I remember well having lunch with Yasser Arafat in the Muqata in Ramallah, shortly before he fell ill with a mysterious and ultimately fatal disease. Just to get into the half-destroyed presidential headquarters I had to weave my way through an obstacle course of rubble. I was there with two Israelis, and because one wore a skullcap Arafat made sure there was kosher food on the table. With the Second Intifada raging for over two and a half years, and most Israelis convinced that if he could Arafat wanted nothing more than to push the Jews into the sea, one of his Israeli guests asked Arafat if he believed Jews had any place in the region. “Of course!” he said, jumping up from his chair. “What are you talking about! Joseph left Nablus and went to Egypt to become prime minister, and he did quite a good job if you recall. Moses later decided to come back. Ahlan wa sahlan! We are all a part of the Holy Land.”

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about Arafat’s complex relationship to Israelis and the Jewish people — because I agree with him so wholeheartedly.

Over the past several months the American-led peace negotiations between our two sides have been bogged down by the Israeli government’s demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. The entire discussion strikes me as a pointless diversion from far more important issues facing our negotiation teams. There might be something more calculated at work — a ploy to prevent the two sides from coming to any agreement. The first time the Arab world offered Israel a full peace was with the Fahd Plan in 1981. I nearly leapt out of my skin with joy when Crown Prince Fahd told me about his plan over the phone. His kingdom, and much of the Arab world, extended an offer of peace if Israel would withdraw to the 1967 borders and solve the refugee issue. Prime Minister Begin dismissed the plan as a devious plot aimed at the “annihilation” of Israel.

Read the article in full at Times of Israel.