I guess the take home message from all of this is: Don't lose land in a war, and don't expect the conqueror's to do anything but help themselves. I wouldn't be surprised if Israel now tells all of the Palestinians to get off of Israeli land. It belongs to Israel now. They conquered it. To the victor go the spoils. like duh. never declare war unless you expect to win, because it will be horrible if you lose. The horror continues for the losers.
9
So it seems Jabotinsky won his argument with Ben Gurion. Israel is to be first and foremost The Jewish State and only second - if at all - a democracy. Judea and Samaria are to be fully incorporated into the Land of Israel. Maybe that’s ok. After all, the nascent Palestinian state died in 2000 when Arafat walked out of Camp David. But it feels like fear, personified in Jabotinsky’s sleazy disciple Netanyahu, has won. Big question in my Gentile mind: will US Jews continue to support Israel? Trump seems to think American Jews will thank him and rally around Bibi. As always, he’s nuts.
5
Even Israel is not learning that everything trump touches goes down the sewer. They won't be able to file bankruptcy on this when trump & netanyahu go to prison.
8
Clearly the Israelis have not learned a lesson a majority of Americans now know about Donald Trump.
Everything Trump touches rots. Citizens of Israel, think about that.
9
Dr. Koplow, the two state solution has been dead ever since Abbas announced that not one Israeli security soldier would be allowed in an independent West Bank. Benjamin Netanyahu, Benny Gantz, Tzipi Livni, the most liberal Haaretz reporter, are equally able to see that withdrawing from Gaza has resulted in missile barrages, both homemade and more deadly Iranian missiles, and threats of people rushing the border Friday after Friday. And don't forget the fire bombs from Gaza and the threat of deliberate epidemics as they cement over parts of their sewer system. The security cooperation with the PA has actually been pretty good, if you overlook the calls of their leadership to "grab a car, grab a gun, kill a Jew". Why would any nonsuicidal Israeli regret the end of the two state solution? Take the gift of an American administration that supports the continued existence of the one Jewish state on this planet, see who rules next on the West Bank, and stop fantasizing about viable one state and two state solutions. In a world where Jews are under increasing threat, again, I require you to live and maintain the Right of Return.
11
No doubt the Israeli right-wing cares deeply about the country's Jewishness but, like the right wing in the United States of America, it cares next to nothing about the nation's democratic foundation.
One thing that the right here in the USA has made abundantly clear from long before Donald Trump became president is that retention of its perpetual grasp on power trumps anything to do with popular democratic choice.
In Israel, as elsewhere, democracy only for the dominant group at the expense of subjugation for everybody else can lead only toward fascistic governance, a nasty notion perhaps but one that applies in this case.
92
Trump is just playing to this evangelical base in the US.
6
It is a green light...no “if” about it.
1
The Israelis are no better than the Palestinians, but all Netanyahu wants is internal hegemony so he can grab more land with the " settler "movement. No peace settlement means take all you can as long as you can....
4
Another left-wing "think tank" offering advice to Israelis, most of whom have long ago shifted away from left-wing policies.
9
A CIA white paper gives Israel less than 20 years to exist, then predicting political implosion like South Africa. That should come as no surprise to even casual observers.
States cannot be superimposed on people perpetually resisting it. It's just a matter of time. Israel, by missing all the opportunities presented to them, will lose it all in the end.
6
On the plus side Saudi Arabia seems to have completely abandoned the Palestinians. That ha to make Israeli's happy a new friend and an extremely rich one with lots of oil to boot.
4
Bibi works hard to be reelected to avoid jail. As Trump did in 2016. How could these two guys enemies?
1
It is a problem, if supporters of Israel myopically ignore the oppression of the Palestinian people, they lose all credibility. Having a religious history of being oppressed and homeless should reinforce the need to return Lands outside their borders to the rightful inhabitants, the natives of the Lands occupied illegally. This is the time to allow Morality and Justice to win over simple aggression and blind support for the "Home" team.
This is the reason every candidate for every office in the US should be questioned if they feel a mixed allegiance to, or support for or from the State of Israel.
6
if indeed Israel is 'on the brink of disaster' , it is time that they "go over the brink" since it this is self-imposed disaster.
Once there was an oppressed people whose right to exist was denied. They were removed from their jobs, their homes and property was confiscated, they were herded into camps, treated harshly by the guards, killed for the slightest infraction. Into their houses were moved other people who were told 'the previous occupants just left'. This group of people were told in numerous ways they were not wanted, they were a blight on the country, human trash to be incinerated, their property to be stolen, their hopes and future to be crushed.
Morally and ethically, of all people, Israel should know better. They have had 70 years to be better, to find peaceful ways to co-exist with the people who lived on this land for nearly 2000 years.
They have chosen to not do that.
11
Let's stop fooling ourselves. Israel has no intention of ever allowing a Palestinian state in the West Bank or Gaza, nor does it ever intend to relinquish the Golan, nor does it intend East Jerusalem to be anything other than part of Israel's Jerusalem. As far as the Arabs—now more than 6 million—living in Israel and in the territory Israel intends to make its own, Israel's strategy is simply to wait them out. Fifty years, 100 years, 1000 years—it makes no difference. At some point the Palestinians—or at least the vast majority of them—will find their miserable lives unbearable and leave. Israel is playing a long game. It can wait. In the meantime, Israel will claim its hands are tied by Palestinian behaviour and that the Palestinians have only themselves to blame for their plight. Occasional violence, while painful, only strengthens Israel's argument to the world that nothing can be done. So we wait. And wait. And wait. And we lie, we lie continuously, pretending we are working toward some peace plan 70 years in the making (it must be an extraordinary plan) and that all that holds us back is Palestinian intransigence. It gives Israel cover. It gives Israel what it wants most: time. Because eventually time becomes land, land without people.
This is the entire truth of this tedious affair. Who can prove me wrong?
12
Israel's annexation of the Golan and the movement of the US embassy to Jerusalem along with the cessation of funding of Palestinian terrorists and their families, the renegotiation of a poorly done nuclear agreement are all signals to the world that it is time to move forward.
The Arab world in particularly is happy for Trump reopening the poorly done nuclear agreement with Iran, which incidentally, was done without any treaty approval by the Senate.
In Trump Arabs and Israelis take their existential concerns regarding a nuclear Iran seriously and see him as a refreshing change from the Obama administration.
The world has moved on, but the Palestinians never seemed to realize it. Perhaps with these definitive moves by the US, the Arab world including Arab Israelis will help to get new Palestinian elections and to finally negotiate a peace agreement.
As someone who has been to this part of the world many times, it is my opinion that except for a small percentage of extremists, most Palestinians want to work and live their lives. Being next the regional technological superpower brings to Palestinians true opportunities that almost none of the Arab world has.
One can hope the Palestinians will move forward with elections, otherwise we may have to live until the calcified current leadership dies off.
10
It's fine to talk about a two state solution, but to whom are you giving back land? Israel is modern state, far more sophisticated than any in the region. What happens when you give back a large chunk of land, in some areas leaving the width of Israel only 17 miles wide. Then what? You have people who have never recognized your right to existence, with no attempt to do so, with no margin for error. What then? What happens when they try to destroy what you've built for 70 years? Does anyone care? Does the world help?
36
Rushing headlong into quicksand we don't know exists. Humanity in a nutshell.
3
Trump made a decision. That’s more than the UN has accomplished in decades. Israel no doubt understands that appeasement of implacable enemies has never secured a nation’s security, which is why their citizenry across the political spectrum has applauded this move.
13
The two state solution is opposed by many Palestinians because it completely ends hope of the most just resolution, a democracy with separation of church & state in one nation.
However if a two state solution were the only one forthcoming it should not wait for Israeli agreement, it should be imposed on Israel by the United States, by military intervention.
1. US Marines move into the West Bank & Gaza, they move out settlers on illegally occupied land and prevent destruction of infrastructure assets. The IDF goes home. The parties are separated by US troops.
2. A Marshal Plan for Palestine ensues allowing enough economic separation that Palestinians can become free of Israeli domination in that realm too.
We've been wasting our time all over the Mideast for decades, the right place for US military intervention is Occupied Palestine.
5
Ever since the United Nations created the state of Israel as ordained by their deity, Israel has felt an obligation to govern the land. Palestinians have been both excluded from taking part in the decision and have largely been expelled by the Israeli government. The process has doomed the concept of two separate areas – one for the Israelis and one for the Palestinians. The so-called "Two State" concept is as dead as the proverbial doornail. Trump has just assured that outcome.
Israeli voters should think carefully and be careful what they vote for.
7
Trump's biggest mistake towards any of his fake rhetoric of Middle East peace was making Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Jerusalem belongs to ALL world faiths. For ANY faith to claim it is arrogant and anti-faith. If America really wants to walk the walk, rather than spew the rhetoric of "sowing Democracry across the globe," we should IMMEDIATELY demand that Israel turn Jerusalem over to UN control and declare it a soverign nation, WHICH WILL NEVER ESTABLISH A RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION. This action would help ease the tension between Palestinians and Israelis, instead of inflamed them, like Trump did.
The next IMMEDIATE thing we need to do is dismantle the Military Industrial Complex. Yes, I mean our war machine. We do NOT go to war to spread democracy, any critical thinking person knows that. We go to war to take out dictators, to put in leaders we "prefer" (who end up MUCH worse on the back end), to control oil prices, and for many other nefarious reasons I don't know because I'm not the government. Yes, also to retailiate for 9/11 - but that was almost 20 years ago. Bin Laden is DEAD. 9/11 was bankrolled by the Saudis. Oh, that's right, we can't say anything bad about them, or we end up dead, too......
Tell me again, why are we still at war?? Possibly because our own president is stirring the pot with his Israel policies, the Muslim ban, xenophobia, and inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric??
12
@Elle
‘Jerusalem’ would never have been heard of if not for the Jewish people. The Jews put Jerusalem on the historical map. From Jerusalem, the Jewish people were forcibly exiled...and to Jerusalem they have returned. It is THEIR city. How nice that they’re willing to share it with people of all faiths, unlike the former occupiers.
16
The ‘brink of disaster’ would be Israel’s capitulation to the numerous terrorist factions attempting to destroy that sovereign state...
Meanwhile, there are hundreds of limited autonomous areas throughout the world, upon every continent. The so-called West Bank (areas A and B) is simply another one of many.
And lets not pretend that Jordan...the defacto Arab Palestinian state...doesn’t occupy 80% of the territory formerly referred to as ‘Palestine’.
