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Reassessing the Two-State Paradigm

(New York Times) David Brooks - According to critical race theory, as it applies to the Middle East, international conflicts can be seen through a prism of American identity categories like race. In any situation there are evil people who are colonizer/oppressors and good people who are colonized/oppressed. It's not necessary to know about the particular facts about any global conflict, because of intersectionality: All struggles are part of the same struggle between the oppressors and the oppressed. This paradigm shapes how many on campus saw the Hamas terror attacks and were thus pushed into a series of ridiculous postures. A group of highly educated American progressives cheered on Hamas as anti-colonialist freedom fighters even though Hamas is a theocratic, genocidal terrorist force that oppresses LGBTQ people and revels in the massacres of innocents. These campus activists showed little compassion for Israeli men and women who were murdered at a music festival because they were perceived as "settlers" and hence worthy of extermination. Many progressives called for an immediate cease-fire, denying Israel the right to defend itself, which is enshrined in international law - as if Nigeria should have declared a cease-fire the day after Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls in 2014. The two-state paradigm is based on the notion that this conflict will end when there are two states with two peoples living side-by-side. After this month's events, several assumptions underlying this worldview seem shaky: that most people on each side will eventually come to accept the legitimacy of the other's existence; that Palestinian leaders would rather devote their budgets to economic development than perpetual genocidal holy war; that the cause of peace is advanced when Israel withdraws from Palestinian territories; that Hamas can be contained until a negotiated settlement is achieved. Those of us who see the conflict through this two-state framing may be relying on lenses that distort our vision, so we see the sort of Middle East that existed two decades ago, not the one that exists today. I'm hoping the Biden administration will do two things that will keep the faint hopes of peace and basic decency alive. The first is to help Israel re-establish deterrence. In the Middle East, peace happens when Israel is perceived as strong and permanent and the U.S. has its back. Second, I'm hoping the U.S. encourages Arab nations to work with the Palestinians to build a government that can rule Gaza after Hamas is dismantled.
2023-10-27 00:00:00
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