A Waste of Time
It’s dismaying, annoying, and tiresome, but Donald Trump’s (predictable?) effort at forging a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians was probably always in the works. One wonders if a creeping new circle of advisors is responsible.
A few weeks ago, Trump stood with Benjamin Netanyahu and basically said he would give Israel a green light to any “peace deal” he wanted. In other words, it seemed at least that Trump had a realistic view of the Palestinians—something none of his predecessors had. All of them in the last 50 years either didn’t get it, or didn’t want to get it. It was always the pressure game on Israel, while giving Arab terrorists a pass.
Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said the obvious this week, that any attempt by Trump to forge an historic peace deal is “a waste of time.” Shaked, one of Israel’s young, strong politicians, knows what Trump seemed to acknowledge during the campaign: it hasn’t really been Israel’s fault.
According to the Jerusalem Post:
“Like Netanyahu, Shaked, who will speak at The Jerusalem Post Conference in New York on May 7, and others on the Right like to discuss moderate Arab Sunni states joining an alliance with Israel as a different path to peace rather than negotiations with the Palestinians.
“But pressed on how this would work when all of these states still demand a two-state solution, Shaked hinted that the Sunni states may be saying something else behind closed doors, in light of their common interests with Israel economically as well as in opposing Iran.”
This is an extremely interesting comment, and hints that perhaps the Arab states are finally tiring of propping-up the radical and entitled Palestinians. The lure of an economic oasis in the Middle East—the other regional states are surely envious of Israel’s astonishing successes—just might make the Palestinians expendable. One can hope so.
Still, especially with the removal of Mike Flynn from Trump’s team, the Establishment in Washington is clearly not going to move from its left-wing efforts. In this way, Republican senators are no different than, say, Martin Indyk or British diplomats or the EU. All subscribe to the mad delusion that “two states” should exist in what is left of original Palestine.
Perhaps it’s just the lengthy investment in Oslo, but a surprising number of people hold fast to the two-state solution.
I will tell you something: my adamant opposition to the establishment of a two-state solution—the creation of a Palestinian terror state on Israel’s doorstep—has made me somewhat unpopular even in the pro Israel movement.
In the past three years, some of my friends have cautioned me to “tamp it down” and stop being so “confrontational” in writing and speaking about the delusion of the two-state solution.
After thousands of murders and other terror acts committed by Palestinians in the past 25 years, against Jews, isn’t it time to tell the Palestinians they are on their own? If not, why not?
I thought that just maybe, Trump would break the stranglehold Oslo has had on Western powerbrokers since 1990. It’s still possible he’ll stop wasting everyone’s time and stop thinking a peace deal can happen. Maybe he could use his considerable business skills to help forge economic alliances between Israel and her Arab neighbors. It is possible that modernity will win the day and we can break with past mistakes.
Because when it comes to the Palestinians, anything else is a waste of time.