In other words, the two-state solution already exists...called Jordan and Israel. What the Arabs want is a three-state solution, but only as a prelude to a one-state solution, with Israel destroyed. Is there any doubt that Arabs are still trying to win the war they started 70+ years ago...and LOST? ‘Statehood’ was never the point...which is why, apart from Jordan, they don’t have another one.
18
Just remember that Donald Trump invested heavily into Trump Plaza Casino in Atlantic City but after the bankruptcy of his endeavour heleft the banks holding all the debt!
3
Peace between Israel and the Palestinians is impossible.
To this day, the Palestinians, Hamas, and PLO, have their goal of abolishing Israel and having a one nation solution: Palestine.
All peace efforts are window dressing on a chronic, low level, ever-lasting war.
So, if you favor the demise of Israel, call for 1967 borders, the return of Golan Heights ETC, and you will see this happen.
Obviously, Israel has other plans.
10
The article should have made clear that the Israel Policy Forum is a left wing organization seeking to impose their out-of-date fantasy - a two state solution - on Israel.
The reality is that there is no Palestinian group capable of or willing to make peace with Israel and proceed to a 2 state solution. So why beat up on Israel and Netanyahu, who has shown himself less right wing and considerably more moderate and pragmatic, than many around him - the very reason that at least half of the Israelis want to continue as PM?
Koplow needs to have the guts to hold the Palestinians responsible for their abominable behavior which has persisted since 1947... before joining the crowd and tearing into Israel, the world's whipping boy.
It is a sad commentary that the State of the Jewish people, just happens to be the vehicle for today's anti-Semitism, which Jewish groups like the Israel Policy Forum are attacking.
9
Israel was never a democracy. America supporting the dislocation of millions of Palestinians in order to facilitate the settlement of European jews in Palestine pretended that the settlements would become a democratic state. The truth is that Israel is a" theocracy." And if Trump is so gung-ho in declaring the Golan Heights a part of Israel why doesn't he return California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to Mexico? The acquisition of these lands is a shameful era in American history.
11
Let us be candid with ourselevs, "We have never been an honest arbiters in the middle east conflict". Trump doesn't know where the Golan Heights are, and doesn't give a dumb about the consquences of his decision to this country or the middle east. Transactional Politics. What have you done for me Lately.
4
Michael Koplow is such a delicate observer that he glosses over the inevitable long-term result of any total Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
The annexation will create a fully occupied area, just like the fully occupied areas 75 years ago of France, Holland, Belgium, Poland, etc. Or like the fully colonized areas of Vietnam, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Burman, Rhodesia, South Africa, etc.
In other words, instead of a fraction of a captive population regarding Israelis as the enemy, the entire captive population will regard Israelis as the enemy. Welcome to the land of permanent guerrilla warfare.
4
Foreign policy by Tweet. You could imagine Jared looking over over his father-in-law's shoulder saying, "Not Goland, drop the d, just Golan. There that's better. Good job Dad."
3
Is "democratic Jewish state" an oxymoron? That would depend on how you define "Jewish". And no matter how many pundits I have read, both Jewish and non-Jewish, both Israeli and non-Israeli, I have never come up with an objective definition of "Jewish." If you define "Jewish" as a religion, on a par with Christianity or Islam, a Jewish state will be a theocracy, and thus not democratic. If you define "Jewish" as a person born in Judaea or such a person's child or grandchild, then most Palestinians are "Jewish" and most Israelis are not. If you define "Jewish" as synonymous with "Israeli", then you will be saying that Israel is an Israeli democracy, which will be tautological. If you define "Jewish" as some metaphysical, unverifiable identity, and claim this identity supports their members' right to rule (no matter how democratically) a certain part of the world, you can not expect any person who doesn't share your metaphysics to recognize any such right.
12
I am puzzled by the discussions of Israel. Congresswoman Omar supposedly accused Jewish Americans of having dual loyalties. However, the same people who criticized her are perfectly comfortable joining with Netanyahu calling Arab Israelis a demographic threat. To me, this says that the Israeli prime minister and his followers don't trust them and suspect their loyalties. In other words, accusing a whole group of divided or questionable loyalty is no problem, but in the other case, it is prejudicial and racist. In reality, it is racist regardless of the who and where.
2
Today's terrorism largely has its roots in religion. There is actual, potential, or hidden enmity among followers of different religions. There are states that explicitly claim to be Islamic, Jewish, Christian, Buddhists, or some other religious state, laying the foundation for hatred against followers of some other religion. As long as such states exist, claiming supremacy of their religion, thereby laying the seeds of hatred among opposing religions, strife and terrorism would continue.
A bigoted populist leader can easily arouse the otherwise subterranean hatred of one religious group against another. Once aroused, his loyal followers start committing horrible crimes against followers of some other religion, which we now call terrorism. We even delude ourselves in believing that a terrorist has no religion. Just ask the terrorist if that is so.
Is religion necessary or can it be replaced with universally recognized ethical and moral values? Our founding fathers made a start in this direction but their experiment is still in progress. Shouldn’t the U.N. require secularism as a basic requirement for membership? No Islamic state, no Jewish state, no Hindu state, no Buddhist state, no religion X state. Just a secular state based on ethical and moral principles, treating all its citizens equally, blind to all religions, which in spite their proclaimed piety, have provided the basis of thousands of wars and atrocities which still continue.
3
@ALM
Judaism is not a universal religion. Jews don't proselytize. Jews think that Judaism is for Jews & are fine with other people having other religions.
5
"Brink of disaster"? Since Abbas rejected Olmert's last peace offer in 2008 Israel's economy has grown by 4-5% per year (much better than ours), it's unemployment rate is less than 5% (in a region where the average unemployment rate exceeds 20%), it has more relations with more Muslim and Arab nations, it has won Eurovision and every major performer has played there (McCartney, Rolling Stones, Elton John), it has sold Waze and hundreds of other startups, and it has won 5 non-peace Nobel Prizes and an Oscar.
Israel has never been more secure-economically, internationally, culturally, and academically-in its history. Half a dozen countries have moved their embassies to Jerusalem and they've sent a rocket to the moon.
This was achieved not by negotiating with the Palestinians but specifically because they did NOT negotiate with the Palestinians. Negotiations brought terror, death, more incitement, instability, and human rights violations against the Palestinians but ignored by do-gooders like Koplow.
The 2 state solution died a long time ago. 19 years of Israeli elections demonstrate the Israelis do not want to resume suicidal negotiations. Sorry Mike, the world's changed since 2000, now the Palestinians don't have elected representation. There's no one with whom to negotiate, no agreement can work.
The internet has many solutions to demographic concerns and solves an indefinite "occupation". Failure to acknowledge them doesn't mean "Israel is on the "Brink of Disaster"!
14
Taking land by conquest was the trigger for WW II. Since that time the US has stood by the right of self determination and it has brought 70 years of relative peace around the world. Israel is doing great harm to itself and to all of us by returning to the notion that a powerful nation can take what it wants from a weaker nation.
3
@Duncan
WW2 was triggered by aggression.
Israel was attacked by Syria, again & again.
Israel conquered the Golan Heights to silence the guns that were shooting at Israeli farmers down in the valley.
That's defense, not aggression.
4
There is an unspoken (perhaps even unrealized) premise behind the the notion of returning the Golan Heights. Very simply, there is an underlying belief that if Israel will just return the Golan Heights, everyone will change, peace will reign, and we'll all hold hands and sing "Imagine."
Of course, realpolitik is much more realistic and pessimistic than that. After all, Israel didn't possess the Golan Heights before the war of 1967, so there is clearly an underlying issue that has remained unsolved since Israel became a nation. And when you get right down to it, it appears that the ONLY thing that Israel can do to appease their enemies is to cease to exist. And when and if that moment comes, you can be sure that some of their enemies will cease to exist at roughly the same time.
They have had over 50 years to figure this out, but haven't. By recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, we actually make a strategic move. The signal being sent (by both this and the move of our embassy to Jerusalem) is this: The Syrian or Palestinian refusal to act in a manner conducive to peace is no longer going to be delay and hinder the rest of the world from acting. Very simply, the message is "Get busy with peace, or get left behind."
How in the world do we stand to make it "worse" with our recognition of Israel/Golan Heights? It's not like everyone was singing "Kum-ba-yah," right. So what's really to lose?
10
The West has no idea what the underlying forces are in the Middle East. There is not one military action by the West against an inhabitant country which yielded positive results ever. If geography was the primary issue, this would have been resolved 50 years ago.
Before condemning Israel, turn to UNWRA which presides over 85% of the schools in Gaza and 65% of the schools in The West Bank which routinely demonize Jews and that the highest calling is to sacrifice oneself attacking Jewish men, women and children. Turn to the Palestinian Authority which punishes criticism with jail or worse, is not recognized by the Palestinians as a representative of their well-being and whose very existence depends upon a continuation of the status quo.
I once spoke with a farmer in The Golan Heights who told me that she would walk away from the beautiful life they had created there in a minute in exchange for peace. Israel has already proved this with the Egyptian peace. But Gaza proved that true peace can only be achieved with a viable partner.
10
With Trump there's always a quid pro quo. What's the payoff on this deal?
4
@Lillie NYC Trump Tower on the West Bank?
As a strong supporter of Israel, i agree with what is going on in the Golan Heights. However, the West Bank is another matter and, as soon as possible, it should become part of a Palestinian state that is committed to living in peace with its Jewish neighbors.
1
@Seth
The Arab Palestinians have made it perfectly clear that they cannot be trusted with independent statehood. Is there any doubt that the Arabs...themselves the descendants of invaders, colonists, and 20th century illegal economic migrants to the British Mandate....are still trying to win the war they started 70+ years ago....and LOST?
Land for peace? Been there, done that, got over 20,000 Hamas rockets and a terrorist base camp on Israel’s southern border. The brink of disaster would be Israel’s capitulation to these sinister factions.
Never. ‘Limited autonomy’ is what the Arab Palestinians shall have and...after a century of Arab terror wars perpetrated against the Jewish population...it’s more than they deserve.
3
The two state solution is dead and has been for a long time.
Israel's annexation of the Palestinian territories is a fact whether the Knesset legally asserts it or not. Israelis like to pretend that they don't still exercise sovereignty over Gaza because they don't have a permanent troop presence on the ground, but their rule by remote control of Gaza's waters, air space, electricity, and trade is total.
