This piece was featured in the Columbia Spectator on Tuesday, September 27, 2011.  It was written by Jonathan Huberman, LionPAC Director of Public Relations.

Despite the seeming intransigence of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, two ingredients, compassion and cooperation, have the potential to bring peace. At the United Nations this past week though, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas showed little interest in compassion or cooperation. In the Middle East and here at Columbia, these two values have been greatly lacking.

Peace requires compassion for your counterpart and a willingness to cooperate. In this regard, Palestinians and Israelis need to recognize the legitimacy of each other’s national narratives. After accepting that each group deserves its own country, Palestinians and Israelis need to work together to create a framework for the two societies to live together side by side.

Abbas’s gambit at the U.N. has delayed the prospects of peace by sidestepping this necessary cooperation, adding an unsurprising yet disappointing chapter to his history of circumventing negotiations. In 2010, Israel halted all construction in the West Bank for 10 months, yet still Abbas refused to come to the table. Since 2000, two Israeli prime ministers have offered to relinquish over 90 percent of the West Bank in exchange for peace. These actions show Israel’s enthusiasm for coexistence, and it is time for Palestinian leaders to show a similar eagerness. Instead of making excuses and demanding preconditions for negotiations, Abbas should show the perseverance and persistence that are necessary for talks to succeed.

Perhaps Abbas’s disdain for direct negotiations stems from his repeated refusal to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish nation. Abbas recently said that Palestinians have been “under occupation for 63 years,” suggesting that the entire state of Israel is an illegal settlement on Palestinian land. Does Abbas want a two-state solution or the elimination of the Jewish people’s homeland? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown compassion for the Palestinian cause by recognizing their claim to a country, so why does President Abbas deny Jews the same right?

A similar lack of compassion and cooperation is apparent here on campus. An academic community, which is based upon peer learning, is an ideal place for Palestinians and Israelis to learn from one another. Yet Palestinian groups have notoriously refused to work with the pro-Israel community. How can Palestinians and Israelis on campus come to empathize for one another when Palestinian groups refuse to cooperate with the pro-Israel community? If we do not share our stories with each other, then how can we develop shared sympathy? With a deficit of compassion, it is impossible for Palestinians and Israelis to put aside decades of fighting in exchange for enduring peace.

Columbia deserves better, and Palestinians deserve better. Student groups on campus cannot learn and grow if they refuse to dialogue, and Palestinians and Israelis cannot forge a lasting peace without direct negotiations. It is time for Palestinian leadership abroad and here at Columbia to recognize that coexistence is not a cliché or a distant fantasy but an imminent possibility that we must accomplish together.