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Israel Cannot Depend on International "Security Assurances" over a Palestinian State

(Washington Times) Clifford D. May - Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, mastermind behind the Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, was surely encouraged to learn that President Biden last week said that Israel's "conduct of the response in Gaza has been over the top." That charge is entirely unfounded. In truth, despite Hamas' human shields strategy, the ratio of civilian-to-combatant casualties is unprecedentedly low for urban warfare. Israelis have done more than any other nation ever to spare civilians. The battle against Hamas is not one the Israelis can afford to lose or even end in stalemate. Last week, Secretary of State Blinken called for "a concrete, time-bound and irreversible path" to a Palestinian state. Note that Mr. Blinken is not saying that the leaders of such a state would forswear terrorism and peacefully coexist alongside the Jewish state. Nor is he guaranteeing that such a state will not become a vassal of Tehran. All he's said is that Israelis will have "security assurances." Like the security assurances Israelis received from the UN Security Council after they withdrew from Lebanon? Like the security assurances Ukrainians received from the U.S. when they gave up their nuclear weapons? Sinwar is not fighting for a Palestinian state. He is fighting for the extermination of the Jewish state and its replacement - "from the river to the sea" - by an Islamic emirate, a jewel in the crown of the caliphate that is to come. For Sinwar, a "two-state solution" would solve nothing - unless it provided an improved platform from which to launch Oct. 7-style attacks. The writer is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).
2024-02-14 00:00:00
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