Some ten years ago, maybe more, an Israeli father and son table-tennis playing duo arrived at London Progress Table Tennis Club and proceeded to make a bit of a splash. They were both full of that notorious Israeli cockiness, bordering on outright arrogance, and both a little mad. But they were generally well liked and anyway, who would really notice two more, mad, cocky, ping pong players at the London Progress lunatic asylum. They could both handle themselves competently on the table: the father, I believed, was a former Israeli international and the son looked to be heading in the same direction.

Just as suddenly as they arrived they were off back to the homeland, probably because it was time for the son to carry out his compulsorily Israeli military service. During their years at the club I had many heated exchanges with the father over Israeli foreign policy and over the general nature of Zionism. Heated as those exchanges were, we always seemed to end on friendly terms, perhaps both recognising the seeming intractability of the questions under discussion. Neither father nor son could be described as religious fanatics both quite secular in their outlook, and both, in theory, could see the pressing need for a peaceful resolution of the ‘Palestinian question’. The stumbling block between us was always their denial of the ethnic cleansing that took place in the original establishment of the Jewish state. They simple would not accept the indisputable facts that millions of Palestinians were forcibly removed from their villages and towns to make way for what is now the Jewish state of Israel.

I think it was a year after they had returned to Israel that I received a phone-call from the father wishing me seasons greeting and all the best for the New Year. He also offered an invitation for the club to send over a team for a match against the Israeli national side. Always up for a new adventure and seeing certain groundbreaking possibilities I immediately accepted but on the proviso that their team would be a mixed Israeli-Palestinian team. This was accepted in principle and he would get back to me with some more details. Then came the long silence. Clearly either he had had second thoughts or some person or peoples in high places had leaned on him. Some ten years later I’m still waiting for the follow-up call.

It’s probably just as well that the proposed trip never saw the light of day because it would have been an open invitation to religious fanatics on both sides to drown the whole affair in blood. A tiny slice of sporting history might have been written – a new chapter in ping pong diplomacy, but the costs may well have been too high, especially for the London Progress team who may have had little or no interest in dabbling in the politics of the Middle East. Anyway, our glittering array of international ping pong stars probably all had their own tribal baggage to preoccupy themselves with without taking on the tribalism of Palestine.

All this reminiscing of days gone by has been sparked by the current Palestinian demand for full UN recognition of statehood. Palestinian President Abbas made an impassioned plea at the UN meeting in New York this week followed by a cringing attempt by Netanyahu to come across as a man of peace and good intentions. But it just won’t wash. How can the Palestinians be expected to negotiate peace with the Israelis when that nation insists on expanding its settlements on Palestinian land? You simply cannot negotiate with a playground bully. As far as I can discern, Palestinian militancy is a direct response to Israeli colonial intransigence in the same way that African militancy was a response to European colonialism and Black Panther militancy was a response to American white supremacy racism. Only when the US and Europe stop backing Israel as their imperial proxy in the region will the impasse be broken. Obama’s threat to use the US veto against the Palestinians rightful claim for statehood suggests that the impasse is not going to be broken anytime soon. The obscurantist claim by Zionism, which is a clearly racist claim, to a god given, historical right to the whole of Palestine, simple entrenches the impasse even further.

A single unified secular Palestine, shared democratically by all the peoples of the region as part of a federation of nations of the Middle East is the rational way forward but there is nothing rational about US and European imperialism other than the pursuit of oil and the maximisation of profit no matter what the social consequences. So I guess it’s business as usual until the whole rotten edifice comes crushing down on us all.