This Palestinian statehood idea is pretty fair

Under international law, the Palestinian case is strong but not airtight. The most oft-cited authority, the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, requires a state to have a permanent population, a defined territory, government, and the “capacity to enter into relations with the other states.” Palestine—the West Bank and Gaza, as mapped by the 1967 prewar borders with Israel—possesses the first three. Yet the unresolved divide between Hamas, which rules Gaza and seeks Israel’s overthrow, and the Palestinian Authority, which holds the West Bank and accepts Israel in principle, casts doubt on a combined Palestine’s ability to act coherently.

Arguments about statehood are, in any event, just a proxy for arguments about power and justice. In that respect, the case for Palestine is compelling. Since the 1993 Oslo Accords, Palestinian leaders have been told repeatedly that if they organized themselves peacefully and negotiated in good faith with Israel they would win statehood. Their performance has often disappointed: Yasir Arafat eschewed a deal with Israel in 2000; Hamas has persistently launched indiscriminate attacks and broadcast anti-Semitism. Yet, under the Palestinian Authority’s sway, the West Bank now resembles a legitimate state more closely than at any time since 1967. Two years ago, under Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the Authority embarked on a building-and-reform program to improve governance. Its security forces still mete out abuses, but Palestinian leaders have delivered on many of their pledges. In April, a World Bank committee affirmed that the Authority is “well-positioned for the establishment of a state at any point in the near future.”…

A state of Palestine blessed rhetorically by the U.N. will no more usher in a Middle East peace than U.N. membership has lifted up Nauru. Yet the proposal is fair, and it speaks to the legal-minded, peaceful aspects of the Arab Spring. Ehud Barak reportedly told the Israeli leaders that, when this year’s reckonings become clearer, “we’ll have to ask ourselves what we could have done differently.” Here lies an opportunity.