The truth of the matter is that Israel now rules over a population that is majority Palestinian. Trump's recognition of Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights may well hasten a formal annexation of all or part of the West Bank. Whether it does or doesn't, the rubicon has been crossed.
Israel has no intention of allowing a viable Palestinian state to be established in territories that include critical water resources. (The West Bank aquifer is Israel's largest source of fresh water for agricultural or industrial use.) They have spent half a century building settlements precisely for the purpose of rendering such a state an impossibility while pretending to negotiate for it.
For their part, the Palestinian people know this and also know that neither Fatah nor Hamas can win them a separate state. New leaders will soon raise the demand for equal rights and democracy based on one person, one vote. They will be joined by Palestinian citizens of Israel recently disenfranchised by the banning of one of Israel two major Arab parties.
9
@Christopher
Israel signed peace treaties with both Jordan & Egypt even though that meant giving up large areas of Biblical Israel. That shows that Israel values peace more than territory.
Israel exports water. Israel recycles almost all its water & Israel gets most of its water from desalinization. Israel values peace more than the West Bank aquifer.
8
Put on your strategy hat and look at a map of the West Bank and the Golan Heights from the Israeli strategic point of view. It has been clear since the 1967 war that Israel must retain both and fortify the West Bank with strategic outposts that will deter an armored assault.
5
Democrats might have divergent thoughts on Trump's action. Might be happy internally that Trump is accomplishing where they could only provide lip-service to Israel. On the other hand, many might be upset because it might become difficult to unravel actions (like recognizing Jerusalem as capital) or the current Golan Heights annexation to Israel proper without political fall-out. Only time will tell.
From Israeli perspective, Mr. Koplow piece is in "sky is falling" genre. With American support solid (if not well informed) and USA ascendant internationally, Israelis can do what they want with scant risks.
It could be more plausible as an argument if Koplow could explain why the policies of annexation and supremacy are wrong in themselves, even in the absence of risks on the international arena.
2
The US is “ascendant” internationally? That’s hardly so, with our fool if a president undercutting one key alliance after another. Completely false premise.
4
If you believe, as Ghandi suggested, that Israel could be and has been a disaster waiting to happen, then you could consider all of this a fulfillment of prophecy.
8
"But those signals are also being read by the Israeli right wing as an encouragement to pursue annexation of territory in the West Bank"
Since when did Israel need encouragement?
8
The First Rule Of Trump : HE poisons everyone, and everything he touches. Period.
9
You are all responsible for this blatantly illegal but inevitable step.
The next will be the West Bank. Soon there will be enough Israeli settlers in the West Bank to make even that annexation seem within the real of reason.
Then what? Who knows.
1
Just another quid pro quo for a strongman that either strokes Trump’s ego, or is loyal to a fault. They know how to play our supposed commander in chief as he is an open book. Pettiness.
Trump will start another war in order to keep the faith of his base and reward the autocrats he so admires. The zionists, strongmen dictators and evangelicals have found their man.
4
@Pragmatist Please don't generalize about "Zionists". Maybe right-wing Zionists, etc. have found "their man", as you write, but non-right wing Zionists are as appalled at Trump's shenanigans as they are at Bibi's. And I'm not a "leftie" but a centrist Democrat who is an ardent supporter of Israel. America and Israel are both great countries but they don't deserve this kind of "leadership". And BOTH countries have been hijacked by a political minority.
5
Creating a desperate generation in the Arab world may trigger another 9/11 as the world is dominated by someone like Trump. Europe is in turmoil and the rest of the world could not care less as it has its own problems.
Trump is an ignoramus and may start a middle east war and Americans will pay attention when gas prices go up and their shopping drives are disrupted. The folks who help elect Trump and the silent Republicans have set up a dangerous world for their kids. God help us.
9
As Jews celebrate Purim and their rescue from genocide, Mike Pompeo has been quoted by the BBC as agreeing that it is possible Donald Trump was sent by God to save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace, much like Queen Esther, the heroine of the Purim story. Further, he adds, he is “certain God is at work here.” This remarkable statement from the Secretary of State raises many serious questions, including why he himself had s job. Most important is the question whether Trump as a savior should move to Israel to be on site and more hands-on as he effects his grand rescue. This would free him up from the irritating job for which he unfortunately was elected and which he so clearly cannot discharge competently or ethically. A related question raised is whether God would actually choose to inflict such a person on the Jewish people. Netanyahu not withstanding, I think not.
9
What a predicament when you have 'abuse of power' so glaring that it stinks already. The annexation, as a strong possibility, and supported by U.S. vulgar bully in-chief, would be the end of any rational thought about living in peace among Israelis and Palestinians; and a 'tribute' to injustice as well, an insult to democratic values. Is this what we want or need? Certainly not. Netanahu is unhinged, and the damage to his people may be forthcoming, all to escape judgment and to satisfy his ego, 'a la Trump'.
3
I wonder when countries are gonna figure out that behaving decently and even generously always, always works out better in the end than behaving arrogantly and abusively?
5
Donald Trump is totally irresponsible. Israel has occupied the Golan since 1967 and despite a UN resolution, it refuses to withdraw. The Golan is Syrian territory. Trump is the worst misfortune that could happen to mankind. The millions of Americans who elected him are enemies of humanity.
2
Israel could make peace with the Palestinians tomorrow and agree to a territory exchange with the Palestinians that keeps the major settlements and dismantles the rest. For that agreement, the Israelis would need a Palestinian peace partner. Palestinians have rejected offer after offer that gives them ninety percent of what they want because they have not yet accepted Israel's right to exist. Israelis are now content to forget about a Palestinian peace deal because they have no partner. That doesn't mean they are stupid enough to formally annex part of theWest Bank.
8
“Yes, Netanyahu is a great partner. It’s all the PalestinNs’ fault.” This sounds like the words of a 4 year old. “But she started!” Peace is possible even now and the Israelis are in a position of overwhelming strength. Peace is not risky for them. Annexing territory is leading to much greater risks.
@Alex 100% correct
2
@KindaCold
The occupation is necessary to prevent racist Palestinians from murdering Jews. If Palestinians were willing to live in peace with Israelis, the occupation wouldn't be necessary.
If Israel were to end the occupation of the West Bank today, Palestinians would fire rockets & mortars from the West Bank just as Palestinians fired rockets & mortars from Gaza after Israel pulled out of Gaza.
4
Mr . Bunk here_has anyone surveyed which groups in Israel
are saying what about taking over the West Bank.
I strongly suspect that the Ultra Orthodox are for taking it over,
and secular jews are largely not. As long as the "ultras" continue to gain more power I think things will get worse for Israel.
4
It is sad and ironic that after all these years of serious and dangerous threats from the Arab nations surrounding Israel, the destruction of Israel's core values and ideals will almost certainly come from within-----with ample help from America's worst President.
5
Netanyahu has forgotten what happened after the golden calf.
Israel paid a price for that then, and it would appear
that Bibi doesn't care if it happens again. Any attempt to officially make the Golan Heights part of Israel proper - will
ignite another war in the Middle East, and possibly jeopardizes the Jewish state that was so long in the making.
1
Well intentioned people who would like to support the Palestinian cause prefer to pretend that the Palestinian leadership is basically honest. It never has been and most likely never will be. Double dealing and subterfuge are ingrained in Middle Eastern culture and the Palestinians are able practitioners of these arts. With them it will always be conquer or be conquered. That is the sad truth.
8
The previous settlement movement in the West Bank led to September 11th and a campaign of terrorism against Israel and the United States. Will annexation of the West Bank lead to another September 11th and another campaign of terrorism?
3
@James Ribe
Most involved in 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia yet Mr Trump is very happy to be best buddies with MBS.
1
Israel needs to tell West Bank Palestinians that they can forget about an independent state on the West Bank. They had their chance. They didn't take it. That ship has sailed.
The West Bank needs to be incorporated into Israel-proper. West Bankers should get full Israeli citizenship and rights. Palestinians who lost land, money or businesses should get Just Compensation as under the legal Doctrine of Eminant Domain. No "right of return". They get cash instead. You want your land back, take your cash and buy it back if it's available.
West Bank Palestinians can get some autonomy as French Canadians do in Quebec. And that's it. Case closed. With the huge influx of Jews since 1948 the region alloted to Jews is too small to support a viable state for Jews much less two states.
The UN should declare Gaza an independent state whether Gaza wants it or not. Israel vacated Gaza years ago. Egypt doesn't want Gaza back. Independence is the only viable outcome.
There's your Palestinian State. Gaza!
6
@MIKEinNYC
The right of return is part of the universal declaration of human rights.
Trump is Netanyahu’s puppet. Is Congress also?
It’s all about the Benjamins.
3
Trump is playing with political fire. He is under a lot of heat for his support of white power extremists and white nationalists. So he is making a treacherous political move to create an image that he does not harbor any anti-semitism. Here is how.
The other day, Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked if Trump was an anti-semite. The first words out of her mouth were that Trump is a very strong supporter of Israel. She doesn't get it.
Supporting Israel is a political move. A person can support Israel, a state that wields political power, and still support white nationalist anti-semites. Trump supports Israel because of what Israel, the state, does. This does not justify his support for white extremism.
This is also a domestic political move because a few super wealthy Republican Jews want Israel to dominate and annex the lands called out in the Bible. Also, many evangelicals believe that Jesus will not return until the Jews are in control of all of the ancient holy lands. This is another political angle.
Furthermore, just because his daughter married a Jew doesn't mean Trump wants Jews in the family. The Kushner family are real New York real estate moguls. Trump is a phony developer that doesn't pay his bills and went bankrupt six times. This marriage is a financial move for Trump.
Trump is a white nationalist. Jews are not accepted by that group. We are not white enough. It sickens me that Israel has teamed up with their leader, Trump.
5
The Israel as we know it in early years of foundation is fading.
Israel is becoming more and more it's neighboring Arab states, Strong man governed country.
In short Israel loosing its roots and becoming a true Middle eastern country.
That is all.
2
Uhh, no. Israel can-and I hope will-vote Bibi out in the next elections. The Arabs are the second largest voting block. Tell me in which of the neighboring states the population can vote out the PM or President, without risking imprisonment or even death-and in which Arab neighboring country Jews are a large voting bloc-the second largest.
3
It is indeed a green light and everyone knows that Jesus approves.
"Israel’s right-wing leaders are reading signals from Washington as a green light."
That's because they are.
By design.
