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How to Build upon Recent Progress in the Middle East

(Newsweek) Jonathan Schanzer - The Abraham Accords was the first in a wave of peace agreements by countries that made the decision to de-prioritize their pointless historical animosities with Israel and to instead emphasize their own national priorities - namely, to look at how Israel and the U.S. can advance their own interests. The incoming administration should see that diplomacy with countries peripheral to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a greater chance of success than does direct engagement with the Palestinians themselves. The more countries on the path to normalizing with Israel, the more the Palestinians will feel the pressure to negotiate and compromise. Blindly yielding back leverage to the intransigent Palestinian leadership is not likely to encourage successful diplomacy. The incoming administration should enlist the Arab states that normalized ties with Israel to play an intermediary role. Helpful allies can convey the friendly, yet tough, messages to the sclerotic Palestinian leadership that those leaders need to hear. Specifically, calls to conquer Israel must be seen for what they are: unrealistic and silly. No less outlandish is the Palestinian call for the "right of return" of five million Palestinians to live in Israel. This narrative must finally be put to rest. The writer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
2020-11-19 00:00:00
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