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The Absence of a Palestinian State Has Not Crippled American Policy in the Middle East

(Jerusalem Strategic Tribune) Michael Mandelbaum - Continuing the previous arrangements in Gaza, with the Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organization Hamas in charge, will only lead to more terror, death, destruction, and misery. Something new is certainly needed. However, despite President Trump's novel suggestion that the people currently living in Gaza be evacuated, they are unlikely to leave. Even if they wanted to do so, no country in the region appears willing to receive them. Yet if current trends continue, Hamas will reassert itself, meaning that no funds for reconstructing Gaza will be forthcoming. Moreover, as Hamas seeks to rearm and launch attacks against Israel, the Israelis will respond forcefully. Many of those who have objected strenuously to the idea of displacing the Gazans have had no compunction about giving aid and comfort to groups such as Hamas that seek to do precisely the same thing to Israeli Jews. However, under Trump's proposal, the Gazans would presumably leave peacefully, whereas Hamas and its ilk seek to accomplish their goal by murdering Israelis, as they demonstrated on Oct. 7, 2023. On the Palestinian question, American presidents going back decades have held that its resolution - which they believed entailed creating a Palestinian state - was imperative for the peace of the region, and that establishing such a state was eminently feasible. Both propositions were and are false. The absence of a Palestinian state has not crippled American policy in the region. In addition, no Palestinian state has come into being because the Palestinians themselves don't want one. They have repeatedly turned down offers of such a state and never stipulated the conditions in which they would accept one. They prefer to continue their decades-long campaign to destroy Israel, a campaign of which the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7 were only the latest episode. Apart from the ongoing lack of Palestinian interest in a state, after Oct. 7, Israelis are not about to hand over territory to people who perpetrated that event or celebrated it. The writer is Professor Emeritus of American Foreign Policy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
2025-02-18 00:00:00
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