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The Benefits and Risks of Extending Sovereignty to Parts of the West Bank

(Washington Times) Clifford D. May - After decades of failed Palestinian-Israeli "peace processes," the Trump administration has indicated that it would not object if Israelis were to extend sovereignty to parts of the West Bank. As international legal scholar Eugene Kontorovich has noted, "annexation" means taking over "territory that is under the sovereignty of another country." The West Bank is not that. Under the White House peace plan, a future Palestinian state would rule more territory than the Palestinian Authority does now. However, that future state would have less land than Israeli leaders offered to Palestinian leaders in 2000, 2001 and 2008. Where is it written that rejecting Israeli concessions will always lead to more concessions, even absent reciprocal concessions? Would it not be helpful to disabuse Palestinians of the belief that time is on the side of the rejectionists? American friends may advise, but it is for Israelis to decide how best to defend themselves and their children from enemies who regard the "Palestinian cause" as the extermination of a small nation attempting to live peaceably in a corner of its ancestral homeland. The writer is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
2020-05-20 00:00:00
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