You Can't Have Peace With People Who Will Only Be Satisfied If You Are Annihilated
I'm always sort of amazed when grown adults talk about a "two-state solution" for the Israel/Palestinian problem, as if that is a viable alternative. (They did clean up the Hamas charter a little, but, not to worry, they're still very committed to murdering the Jews.)
Kevin Williamson gets it right at NRO:
The conflict in Israel might be settled 1 million different ways, but Palestinian powers reject 999,999 of those possibilities in favor of the one outcome that the Israelis cannot accept: the elimination of the Jewish state as such. To the extent that the Palestinian powers have the consent of the people they purport to rule, this is what is being consented to: war and more war, misery and more misery, with the Palestinians themselves suffering some of the worst of it. But the Israelis cannot make peace with people who will not make peace with them. They can only do what they have tried to do: protect themselves and look for harm-reduction opportunities.There is plenty of valid criticism of the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu and others, of the Israeli Right, and even of Israeli society at large. No politician, no administration, and no government is without its own interests distinct from those of the people in whose service they are employed. If there were an Olympics of finger-pointing, the world's commentators on Middle Eastern affairs would have all the gold medals. But whatever you make of all that, the facts have to be taken into consideration: The Israeli state exists, and the Palestinian state, thank goodness, does not, being as it is barely more than a dangerous hypothesis. A state is a weapon as fearsome as a nuclear missile, and one can guess what the Palestinians would try to do with one, if they had one that worked.
It may be the case that Chemi Shalev is correct when he writes in Haaretz that Netanyahu et al. never gave Oslo a chance:
After demolishing the Oslo agreements, [Netanyahu] is now working to deplete the mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO and its role as the representative of the Palestinian people as a whole. He ignores Mahmoud Abbas, refusing to make even a minimal effort to earn his trust. He is willing to contemplate de facto recognition of Hamas rule in Gaza, a move that would undermine the Palestinian Authority's claim, as heir and arm of the PLO, to represent the Palestinian as a whole; His aides have even been heard to whisper in Trump officials' ears about the desirability of making the separation permanent by linking the future of Gaza to Egypt and the West Bank's, in one form or another, to Jordan. With the active assistance of the Trump administration, Netanyahu is also endeavoring to eradicate the very concept of a Palestinian diaspora and its refugees, a move that would subvert the very raison d'etre for the PLO's existence in the first place.
This is meant to be an indictment. What it sounds like to me is a pretty good program, because the fundamental " raison d'etre for the PLO's existence" is making war on Israel, whatever strategic pauses or rhetorical innovations it comes up with. And there will not be peace until the Palestinians stop making war. Whatever your politics, whatever your analysis of the situation, however you apportion blame -- that is the fact.
Israel has been under assault from the moment of its foundation. The 25th anniversary of the Oslo agreement is just one more milestone, marking a quarter century in which Israel has continued to grow and thrive in spite of the rockets falling on it, a quarter century in which the Palestinians have not learned how to make anything other than war.
Here's an example of why you can't have a two-state solution with people who want all Jews dead:
A short thread on a tragedy many may have missed over the weekend. A father of 4, @AriFuld, was tragically murdered in the street by a Palestinian terrorist while doing his family's shopping.
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) September 17, 2018
From the headline I expected this to be about republicans and democrats.
dee nile at September 17, 2018 6:10 AM
Give it time.
Conan the Grammarian at September 17, 2018 6:28 AM
A two-state solution is problematic for the Palestinians in that once the sprawling refugee camps of the Palestinians are a state, they will be expected to act as a state.
All those things the world today condemns Israel for doing in retaliation for rocket attacks on its civilians will then be legal responses to acts of war by the Palestinian state.
In their current situation, the Palestinians have all the advantages of statehood without any of the responsibilities.
It's problematic for the PLO as well. Once Palestine is an official state, the PLO will have to govern. It will no longer be able to be a firebrand advocacy group. As the ANC discovered in South Africa, governing is much more complex than simply stirring up resentments and demanding redress for past grievances.
Conan the Grammarian at September 17, 2018 7:07 AM
One issue that Shalev overlooks is that the PLO has no special claim to the Palestinian territories; it's merely one of several gangs competing to see who will control the neighborhood. Palestine, such as it is, is a failed state and has been since long before modern Israel sprung into existence. Realistically, the Palestinians have zero chance of successfully pursuing their claims through war. Over time, the Arab states that are actually states have realized this; Egypt has no overtly threatened Israel in decades, Saudi Arabia has a diplomatic back channel to Jerusalem, and other nations such as the UAE have learned that Israeli money spends just as well as anyone else's money.
