms with the fact that we will need two states, one for them and one for the Jewish people. And if the Palestinians want a Palestinian Arab national identity, which they have a perfect right to, they should live in the Palestinian state.”

The three of them mulled this over.

“It is unrealistic to expect the Jewish people to just disappear,” Ze’ev went on. “The Palestinians would take a huge step towards reconciliation if they could learn to accept the Jews as a people with a legitimate right to autonomy in their historic homeland.”

Mahmoud managed a short laugh.

“And if the Jews could do the same for us maybe we could start to work things out,” he said and drained his coffee cup.