2
I view the upcoming election in Israel with interest. There are those in the United States that view Israel today through the prism of the 1960s. They see the Netanyahu regime of the last years as an aberration, not the true will of the Israeli people. That somehow Bibi has pulled the wool over the eyes of the occupants of Israel that are allowed to vote. That his policies of increasing the power of the Ultra Orthodox, the incasing growth of the settlements on what was once Palestinian land. his embrace of a racist political party and the venal corruption of Bibi and his wife are a temporary things and will be reversed in this election when the people of Israel have come to their senses.
What will they say here if Bibi wins?
1
@Edward B. Blau
Most of Palestine was not owned by Palestinians. About half was government land (Ottoman & then British.) Large areas of Palestine were owned by wealthy Arabs in surrounding countries. 80% of Palestinians had no land at all.
3
Does anybody really think our Mad King Donnie can make any situation better?!
I don't understand the fantasy of this column. Netanyahu is a terrible prime minister who is doing his best to alienate American Jews from Israel. Are their any Israelis planning on returning to the Syria? Assad and his father slaughtered vast numbers of their own people. This maybe lost on the Arab World and on Koplow but is it lost on any Israeli?
2
In the long term two possibilities: (1)!Israel will continue toward an orthodox Jewish-run dictatorship, or more remotely possible (2) Israel will become an Arab run country, possibly also a dictatorship.
When will ground be broken for Trump Golan Tower and golf course?
Well if Israel can have the Golan heights then it should be ok for Russia to have Crimea.
4
@ndbza
Crimea did not attack Russia.
The Syrians attacked Israel from the Golan Heights again & again.
If someone is shooting you & you grab his gun, are you morally obligated to return the gun?
3
Armageddon just got one step closer.
2
Dr. Koplow, prepare to be assaulted by the right wing Americans who recognize a fellow fascist state when they see it and support its aims.
Your cry in the wilderness of American neo-fascism doesn't fall only on deaf ears but on hearts that have been shut down by cries of "antisemitism".
The US is on the same disastrous track...
3
Koplow and people who share his ideas need to recognize that the horrendous future he describes is in fact the present-day reality. Israel has controlled the West Bank for the bulk of its existence as a nation, and shows no realistic sign of relinquishing that control. As the Israeli right, which is politically dominant, makes clear, the best the Palestinians can expect is a "state minus." in other words a bantustan. It's time for Zionist liberals to recognize that their dream has failed, and the only alternatives are the current reality or a state of all its people.
President Trump's dog whistles to Benjamin Netanyahu are encouraging the Israeli right to annex the Golan Heights. Bibi's Likud Party, 28 legislators up for re-election 9 April, support annexation of part of the West Bank. Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and the Golan Heights will lead to war in the most combustible country in the Middle East. How can Israel, the only democracy surrounded by Arab countries, elect (again) Trump's great friend Bibi? Has a two-state solution been trashcanned? Just as our 2020 election turns on the issue of Donald Trump himself, so Israel's election next month turns on the issue of Netanyahu himself. Israelis are more concerned with the threat of terrorism and the high cost of living than with annexing the West Bank. If Bibi Netanyahu wins the election, the Iron Dome defending Israel will get a workout from Israel's Arab neighbors.
@Nan Socolow
Israel doesn't have to actually annex the Golan Heights. It can use America's endorsement as a negotiating chip.
Israel had offered to end the occupation in return for a peace treaty, but part of the border was on a lake. Because of climate change, the lake got smaller. Israel was willing to withdraw up to the old border, but Syria wanted the new border because it would have given Syria more land. Israel could say "Use the old border or we'll just annex the whole Golan & the US will recognize our annexation.
1
The photo along with this story shows arsonists, not protesters. The NYT forgot to mention these people are launching firebombs, often by balloon, into Israel.
Also missing, prior the the 6 Day War, Israel was repeatedly targeted by Syrian weapons.
If Israel were to move out of the Golan, terrorists would resume their shooting at Israel.
8
Trump isn't concerned with the problems he creates for the Middle East; his only interest in the Golan Heights is gaining more Jewish votes in America.
While praising the intelligence of the American electorate, he secretly knows that they can be led around like a bulls with nose rings - only instead of bull rings, he uses their beliefs and prejudices to lead them wherever he wants.
If DJT doesn't destroy our fragile democracy, he has published the blueprint and playbook for some other demagogue to do it later. If a democracy like America's is going to exist, there will have to be a paradigm shift in human thought throughout the world.
In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. These minds would see the survival of a particular group of people or a belief as more important than the survival of all. When we understand all this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
The very idea that one man - who STOLE OUR ELECTION with the help of Putin, Netanyahu and other International Mafia 0.01% supposed "srong men" is simply inexcusable.
The very idea that the world thinks he speaks for MY United States of America is ludicrous.
How long will people with power in OUR political/legal/military secret service complexes let him lurk around OUR white house, destroying OUR government and the world?
This demented, morally/ethically bankrupt, socially unconscious inherited/stolen weaalth maniac must be stopped NOW.
Mr. Comey says The Con Don should not be impeached because it would be seen as a "coup". Fine. The vast majority of people - those who are honest, informed and don't participate in polls - want him OUT when they find out what he's really up to.
A citizen's arrest coup is better than a civil war and/or 3rd WW that they are trying to start.
NOW is the time for action.
1
The cold facts are that the Arabs and Israelis have had 8 major wars, 5 started by the Arabs,3 by the Israelis. Israel won every war. Israel is functioning European Democracy and the Arab nations are at best dictatorships, at worse genocide regimes. No matter who is the next PM of Israel, the facts will not change. Just the feelings.
People are calling a negotiated do-over are just virtue signalling. Too many Israeli PMs have crashed on that rock. I wish Mr Gantz the best.
Key problem - who will he negotiating with? The PLO or Hamas? PLO/Hamas need to take a hard look in the mirror when Saudi Arabia thinks you are too extreme and Egypt thinks you are too corrupt.
4
The show your derriere to the Arabs attitude is shared by Bibi and Don. No peace deal can even be put on the table by the Trump administration.
As for Israel making all non Jews second class citizens, seems to ring a bit of a bell regarding our own situation, tho we still claim to be a diversity friendly country, just not so much under Trump.
Down the road there will be plenty of sorrow for Israel with these two at the "helm"
@Ira Cohen
If a country has an official religion or an established religion, does that make the citizens who practice a different religion second class citizens?
1
"Israeli voters may be about to rush headlong into quicksand that they don’t even realize exists."
Sound familiar?
Let's call this Israel's equivalent of Brexit --- Annexit.
1
Trump's acknowledging the reality on the ground created by Israel LONG before the current right wing government
3
So, don't write about what Trump actually said which has great validity but make up a straw man for which to write a "sky is falling" column. Only in the New York Times.
2
Thankfully now America has a President who stands with the only true Democracy in the Middle East, Israel, where there is such a thing as women's rights.
Unlike the previous President, Obama, who treated Israel like dirt and pandered to the radical Mullahs in Iran.
3
The new Axis of Authoritarians--Netanyahu, Trump, and Saudi Crown Price Mohammed bin Salman--are all about "Lebensraum." More settlements in the Occupied territories, even in the Golan Heights, and the really big prize--regime change in Iran. If the ongoing wars in Syria and Yemen are not enough for these three reckless and ruthless flame-throwing pyromaniacs why not set the whole region aflame. The drums are already beating in the Trump White, in Riyadh, and if Bibi is re-elected in Jerusalem. It's time to stop this madness. It's up to the voters in Israel to send a message that a democracy will no longer tolerate a corrupt, autocratic leader who would rather wage war than make peace.
2
@Paul Wortman
Israel signed peace treaties with Jordan & Israel even though the meant giving up large areas of Biblical Israel. That shows that Israel is more interested in peace than in land.
2
hanging their hat with trump is also quicksand
Had the pleasure to visit Israel last year. That experience taught me the necessity of a Jewish State. Centuries of progroms, murderous hate and holocaust, created the need for Aliyah, and the need to preserve Jewish culture. Only a two state solution can preserve the Jewish State, and annexing the West Bank would entail citizenship to millions of Palestinians, many of whom are Israel’s avowed enemies.
The fate of the Jewish State should not reside on the needs of soon to be indicted politicians and their party. There is much more at stake.
1
To Trump’s evangelical base, this will be seen as the event that ushers in the end times when the rapture will spirit them away to the great sky daddy. Fools all around us.
3
Are Trump and Jared planning to build a Trump mega hotel/casino/golf course in the area?
2
Israel always wanted to do what it wanted to do - it just now has no external check.
3
@Paul
The Golan Heights would not have been occupied if Syria had not been firing at the farmers in the valley below & had not attacked Israel in 1948, 1967 & 1973.
3
THE people promoting the "Jewish character" of a nation-state suddenly find themselves in a political alliance with Americans who wish to retain the "white Christian" character of America.
They're singing the same song. This song is the antithesis of the American revolution, the U.S. constitution, and the Enlightenment behind both.
We've made such progress as a people, progress at the core of our identity as a nation, and now dark forces, including the alt right and right wing Jewish/Christian Zionist lobbies are trying to pull us in the other direction simply because it serves their narrow interests.
Beware of Citizens United and casino money (Adelson), which together are undermining our identity as a nation at record pace, all to serve their narrow unamerican interests. These are your true "enemies of the people".
1
Trump must have studied his craft at the Jethro Bodine School of Diplomacy.
1
This si so interesting, let´s see what´s going to happen next month.
Trump is just doing what his Evangelical base and Sheldon Adelson want. He doesn't care about Israel or Jewish people, or America. It's all about me!
2
The Jared-ocrasy talks, Trump walks.
1
Poor lit'l unaware Israeli voters. They've gleefully (and successfully) supported apartheid and military oppression for decades now. But they really don't mean to encourage it. It just happens without their knowing.
3
@Jeff Atkinson
Benjamin Pogrund
“…during 26 years as a journalist in South Africa I investigated and reported the evil that was apartheid. I saw Nelson Mandela secretly when he was underground, then popularly known as the Black Pimpernel, and I was the first non-family member to visit him in prison.
I have now lived in Israel for 17 years, doing what I can to promote dialogue across lines of division. To an extent that I believe is rare, I straddle both societies. I know Israel today – and I knew apartheid up close. And put simply, there is no comparison between Israel and apartheid…”
2
The right wing/fascist parties around the world have been hard at work undermining democracies, majority government and the rule of law while the rest of us just go about our daily lives. If not for the awfulness of t rump the voters of this Nation would not be aware of the fascist direction the republican party has bee taking US these last 50 years.
