Efforts to impose a Palestinian state (the "two-state" proposal) are doomed to fail for one simple reason: Palestinians Arabs do not want such a state; they don't constitute a nation, or a people. Their nationalism is not based on a unique linguistic, historical, cultural, or religious identity; its primary goal is to wipe out the State of Israel and its Jewish inhabitants.

Any form of "Palestinian" statehood, therefore, that accepts Israel's right to exist, is, by their definition, impossible. That is clearly evident in the PLO Covenant and Hamas Charter.

American Promise Obama to Abbas: Working towards Palestinian state Roi Kais Palestinian news agency WAFA says US president telephoned Palestinian leader, briefed him on meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu. According to Abbas' spokesman, Obama vowed to exert every effort to help establish independent state Obama to Abbas: Working towards Palestinian state

‘Palestinianism’ is not a national identity, but a political construct developed as part of a terrorist agenda when the PLO was formed in 1964. It was a way of distinguishing between Arabs and Jews, and between Arabs who lived in Israel before 1948 and other Arabs.

"Palestinian Arabs," or "Arab Palestinians" is not a foreign or colonial description; it is what they used to describe themselves in their official documents. Their identity was based on a myth; their sole purpose was "the liberation of Palestine," including what is now Jordan.

Arabs who lived in Palestine did not consider themselves separate from the greater Arab nation, as reflected in PLO documents. They rallied to the pro-Nazi Mufti, Haj Amin Hussein, not because he expressed their national identity, but because of Jew-hatred. Nor do they define their struggle as achieving statehood alongside Israel. Their goal is to replace Israel.

"Two-state" proposals, therefore, with Palestinian statehood as a territorial goal, in fact contradict Palestinianism. Such plans mean the end of Palestinianism, and of their struggle to eradicate Israel.

Statehood means ending armed struggle

This explains why no Arab "Palestinian" leader will agree to surrender to Western and Zionist interests, and why making compromises is anathema. Statehood means a denial of the Nakba (catastrophe), the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, admitting that everything for which they fought and sacrificed was in vain.

Statehood means abandoning five million Arabs who live in 58 UNRWA-sponsored "refugee camps" in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, and hundreds of thousands living throughout the world; they will no longer be considered "refugees." That means a loss of over half-billion dollars per year that UNRWA receives.

Statehood means giving up "the armed struggle," the crux of their identity; it means that the concept of Palestinianism created by the PLO, accepted by the UN and the media, and even Israeli politicians was a hoax, a fake identity, with a false purpose. It means that their suffering was for naught.

Statehood means taking responsibility and ending incitement and violence. It means confronting the myth of "Palestinian archeology," and "Palestinian society and culture," and building authentic nationalism, institutions and structures with transparency.

It also means, of course, ending the conflict, an end to terrorism as official policy, an end to the civil war between Islamists and secularists, between tribes and clans, an end to corruption and lawlessness, the establishment of a truly democratic government.

No artificial construct imposed from outside can replace the establishment of a genuine process of nation-building from inside. Ironically, "Palestinianism" is the greatest obstacle to a Palestinian state alongside Israel and regional stability.

The author is a writer and journalist living in Jerusalem