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Moderate Sunni Arab States Will Not Force Palestinians to Make Peace

(Israel Hayom) Jonathan S. Tobin - Many in the U.S. foreign policy establishment believe the influence of moderate Sunni Arab states that want to normalize relations with Israel can help to steer the Palestinians toward a two-state solution. But as the recent crisis over the Temple Mount demonstrates, instead of Jordan and its moderate monarch leading the Palestinians to be more reasonable, it was the Palestinian street - fueled by lies spread by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas - that forced Jordan to escalate the conflict. As long as the political culture of the Palestinians and the Arab and Muslim worlds is dominated by a belief in Israel's illegitimacy and hatred for Jews, even the best-intentioned Arab leaders will find themselves incapable of breaking free of this dynamic. The toxicity of the rejectionist Palestinian ideology was far more powerful than Jordan's strategic interests or the desire of its ruler - and those of other moderate Arab governments - for peace. That's why the expectation that the Saudis, Jordan or Egypt can exert enough influence to force the Palestinians to make peace is so unrealistic.
2017-08-03 00:00:00
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