Maybe that will also be the case in Israel but their danger is so much closer at hand which always gives those who govern through fear an easier time to erode everyone's rights.
Once again, Europeans dictate what happens to indigenous people in a far away land!
1
Glad to hear only 15% of Jewish Israelis support annexing West Bank. For those who do, what type of political system will you call it when you keep Palestinian residents of annexed West Bank in a less-than-citizenship, non-voting status? Surely no one will have the gall to call it 'democracy' but 'apartheid' has ugly connotations. I know from Bret Stephens that Palestinians are violent people who fight amongst themselves, hate Jewish people and can't be trusted with citizenship but how can Israel call itself a democracy with a segment of the population stripped of any political agency?
2
@Robert Heinrich
Israel could annex just part of the West Bank. For example, Area C is 61% of the West Bank & has 300,000 Palestinians. The 300,000 Palestinians could be given full citizenship & Israel would still be majority-Jewish.
1
This is Trump trying to get Jewish votes, no other reason for him to do it.
1
@SamanthaI
Samanthal, Trump's doing part of it to get Evangelicals' votes, most of who believe in a literal reading of the Bible They believe (I'm not making this up) that Jews must return to Isreal before Jesus Christ can fulfill the prophecy of The Second Coming. This prophecy entails Jesus Christ leading the faithful to their eternal rest, in heaven.
2
Like all leftist pieces about Israel nothing is mentioned sbout the fact that the Palestinians as shown by their actions have no interest in peaceful co existence with Israel. As a frequent visitor to Israel I can say that most Israelis believe that the status quo and conflict management is the best that can be done
4
Huh, a democratic country ceding the high ground to right wing extremists because of the political power of a tiny minority. And getting support from the head of state to stave off indictment. Can't quite put my finger on it, but it seems vaguely familiar.
1
Yes, so shameful that our President Trump is openly interfering with Israeli elections. No nation should be allowed to openly interfere with another's.
Better to do it secretly like Obama did with the nearly $300,000. his state department spent to get rid of Natanyahu.
1
Various Prime Ministers tried to negotiate, secretly or more openly, with the Assads on a comprehensive peace deal and withdrawal from the Golan in exchange. Nothing worked out because the Assads wanted to control the water supplies feeding into the Jordan river, and camp out on the eastern edge of the sea of Galilee, with nothing substantial in terms of security for Israel. Life doesn't stop, the few Jews who moved to the Golan now have several generations alongside them, and the Syrian Druze are grateful they weren't on the wrong side of the border during the beyond awful Syrian civil war that victimized some of their brethren.
When a stateman like Sadat will emerge in Syria, it could be returned, and the Jewish inhabitants could remain there, if they chose to. The Druze would likely never harm them.
3
Why do all of these pundits both in favor and against Israeli policies think they know it all.
Israel did not move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
Israel did not declare sovereignty over the Golan.
Israel did not close the border between Gaza and Egypt.
Get your facts straight. Come to Israel before you declare Israel an apartheid state. Speak to the Israeli Arab population to see under whose government they feel most comfortable.
You are welcome to state your opinion but let it be noted that it is only a biased opinion.
8
Sam, we own Israel. We can say anything we please. Now just mind your own affairs and leave Israel to us(US).
2
@Dr. Sam Rosenblum
Desmond Tutu who lived under apartheid in South Africa said that many Israeli practices are worse than apartheid.
In South Africa, drivers shared the same roads, there were not separate and unequal roads. Israel has more than 30 laws which discriminate against non Jews.
"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo believes President Trump may have been sent by God to rescue the Jewish people from Iran, according to an interview he gave to the Christian Broadcasting Network."
And Mueller was sent by God to rescue the American People from Trump.
5
Israel's only objective was always to create a 100% Jewish country from the sea to the river. The idea is to push out all non-jews outside of "greater Israel"
3
@77ads77 You got that backwards. "From the river to the sea" was the Arab chant in 1948 to wipe out all the Jews in the fledgling state. BDS has adopted the slogan indicating their purpose, to, is to totally destroy Israel. But Israel survives, and her Arab-Israeli population thrives, the opposite of a genocidal intention.
5
@RA
BDS supporters want equality and justice for all.
Zionist leaders always wanted all the land and none of the Palestinians.
"From the river to the sea" does not mean that Israelis will all be killed.
@77ads77
In 1929, Palestinians ethnically cleansed Hebron & Gaza of their Jews.
In 1948, Arabs ethnically cleansed the West Bank & East Jerusalem of their Jews. ZERO Jews were left in Gaza, the West Bank or East Jerusalem. Israel could have ethnically cleansed all the Arabs from Israel, but Israel didn’t. There are now 1.8 million Arabs living in Israel.
2
Historically the Golan Heights was part of the Kingdom of David. Genetically the Golan Heights is part of the area that contains the Palestinian gene pool. The east bank of the Jordan river is also part of the Palestinian gene pool as well as part of the Kingdom of David. This is not a coincidence. Israel is now on a path towards a one state solution that will also end it being a majority Jewish state if it remains a democracy.
@TimToomey
Israel was never a democracy.If you were a displaced Palestinian I'm sure you would not consider Israel a democracy.
2
@Solon
Even Palestinians think that Israel is a democracy.
“57% say democracy in Israel is good or very good”
http://pcpsr.org/en/node/723
1
There is always something amusing, although condescending, about a foreigner telling voters in another country that they are stupid. But there are two explanations that left wing Americans such as Koplow ignore: first, it may be that the voters understand that, as Koplow correctly points out, that annexation would be costly and risky, or second, because the voters know it, they know that talk is cheap and that it will not happen.
Unfortunately, learning about the realities of Palestinian dysfunction and their incapacity to govern themselves is difficult for Times readers, given that the Times is too ideological and insufficiently diverse to so inform it s readers.
4
Why care what Trumps says about Israel's interal problems. Let Israel and the Arabs solve their own problems.
@Brad Steele
Right on !!
We’re on our way to a one state solution, with Arabs counting as three fifths of a person.
3
@New World
Or as non-persons. That is Israeli democracy similar to the onset of American pseudo democracy.
@Solon
@New World
Each Israeli, regardless of religion, has one vote.
1
America never interferes in foreign elections, that's an evil crime only Russians commit.
6
@Alex, in Truth’s eyes, America is as guilty as Russia when it comes to meddling interference with elections. Many many times and places..
1
@Alex
Tell that to the Guatemalians, the Nicaragurians, the Panamanians, the Hondurans and the Chileans.
Palestinians will never cease to fight for their homeland. Israeli Jews will never cease to fight for theirs. Matter and Antimatter.
1
@Pen
Why is Israel the homeland of the Jews only? The early Zionists came from Russia and other European countries. If there is no right of return for Palestinians who actually resided in the land , why is there a birthright for someone born in the US or Europe who is Jewish to live in Israel?
Mr. Koplow represents an organization, Israel Policy Forum, which was created by a handful of rich liberal Jewish businessmen in the Shimon Peres heyday who believed there was a fortune to be made, for themselves, of course via the fata morgana of a peace deal with the Arabs. Such a peace deal never happened, and the fault is hardly Israel's, certainly not Israel's alone. Since that time IPF continues to preen and pose from its very diminished and irrelevant corner, issuing statements as if what it has to say matters, and quoting radical Israeli partisans, like Aluf Benn whose journalistic credentials are hopelessly tarnished by their extreme, leftwing, often anti-Israel partisanship.
6
Israelis should view the title of Rick Wilson's book as a blinking red light: "Everything Trump Touches Dies."
1
Hmmm. How did we get Texas. California?
2
@Alan
Not just Texas and California but Nevada,Arizona, and New Mexico as well.
1
Sounds like a desperate Jexit dog whistle from a President so out of touch that he doesn’t know that most American Jews 1) support a two-state solution, 2) Are anti-Netanyahu and 3) aren’t single-issue voters. In that sense, isn’t this tweet as anti-Semitic as “the Benjamins, baby”?
2
Wasn't there an adult in the room when Trump was found playing with matches near a dumpster full of kerosene soaked rags ?????
1
THEY call it 'trump derangement syndrome'....
I call it Patriotism...
GOP.... this in on you.
You've already made it clear that the NRA owns you on guns. Now it's clear that Israel's hard right owns you on Foreign Policy...
God bless Iran and the Iranian people....
4
It is tragically ironic that Israel, established as a refuge for the Jewish people, is doing all in its power to undercut its viability as that secure home for a people who were almost eradicated by the Nazi behemoth. Israel’s short-sightedness, aided and abetted by Trump and his party, is sowing the seeds of the state’s destruction.
1
Just returned from visiting relatives in Israel on my 10th trip since 1969. More apalled than ever by politics and divisiveness there. I visited the new Trump embassy in Jerusalem built on disputed land over the 1948 green line. While I was in Israel the US closed its consulate for Arabs in East Jerusalem and required all Arabs to go to the consulate in Israeli Jerusalem or the embassy.
Kahanists now are being accepted as main stream in the Knessed after their leader's party was banned. Everyone forgets that a Kahanist killed 29 Muslims in a Mosque in 1994 before mosques, synagogues and churches were getting attacked all over the world by white supremacists. Apparently the events in Pittsburgh, Charleston and New Zealand are not relevant when allowing Kahanists into the Israeli mainstream.
Secular and liberal Jews are outcasts as far as the Rabbinate and religious leaders in the Israeli government with a female Rabbi being kicked and stomped at the holiest Jewish site by ultra orthodox teens with no arrests.
Trumps ultranationalism and right wing fascist beliefs have taken root in Israel.
I found it most ironic that Israeli infrastructure is developing at warp speed with subways, ports and high speed rail being built by Chinese companies and not a word about concentration camps for thousands of Muslims in China.
I guess the phrase "never again" only applies to Orthodox Jews when in Israel.
5
Trump uses Israel to leverage 2020. Make no mistake, nothing more stirs the Right from its dogmatic slumbers than Israel, and nothing is so divisive within the Left than Israel. Day after day
a few people on a small patch of desert get front page coverage on the world stage. The Right sees the hand of God at work in all this, and in the Left's unwilling participation, compelled, as it were, to serve Zion by anti-Zion (the Holocaust). Again, as they like to say, "God uses the wrath of man to praise Him." The Bible makes the Temple Mount the center of the earth, and here we are day after day, fixated on those few acres. Extraordinary....
