Palestinians should declare statehood now and Israelis and the United States should support the move. Rather than creating tensions undermining peace, a unilateral declaration of statehood by the Palestinians would in fact create a dynamic in which peace would become more possible.

One the insurmountable challenges that has perplexed the peace movement and negotiations over the years is the disparity in political reality between Israel and “Palestine,” and that has fed the skepticism of the Palestinian population and the fears of Israelis.

Trying to get two peoples, one that has statehood and sovereignty to negotiate  with another that lacks statehood and international support such as a seat on the United Nations General Assembly as an equal member, is difficult.

Why should Israel make any concessions to Palestinians as long as they do not have international statehood recognition and the legal status that goes along with statehood? The absence of Palestinian statehood has created a vacuum in which Israel dominates and dictates and imposes unilateral decisions from security measures on Palestinians to the creation and expansion of settlements in areas that would otherwise be a Palestine State.

What the peace process desperately needs are two peace partners who are equal in the eyes of international law as nations. As two separate recognized sovereign states, Palestine and Israel would find it far easier to negotiate final status issues on a wide range of issues from Jerusalem, settlements, compensation and boundaries.

In fact, the creation of a Palestinian State would galvanize Palestinian nationalism and reinforce confidence in the ability of the peace process to achieve a fair and just peace, even if those negotiations were to continue through the next decade as they may well do.

Peace is negotiated between nations all the time. Issues of final borders, the sharing of cities and land annexation and land ownership are oftentimes resolved by two negotiating partners that come into the process as international equals.

That isn't the case today.

Additionally, creating a Palestinian State turns the failed past peace process on its head, reversing the failed system and possibly re-engineering it into a model that can be successful. Show Palestinians that statehood is possible and Palestinians will have a stronger faith in the peace process itself. With the issue of statehood set aside and finalized, and in a new context of peace, the two states can negotiate far more successfully as recognized nations than they could if one “partner” remains in nationalistic limbo and uncertainty. 

The uncertainty of the Palestinians and Israelis about peace has plagued past peace negotiations, causing them to fail. The publics have been uncertain, pushed towards that skepticism by the difficulty of resolving individual issues like the fate of Jerusalem, the status of Palestinian refugees and land exchange. 

To make peace happen, we need to go directly to the “end game” and declare palestinian Statehood now rather than to wait until all the various issues of contention are resolved.

If we wait for total resolution of all the issues, there will never be peace.

But if we can achieve two states now, it would undermine the rejectionists on both sides, redefine the foundation for negotiations and create partners for peace that are equal in the eyes of international law with nationhood and sovereignty, and open the door to the resolution of the toughest issues.

I believe that in an environment of peace, even the bitterest enemies can come to agreement on the most contentious of issues. Peace is the missing factor that has prevented a final peace. We need to establish the framework of a genuine peace rather than hoping that by some miracle we can get past the issue of Jerusalem, the issue of the Palestinian refugees, the settlements and more before we can finally resolve the conflict.

Establishing a Palestinian State is the obvious answer to the question, can we achieve a final peace? We can if we do it right and change the methodology and the process that has inherently stood in the way of successful negotiations.

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