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Arab Spring Punctures Two-State Solution

(New York Post) Amir Taheri - The Arab Spring has punctured many ideas about Middle Eastern politics - including the "two-state solution" to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The "two-state" formula was always based on two questionable assumptions: 1) that Palestinians regarded themselves as a nation in a world of nation-states and wished to create a state of their own; 2) that creating a Palestinian state was something that Israel acting alone could magically make happen. The Arab Spring has seriously shaken the first assumption by revitalizing pan-Islamism, with the ultimate goal of restoring the caliphate. The pan-Islamist movement has never been interested in the creation of a Palestinian state. In fact, in 1947-48 pan-Islamists repeatedly asserted that their goal was not the creation of a Palestinian state, but the liberation of Muslim territory occupied by the "infidel." They didn't want a Palestinian state; they wanted the destruction of the Jewish state. Last week, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh spelled out the pan-Islamist position when he announced he would lead a delegation to Cairo to invite Egypt's new president, Mohammad Morsi, to give a boost to "the struggle to revive the caliphate."
2012-07-27 00:00:00
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