1
Democracy? Headline at NPR:
Netanyahu Says Israel Is 'Nation-State Of The Jewish People And Them Alone'. He means it.
3
America has become a joke to the rest of the world and especially the arab/muslim nations in that region as to being a leader or even a so so mediator in the region.
We went from simmering down the constant conflict to throwing gasoline on it.
We have gone from if you can't beat them ie arab bad policy towards Israel ie join them ie helping Israel's bad policy towards arabs, ie concentration camps, civilian deaths, land grabs, favorable civilian/military kill ratios etc. etc.
3
What Good News for the Evangelical “supporters” of Israel who seek only to foment war between the Jews and Palestinians in order to bring about the End Times. God save us all!
“I live in New York and get paid to think about what Israelis should do with their own domestic issues. The problem is that those darn Israelis won’t pay attention to what I’m saying. They’re about to cast their votes the totally WRONG WAY!!!! Somebody HEEEELPPP!!!”
2
Looks like Trump got a nudge from Adelson
3
@Paul Panza, we should check his bank account for any monetary transfers...
1
**RESUBMISSION** The new Axis of Authoritarians--Netanyahu, Trump, and Saudi Crown Price Mohammed bin Salman--are all about "Lebensraum." More settlements in the Occupied territories, even in the Golan Heights, and the really big prize--regime change in Iran. If the ongoing wars in Syria and Yemen are not enough for these three reckless and ruthless flame-throwing pyromaniacs why not set the whole region aflame. The drums are already beating in the Trump White, in Riyadh, and if Bibi is re-elected in Jerusalem. It's time to stop this madness. It's up to the voters in Israel to send a message that a democracy will no longer tolerate a corrupt, autocratic leader who would rather wage war than make peace.
2
The corruption cases against Netanyahu are largely about his receipt of cigars from a political donor.
He's probably guilty of this crime.
I know I would be.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Alan-Dershowitz-publishes-open-letter-to-A-G-defending-Netanyahu-581888
2
I feel incredibly reluctant to criticize Israel. The world failed them during (beyond horrifically) AND after WW2, not wanting to return their lands and possessions stolen by the Nazis. The world proceeded to place them where they are. THEN, they were attacked and they kicked their opponent's butts so bad, they ended up occupying land that wasn't theirs before the 7-day war. Hard to blame them for that, hard to blame them for anything. A debt of millions of souls is owed to the Jewish people that can never be repaid. I don't agree with some of Israel's actions, but I am reluctant to offer criticisms in light of history....
1
@SMcStormy
The Palestinians lived peacefully with a community of Jews. They did not participated in the German genocide of the Jewish people. Yet those same European jews have displaced millions of Palestinians and have treated the few who remained as non-persons. In some cases they treat the remaining Palestinians worse than Hitler's atrocities against the Jews.
A massacre of Muslims just occurred in New Zealand.
Trump has banned Muslims from entering the US.
His despicable abuses of undocumented people, including innocent children fleeing violence makes him a criminal.
When is the world going to stand up and FINALLY acknowledge the disgraceful suffering and imprisonment of the Palestinian people?!!! I know so many Jewish American people who want a two state solution. Why not continue to work towards that (admittedly) difficult goal?
Trump and Netanyahu have hijacked the people of two great democracies.
Vote these sleazy creeps out before Putin slithers in for another grab.
Like many ancient and modern states, whose people are politically united and which have strong armies, Israel has powerful imperialistic desires. It wants to acquire more of its neighbors' land. This was true of ancient Rome, 16th century Spain, 19th century England, post-civil war United States, Nazi Germany (recall the term "lebensraum"), and currently Russia and China. Imperialism is flourishing in Moscow, Beijing, and Jerusalem.
Do any of you -- who are constantly fake-defenders of Palestinians, a group who allow themselves to be ruled by terrorists and who are shunned by their Islamic brothers in ALL the countries that surround Israel -- ever look at a map of the middle east? There is so much Islamic land! Let the Jewish people live in peace on this tiny plot of land! Obviously the West bank is important to Israel, but no reason it should be important to anyone else...And before you start going bananas; to ALL of you here in the U.S., you seem to have no problem with what this country did to Native Americans.
5
@Name (required)
Americans do have problem with what was done to the native Americans. The key is that we are not still offering a bounty on native heads and restricting their movement. The Israelis are still doing that. Why is there no reason the West Bank should be important to anyone else? Have you seen the villages there that can trace roots for centuries? More than 500 villages were erased by the Israeli army but there is still a deep tie to the land for Palestinians even while Israel tries to eradicate all trace.
@penney albany. We killed tens of millions of Indians and now we put them on reservations. Yes they are free to move around. But they don't try to kill us anymore. Unlike Palestinians to Israelis. And I believe the Jewish people can also trace back in those parts, for more than centuries. You selectively defend Palestinians but not Indians.
1
A massacre of Muslims just occurred in New Zealand.
Trump has banned Muslims from entering the US.
His despicable abuses of undocumented people, including innocent children fleeing violence makes him a criminal.
When is the world going to stand up and FINALLY acknowledge the disgraceful suffering and imprisonment of the Palestinian people?!!! I know so many Jewish American people who want a two state solution. Why not continue to work towards that (admittedly) difficult goal?
Trump and Netanyahu have hijacked the people of two great democracies.
Vote these sleazy creeps out before Putin slithers in for another grab.
1
Koplow sets up a straw man that nobody supports (Israeli so-called plans to annex the West Bank, about the stupidest move Israel could ever make, and Israelis know this) and then takes it down.
Fake news.
4
Israel is the only country people care about, but still couldn't find it on a map.
How clueless can these NYT authors get? Democracy? LOL what democracy? The one that denies arabs living in Israel the right to run for office?
It's appalling how Israeli 'control' over the West Bank can be mentioned without bringing up the forceful eviction of Palestinians from their homes, and the constant expansion of settlements that encroach the every day life of palestinians.
How can you not mention UN resolution 3314, stating that land taken by force cannot be annexed? What do you have to say to the Druze who long to see their family just a few kilometers away.
There is no dangerous precedent being set now, it's been set since the Palestinians were lied to with the Oslo Accords and the establishment of the PLO. This decision means nothing and changes nothing. Clearly the author cares only about ensuring that us Palestinians never set foot in the same place as God's 'Chosen People.' Most of us would gladly take a one state solution and live equal to our Jewish brothers but people like the Author try to ensure that will never happen.
2
Israel is surrounded by a dozen failed states with fictional borders - including Syrian “ownership” of the Druze Golan - created by the collapse of the Turkish empire, so it’s not clear why Western progressives are hell-bent on the destabilizing it. That aside, annexing the formerly Jordanian areas known as the West Bank is a terrible idea for a Jewish homeland.
3
Israel has three main aspirations:
To be a democracy
To be Jewish
To possess the occupied lands gained in war
Pick any two of those three and the third one is impossible.
1
Netanyahu is a disgrace. A brutal war criminal who desecrates the soil of Israel with his presence let alone his position of power.
So, Israel wiped Palestine off the map. If you don't agree, I challenge you to find any world map or atlas of the middle east from 1946 or earlier. Now find the country of Israel.
Yes, it's not there. But there is a region called "Palestine".
I am utterly surprised that people's knee jerk reaction is always "Palestinians won't recognize the Jewish state". Well, duh.
Don't get me wrong. I want Israel to be strong, safe and productive. But, any outside observer can see Israel's similarity to a gangster state, financed by American taxpayers.
2
@Jack from Saint Loo
‘Palestine’...a derelict province of the Ottoman Empire for 500 years before their WWI defeat...no longer exists.
Now called ‘Jordan and Israel’...with a limited autonomous area that the illegal Jordanian occupiers (1948-1967) referred to as the ‘West Bank’
Wars have consequences.
2
Especially wars financed by American taxpayers.
A massacre of Muslims just occurred in New Zealand.
Trump has banned Muslims from entering the US.
His despicable abuses of undocumented people, including innocent children, fleeing violence makes him a criminal.
Do we really need a report from Robert Mueller? Of course we do, but the racist carnage seeping globally is all connected to this corrupt moron.
When is the world going to stand up and FINALLY acknowledge the disgraceful suffering and imprisonment of the Palestinian people?!!! I know so many Jewish American people who want a two state solution. Why not?
Trump and Netanyahu have hijacked the people of two great democracies.
Vote these sleazy creeps out before Putin slithers in for another grab.
1
Whenever a country sides with the American Republican Party since they are rotten to the core will get back bad Karma . You deserve it if your ideology is me first . America should not go to war for these people with such corrupt leaders in Israel since they will justify more killing to distract from their criminal actions .
2
Good.
The Israelis should take advice from Allah, there will be peace when one side ceases to exist ;)
Trump needs a big diversion.
Like an Israeli inspired war of aggression
It stinks that he can tweet policy
Hope our next president isn’t allowed to rule by tweet storm.
Every day is more painful to observe in our country.
Knowing we have children in concentration camps right here in America.
1
Deja vu, you too, Israel?
Well it looks like the Democrats appeasement to AIPAC has finally come home to roost. Now you can blame Trump for all your lack of moral judgement.
1
Another piece of excellent NYT journalism (not). The West Bank and the Golan Heights legitimately belong to Israel at this point, gained when Arabic countries in their hatred of Jews decided to attack Israel to push the Jews into the sea and eliminate Israel. Things didn't quite work out that way, did it? The Golan Heights and the West Bank are important military buffer areas to ensure Israel's defense if those same Arabic countries are stupid enough to try for a return match. An analogy to your journalistic piece of trash is that we should give California and certain other southwestern states back to Mexico. Well, maybe California.
3
The primary danger to the United States if that war will come once again the Israel at which time they will ask for our assistance. The faux president will send us pell mell back into the morass of the middle east where we will be until the so-called Messiah returns to Jerusalem to free the Israelites. Good job with the phony bunch of criminals running our country.
Spin baby spin
3
There is no such thing as granting automatic citizenship to 2.5 million Palestinians. The entire propaganda/brainwashing structure, that runs parallel to how Palestinian children are educated to hate and demonize not just Israel but Jews, would first be dismantled. An entire new educational system, media, and culture introduced. It would take many years, perhaps several generations, to wipe out the festering, genocidal hatred of the Jewish state before any individual could acquire citizenship, let alone the right to vote in national elections. To be sure, local politics would remain as such, but the "liberation" movements and their parallel social groups would be banned.
