Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 10 January 2004 — An adviser to Israel’s prime minister yesterday dismissed statements by Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei that raised the possibility of a single Arab-Jewish state in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The Israeli official called the remarks by Qorei, also known as Abu Ala, an “empty threat.” “Mr. Abu Ala has threatened to call for a binational state, but he may just as well call for a Palestinian state on the moon,” Sharon adviser Zalman Shoval said. “This is an empty threat that Israel is obviously not going to think seriously about.”

The past decade of Israel-Palestinian peace efforts has always been based on a two-state solution. The latest peace plan — the US-backed road map — leads to a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza by 2005. Abandoning that concept could throw Mideast politics into turmoil.

In an interview on Thursday, Qorei said Palestinians could give up their goal of an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza and instead push for a single binational state with Israel.

Such a scenario is likely, he said, if Israel’s Ariel Sharon makes good on threats to unilaterally impose a new boundary with the Palestinian territories in the absence of a peace deal.

On Monday, Sharon reiterated the warning at a convention of his ruling Likud party, saying that if Israeli-Palestinian peace talks do not show progress in the coming months he will order “unilateral disengagement.”

That would mean imposing a temporary boundary in the West Bank that would leave the Palestinians with much less land than they seek. Under the program, Sharon said, Israel would also remove some Jewish settlements from West Bank areas to be evacuated.

Some Israeli analysts said Qorei’s remarks reflected a growing feeling among Palestinian leaders that — with a higher birthrate — demographics might offer them a solution to the continuing diplomatic impasse with Israel.