What keeps the whole Palestinian "project" alive is western European antisemitism, expressed in the form of funding and political support. Were it not for that, the PLO, Hamas and Hezbollah would all be bankrupt and starving Palestinians would be suing for peace. The European Left has, over the years, found the idea of Palestine to be a useful tool, and a way to put a respectable face on antisemitism by disguising it as anti-Zionism. There are legitimate criticisms that can be made of Israel (as is the case with all nations), but so long as the Left conflates such with attacks on Israel's existence, progress will not be possible. And that's the way the Left wants it.
Cousin Dave at September 17, 2018 7:35 AM
"As the ANC discovered in South Africa, governing is much more complex than simply stirring up resentments and demanding redress for past grievances."
As with Black Lives Matter. Those lives just don't matter enough to switch from begging others to fix their problems.
Radwaste at September 17, 2018 8:27 AM
The entire region was an undifferentiated part of the Ottoman Empire until the Turks lost in WWI. Then the Brits defined several territories quite arbitrarily and later those more or less became countries. There is nothing natural about any of the countries in the region: no history of nation-building, no philosophical tradition, not even a tradition of kingship. And none of them have natural borders the way Spain, italy and France do. This remains why they are so unstable.
After the 1948 war, the surrounding Arab countries refused to take Arab refugees, thus creating the current problem. They have been funding the Palestinians ever since, and Saudi Arabia gives special $ to families of "martyrs".
The claim that it is Isael's fault when the PLO, Hamas etc declare openly that their goal is genocide is simply more Leftist double talk.
cc at September 17, 2018 1:01 PM
Not to mention that none of the current "countries" in the Middle East were ever historically independent kingdoms, duchies, etc. - as were France, Spain, et al. In exchange for Hashemite assistance against the Ottoman Turks, the British and French carved out kingdoms for the various members of the Hashemite dynasty of the Hejaz. Abdullah got Jordan and Faisal got Iraq (and Syria). Their father, Hussein, kept the Hejaz until it was conquered by ibn Saud in 1925.
Conan the Grammarian at September 17, 2018 3:14 PM
I've always said there are only two entities that look out for the Palestinian people - the United States and the state of Israel - no one else, not the PLO or any of the other Arab/Muslim countries care at all about the situation that the Palestinian people live under except to use them as pawns in a game of wipe Israel off the map.
The US gives money and aid to the people on the West Bank (most of it siphoned off, unfortunately, to the corrupt leaders); Israel used to take care of the infrastructure of the West Bank until the "Leaders" of "Palestine" claimed they wanted that control. Ha! The West Bank is worse off now under those "leaders" than when Israel took care of things.
So, yea, give Gaza back to Egypt and give the West Bank back to Jordon. Things would only improve under that plan.
charles at September 17, 2018 5:56 PM
Ah yes, the famous Palestinian democracy. One man, one vote, one time. In what universe is Abbas a legitimate democratically elected leader and not a wannabe kleptocrat enriching himself and his cronies at the expense of ordinary Palestinians. The PLO is at stands now is a grift.
Shtetl G at September 18, 2018 6:56 AM
I think this is the main point of contention between Islamic purists and Egypt. None of the current Islamic countries can trace their modern incarnations back to anything pre-Islam. The Egyptians can trace their civilization back to pre-Islamic times; to the earliest of times, in fact.
Israel, too, can trace its modern incarnation back to the Kingdom of Israel - on the very ground it currently occupies.
Iran as well. It has an ancient lineage that pre-dates Islam. Iranian Islam is spiced with its ancient Zoroastrianism.
Syria, Jordan, and Iraq, on the other hand, are modern constructs based on ancient names. They owe their entire modern culture and identity to Islam.
Islamic nations seem to have a massive inferiority complex when it comes to historical roots. They insist that Islam has always been dominant in the Middle East, but it hasn't - it's the new kid on the block. The now-defunct Caliphate is their only claim to historical nationhood in the region.
Conan the Grammarian at September 18, 2018 7:43 AM
I have visited Israel over the past 20 years. The economic progress is stunning. That on the Palestinian territories, in spite of massive aid, is not.
cc at September 18, 2018 8:50 AM
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