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The Peace Processors Return

(National Review) Elliott Abrams - The slaughter of Israelis by Hamas on Oct. 7 has greatly affected Israeli opinion. A Palestinian state today is simply too dangerous. Yet former State Department officials Daniel Kurtzer and Aaron David Miller, writing in Foreign Affairs on Dec. 22, call to "create an independent Palestinian state" as the only solution to the conflict. They write, "Hamas' terrorism may well encourage a further radicalization of the Israeli population." Now think about that. Some Israelis were not keen on an independent Palestinian state because they've been living with Palestinian terrorism and intifadas and rockets from Gaza for decades. Now that view is called "radical" and if more Israelis feel that way after the massacres of Oct. 7, that isn't common sense or self-defense; it's "further radicalization." The two peace processors conclude that President Biden "can make it clearer to the Israelis that the continued strength of their relationship with Washington rests on Israel understanding that it cannot reoccupy Gaza, and that their ultimate security guarantee will be a peace agreement with a similarly peace-minded Palestinian state." Those last words are breathtaking. What better example of the Tinker Bell effect than thinking that Israel will be secure because there will be "a similarly peace-minded Palestinian state." From everything we can see about Palestinian politics and public opinion, basing Israeli security on dreams about Palestinian pacifism is nuts. That is the problem with the two-state solution: No one can explain how a sovereign and independent Palestinian state will not constitute a grave security threat to Israel (and Jordan as well). Kurtzer and Miller, like all the peace processors, just wish this away, conjuring up a mythical Palestine that loves peace. The writer, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House.
2024-01-02 00:00:00
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