In Germany, after the war, it took years under Allied rule to flush out the worst of Nazi ideology. But, Germans knew the Nazi era/Hitler were permanently dead, and the entire western world, plus the Soviets, were in concurrence that the 12 years of Nazi brainwashing had to be drummed out of existence. Not so with the Palestinians. They receive wide support in the western world, even their terrorism is excused by too many.
A two state solution is obviously a better choice, but it would also entail some of the aforementioned, for any peace and normalcy to ensue. To create a phony peace, whereas the same culture of hatred and spill through terrorism continues, will not last a year. Forget the one state, secular, fantasized democratic Palestine. A Potemkin village construct.
4
It’s long overdo to detoxify from brainwashing rhetoric with false moral conclusion lead mostly by overt and closer antisemites
or ignorant liberals. Israel has been repeatedly attacked by its neighbors. They wanted total extermination of the State of Israel
in 1967 and lost the war. Israel CONQUERED land absolutely needed for security reasons by hostile surrounding neighbors, while defending itself from extinction
This is REALITY. OCCUPIED, APARTHEID, RACIST etc are distorted lies
propagated by Jew hatred coming from every level of the world’s
political spectrum. Muslims are investing millions of dollars in college campuses and news media to distort reality and gain credibility. It is a rare time to celebrate US telling the truth about Israel and acting on it in both word and deed
3
Even for somebody who repeatedly claimed that the US president wasn’t an American citizen, Mr. Trump has an extremely short temper and thin skin.
He should be extremely happy with the Mueller investigation regarding the Kremlin meddling into our domestic affairs.
He should be worried only if the FBI started investigating whether the incumbent is working on behalf of some other foreign government, while hurting the best US national interests, undermining the international laws and putting us on the collision course with the Muslim world.
Only the real losers would act in such a way.
Russian claims sovereignty over occupied Crimea. Ukraine, of which Crimea is a part, never attacked or threatened Russia, yet Mr. Koplow doesn't seem to object.
Syria attacked Israel in 1948, 1967 and 1973, yet somehow Mr. Koplow, while ignoring Russia's illegal occupation of Crimea, objects to Israeli sovereignty over the vital defensive position of the Golan Heights (more accurately, a narrow sliver of the Heights, which extend deep into Syria).
There is something wrong here. Blaming a democracy repeatedly attacked by its neighbor, while giving a free pass to an aggressive dictatorship.
If Czechoslovakia had retained the Sudetes Mountains, rather than letting Chamberlain give them away at Munich, there might not have been a Second World War. It's a good analogy---a critical defensive position against an aggressive dictatorship.
5
Israel is a soverigndemocracy and its electorate gets to vote for whom they choose, not for whom the New York Times prefers.
The author's claim that Israel would have an obligation to give citizenship to any Palestinians in the liberated areas of Judea Samaria or elsewhere is patently false. There is no legal basis for it.
An attribute of sovereignty is the ability to determine whom is and whom is not a citizen of one's polity. Israel is under absolutely no obligation to give soil citizenship or blood citizenship to any member of any group that it does not desire to grant citizenship to. The surrounding Arab states do not automatically Grant citizenship to the Palestinians who may reside there, even if they were born there. No one is forcing Syria or Lebanon to grant citizenship to Palestinians within their borders. there are also limited exceptions for citizenship being conferred to persons born in the United States, for example, the children of foreign diplomats who are born in the US while the parent is here as a diplomat.
4
The bribery and breach of trust charges brought by the Israeli government against Netanyahu (and Israeli right wing supporter Sheldon Adelson's money supporting Trump) are what makes Trump support Netanyahu, not any concern about Israel. By supporting Netanyahu in light of the charges against him, Trump wants to create the impression that any similar factual findings by Special Counsel Mueller about Trump or his family would be baseless. Trump could care less about green-lighting a war that could cause Israel dearly, just as Trump could care less about any other human being. The danger is that Israel is much closer to a large scale shooting war than is the United States. As we have seen, Trump could care less about supporting bigotry and hatred, even though that encourages anti-social bigoted misfits into individual acts of shooting helpless people here in America.
2
Mr. Koplow seems to be missing the point.
Why is he conflating the Golan Heights and the West Bank?
The Golan is essential to Israel security vis-a-vis Syria...has anyone noticed what the Syrian leaders are doing to their own people?? You can only imagine what they would do to Northern Israel if they regained control of the Golan.
The West Bank is completely different and if the Palestinians would have credible leaders, renounce terrorism and recognize the existence of Israel...they would have had their own state years ago.
Sad that the rhetoric will just continue......
6
What a sham was Trump's campaign claim to be "even-handed" in his Mideast dealings, as if this latest wand-waving of his was needed to reveal that.
This has been like watching a pinball careen wildly and realizing that no one knows the when, why or who of the hand that launches the flaming ball.
I'm an Israeli now American living in nyc.
No clue what Mr. Koplow is talking about but there is basically zero chance for Gantz to win. Even blocs? Right has been polling higher for weeks and... Left bloc includes about 15 (out of 60) seats from the Arab parties. I don't see how Gantz will sit with them nor how will even Avoda will. So really the right bloc is leaps and bounds bigger.
Obviously Trump is doing this to help Bibi. Trump lacks any finesse so his every move is blatantly obvious. He is single handldly making already unpopular Israel even less popular.
I'm sad for Israel who is breaking with the west as a whole and even more so with jews who live in the west - mostly liberal left leaning like myself. As time goes on Israel is becoming like its neighbors. Extremely religious, conservative, and aggrasive.
Bottom line the end game is not good even if the left wins. Palastinians know they have time on their side and their leaders profit greatly from their blood so even if Gantz pulls a miracle, and goes on to just declare a border with Palestine - giving them what they already really have - west bank, east Jerusalem, and so on, then there are still existential threats for Israel.
Global warming. The 25% Arab Israelis who aren't going no where and cannot feel, rightly so, part of the nation of jews. Tiny land mess for too many people. And the constant threat of war from its horrible neighbors.
Really.. Where does Israel go? I do not know.
2
trump will be personally responsible for thousands of needless deaths-not that it will cause him to lose a minute of sleep.
1
Aren't we humans a peculiar species. Fighting wars over our religions, when our brains are far too small to understand The One who created us all? Perhaps one day when we recognize that limitation, we will live side by side and there will be peace in this world.
This column is a perfect example of an anti-Israel/anti Trump ideologue who doesn't let reality get in the way of opinion.
Assad of Syria is a corrupt and brutal dictator who has and will continue to slaughter and brutalize his own people and even if Israel gives up the Golan Heights it will do absolutely nothing to change what Assad is while making Israel much less secure. It should also be remembered that Israel's seizure of the Golan Heights was in response to Syria's outright aggression.
President Trump is simply recognizing reality.
3
Trump, Netanyahu and MBS are formidable warhawks. The sooner they are deposed, the better for the world.
Trashing the Iran deal and the INF treaty, enslaving the Palestinians and annexing their land because they could get away with it, disposing of Khashoggi in such a cruel way to scare the opposition shows they will stop at nothing to achieve their ends. I forgot to mention the Yemen starvation.
Remember the Iraq war and its horrible aftermath. Stop them before they invade Iran.
2
@betty durso
In the past 30 years, Israel has annexed ZERO territory.
This whole thing smells of a plan to get approval of a "Trump Tower" in Jerusalem. Trump has no grasp of international affairs beyond his personal interests.
1
We live in the 1930's sleep waking to a major war. Bibi will win and then pass legislation to make it illegal for him to be charged. This like Trump is about him ego manics both. As for Israel being a democracy that is debatable when one looks at the right wing legislation of recent years. No, Bibi now has the green light to do whatever he and his right wing followers want to do. It is interesting never discussed this will cost billions to keep the Golan Heights and part of the West Bank. Yes, Israel has a good economy fueled by billions from American taxpayers. What is now happening in the Golan Heights and the change in policy is also a green light to any nation that wants to take territory they feel belongs to them. Mr. Trump and his friends the Kurds better be very aware of this. What we have in the US is a man who like Bibi loves dictators and could care less about democracy. Israel is interesting in the sense that if one charts when all the territory taking of the West Bank began it was with the massive influx of Jews from the old Soviet Union. My point about the 1930's go back and read the history of a certain party who was allowed to take what he wanted. Also I wish the NYT and other media would stop this imagined peace plan that is coming from Jared Kushner. There is none. A failed real estate developer who could not find certain countries on a map is now a goepolitical expert. It says it all. Big question forgotten, what will Russia and Turkey do? Jim Trautman
1
@trautman
Israel didn't obtain control of the Golan Heights by aggression. Syria attacked Israel from the Golan again & again. Israel took control to silence the Syrian artillery on the Heights. Israel's annexation of the Golan could be a lesson to would be aggressors, that if you attack, you could lose territory.
1
Israel has lived its entire existence on the "brink"--nothing new here … and will continue to do so. The nature of the neighborhood.
3
Arabs identifying as Palestinian must NEVER gain control of the borders, whereby they may import weapons of mass destruction and become militarized. With terrorists Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas threatening Israel on a daily basis, the last thing Israel needs is an independent, militarized terrorist state parked on their eastern flank.
Never. Israel must maintain control of the borders, which means that ‘limited autonomy’ is the most that Arab Palestinians should ever expect at this point. ‘Statehood’ was repeatedly offered, and repeated rejected (because ‘statehood’ was never their end game, but rather a stepping stone to Israel’s destruction). Now that ship has sailed...
5
As distracting a tool as his tweets are, Trump is just an violent puppet (with severe psychosis) - in a gangster movie with D.C. political players, battling the FBI and CIA, porn stars, goose-stepping sycophants of all flavors, and his son-in-law and those Kushner close associates we hope to read more about soon...
So beyond the obvious small favor to Jared one might conjecture..., the question needs asking; who really requested the 'Godfather' for this favor? Or was it another impulsive, free-flowing mind-stream of a sick president with reptilian responses and zombie-affinity for Fox News.
It seems pretty clear to me that our president timed this declaration favorable to Israel to help his good buddy Bibi get re-elected despite Netanyahu's personal legal and political problems. What will Bibi do in return to help his buddy Donald get re-elected?
Perhaps it is better for the legal annexation to take place, so as to eliminate the increasingly transparent charade that there will ever be a two (or three) state solution. The charade facilitates continuing delay during which ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem (no longer a majority non-Jewish) and the West Bank can continue. Settlements are strategically located over aquifers, areas that create borders for greater Israel, and areas surrounding Jerusalem. Israel will never give them up. Perhaps if the annexation takes place, then the world can better see the colonization and apartheid that already exists, in time to prevent the more lethal forms of ethnic cleansing that are often the next step to such discrimination, demonization, and prejudice. eventually ensue.
1
@Eccl3
In 1929, Palestinians ethnically cleansed Hebron & Gaza of their Jews. In 1948, Arabs ethnically cleansed the West Bank & East Jerusalem of their Jews. ZERO Jews were left in Gaza, the West Bank or East Jerusalem. Israel could have ethnically cleansed all the Arabs from Israel, but Israel didn’t. There are now 1.8 million Arabs living in Israel.
3
We’ve all heard that Israel faces a choice between being Jewish or being democratic. I’m not sure if that binary is correct. I don’t think a West Bank Palestine will ever happen. I think the Israeli right will just annex the West Bank and regard the Palestinians as something akin to our undocumented immigrants. The stateless Palestinians might just be allowed to continue to live there so long as they are economically useful and then be booted out if they prove to be more trouble than they’re worth. The fact that they might be deported to countries they don’t know and didn’t actually come from will be no more relevant in Israel that it is here in the USA (according to some people). In fact, it’s probably easier in Israel, where some people think that taking the West Bank is their divine right and that their many-centuries-old religious claims are more valid than those who lived there more recently.
Anyway, we will see what the Israeli election brings. And after, the 2020 American one. I’m not sure if Trump can give the green light for Israel to annex the West Bank in the next two years, but give him until 2024 and I expect that the unholy alliance of Trump and the Israeli right will allow sufficient “facts on the ground” to be created so the choice is an easy one for him.
Anyway, whatever happens, the Palestinians are expendable in the world according to Trump.
4
I'd love to hear more from the perspective of Jewish Americans and where they stand on this issue and even American expats living in Israel stand. As a liberal-leaning Jewish American citizen, I am looking into deeper into this issue of where my support lies. But, right now without doing research, I do not support the annexing of the West Bank. Welcome more thoughts about this.
1
Israel has not been a perfect actor in Middle East geopolitics. However, they were attacked in 1967 and gained the Golan Heights in the process of winning that war, and it would be unreasonable, even unprecedented, to expect them to simply be caretakers of that strategically important area and have to promise to return the land at some point.
6
How does the acknowledgement of Israeli sovereignty of the Golan Heights contribute to peace in the Middle East? Where does one ultimately draw the borders to the Israeli state to ensure stability in the region? What exactly is the Trump administration’s master plan here? The only question with an answer is the last one: there is none.
2
@Bob
And what is your master plan? A brain makeover for Assad, followed by turning the Ayatollahs into progressive liberals? Purim is over. Back to sober reality.
3
It seems to me the question of sovereignty over the Golan should not be decided by Israel, Syria, the US, or the international community. It may be sparsely populated, but it is not depopulated. Let the residents chose which community they wish to be a part of.
1
Only one thing is very clear: Trump thought through all the possible ramifications of his actions :-) Except his own interests, naturally.
5
Watching the proliferation of anti-democratic forces at home and abroad, I can only hope for a regression toward the mean. Clearly, the driving moral force in the free world has driven away from America and has dissipated into autumn leaves.
Netanyahu is hardly an exemplar of enlightened government and peaceful coexistence. He's going to get fleas.
5
This is Trump's idea of a deal: everything for himself and nothing for the other guy. So of course his approach to peace in the Middle East is everything for Israel and nothing for the Palestinians.
3
Israel has already annexed the Golan Heights AND the West Bank. What else do you call 50 years of military occupation? Friends with benefits?
It is time for everyone to recognize there is only 1 state - greater Israel / Palestine - and there are a lot of non-Jewish people living there. Those people deserve the same rights and benefits of citizenship as their Israeli neighbors. It is the only way there will ever be peace.
If the US and Israel spent half of the money spent on militarily controlling the West Bank on re-developing and integrating it into the rest of Israel / Palestine, there would be peace and prosperity for all.
7
@Blue Dawg
Palestinians have been raised to believe that they should exterminate the Jews so until every Jew is murdered, there won't be peace.
Here’s what Palestinian kids see on Palestinian TV:
• A song in a children’s cartoon includes the lyrics, “Zionist man, run away, Zionist woman, run away, very soon you’ll be killed by a car.”
• A Palestinian singer is shown in another clip, singing the lyrics, “Oh Martyrdom-seeker, make them cry. Make the fire engulf them. Turn them into body parts, roast them.”
• A Palestinian child declaims in a speech into which he has been indoctrinated, “Oh sons of Zion, oh the most evil of creatures, oh barbaric apes.”
• In a children’s TV show, a Mickey Mouse figures asks a child, “How will you sacrifice your soul for the sake of Al-Aqsa? What will you do? The child replies, “I will shoot. We want to… We will annihilate the Jews.”
Whenever a country puts so much faith in the Republican party of America who are rotten to the core they are getting evil Karma back. Trump and friends have stirred up such hatred over there in only two years by moving an embassy in Jerusalem against the wishes of all the other religions what do you expect. We should not go to war for them and die on the battle field especially since there leader Netanyahu is so corrupt he has the same mindset as a GOP get into a war to distract from serious internal problems.
9
@D.j.j.k.
Israel has always fought its own battles.
How many American soldiers did we send to help Israel in the 1948 war? ZERO!
How many American soldiers did we send to help Israel in the 1956 war? ZERO!
How many American soldiers did we send to help Israel in the 1967 war? ZERO!
How many American soldiers did we send to help Israel in the 1973 war? ZERO!
...
1
USS Liberty: 34 American sailors killed, 171 wounded. Combined naval and air assault by Israel on flagged US Navy ship in international waters, 1967.
Kushner Companies support settlements and of course the move of the capitol to Jerusalem. Is that diplomacy? It's not enough that Kushner et al represent mendacity and corruption here, but let's spread it wherever we can. Yes, Netanyahu and his party's action may be just the spark that pushes Israel into quicksand as Koplow states, but none of this bodes well for the USA in the tinderbox that is the MIddle East. Israel has always been a lightning rod, at least as much as all the Hamases, Isis, and other groups opposing Israel. If that state took the lead in pushing for a two-state country including the poor Palestinians, it might change the course or curse of the past 50 years since the Balfour Agreement changed the Middle East.
2
@Katalina
Every time Israel offers to end the occupation, the Palestinians say “No!”
Even Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia (certainly not a Zionist) said that Arafat’s refusal to accept the January 2001 offer was a crime. Thousands of people would die because of Arafat’s decision & not one of those deaths could be justified.
As Clinton later wrote in his memoir:
It was historic: an Israeli government had said that to get peace, there would be a Palestinian state in roughly 97 percent of the West Bank, counting the [land] swap, and all of Gaza, where Israel also had settlements. The ball was in Arafat’s court.
But Arafat would not, or could not, bring an end to the conflict. “I still didn’t believe Arafat would make such a colossal mistake,” Clinton wrote. “The deal was so good I couldn’t believe anyone would be foolish enough to let it go.” But the moment slipped away. “Arafat never said no; he just couldn’t bring himself to say yes.”
It might be nice if the author chose to mention that the Golan Heights actually is not "sparsely" populated but in fact has upwards of 35,000 Druze inhabitants who have been living under an illegal occupation for more than half a century. They are not ghosts, they have a right to be named and their existence recognized and taken into account by so-called "policy forums." Moreover, Palestinians in Gaza have the same right. Even for a policy forum devoted to all-Israel all the time, it is morally unacceptable--never mind a clear violation of Jewish ethics--to act as if the only thing that matters here is what happens in and to Israel and what is good or bad for it.
14
@Mark LeVine
Perhaps the Syrians, Jordanians, and Egyptians should have considered the possibility of LOSING when they declared war against Israel.
3
@Mark LeVine It is very annoying when (and I may be making a false assumption) a non-Jew lectures Jews about "Jewish ethics", especially while at the same time employing typcial anti-semitic tropes (which is often the case) such as Jews mostly acting for their own interest. I think Hillel was a Jew and he said "If I am not for me, who will be and if not now, when?" That was in the Talmud's "Ethics of the Fathers" and is a core Jewish ethic. Further for those readers not particularly familiar with the actual reality of Israel, the Druze are not complaining very much about "occupation". The Druze community are very happy to be part of Israel and enjoy basically full participation in the State of Israel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druze_in_Israel
3
@Mark LeVine
The occupation is legal because Israel was attacked just as our occupation of Japan was legal because we were attacked.
1
Maybe Nasser shouldn't have annexed the Suez canal, wars have consequences. Some one tries to kill you, you get lucky and are not killed...and we want to go back to before they tried to kill you like nothing happened. Is this what the world gets for giving out best hitter trophies to everyone on the little league team. God forbid the US gets into a real fight for its life (think WW2) we would fold like a cheap suit. I don't think we could even fight along side each other.....I don't think we can fight...we would just put our hands up and let the aggressor do what they want with us. The Golan....maybe Syria shouldn't attack its neighbors again.
5
" Israel would then have to grant citizenship to the 2.5 million Palestinians living there, giving itself the choice of no longer functioning as a Jewish state, or destroy its democracy by denying the Palestinians political equality."
For several decades now, Israel not granted citizenship to the numberless Palestinians under its complete control in the West Bank. I'd say it's already destroyed its democracy.
3
@ghosty
My comment hasn't made it in, yet. No automatic citizenship in our country, worse in Switzerland, and it could take years for an entirely new, and defanged/unbrainwashed generation of Palestinians to accept living in, or alongside, the Jewish state. If Palestinians wish to be like Canadians, who are somewhat different than Americans (more health conscious, for sure), and co-exist with Israel, they can have a totally separate state. But not one predicated on the ultimate removal of Israel.
3
@ghosty
After world war 2, we occupied Germany & Japan. Germans & Japanese were not granted American citizenship nor allowed to vote in American elections, but we were still a democracy.
1
I fully support this policy. In fact, I believe all conquered territory belongs to the victor. Therefore, I would like to state for the record that I consider all of the following to be sovereign territory of the United States Empire: the Philippines, Vichy France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Okinawa, Indonesia, New Guinea, South Korea, Panama, Kuwait, half of Iraq, little fire bases in Afghanistan, an airport in Qatar and probably some others I can't remember.
Unfortunately, we lost to the Viet Cong and Taliban, but they didn't conquer any of our territory, so I'm not sure how that shakes out. Also, I beat up bully Mike Kemp in 6th Grade, so all of his stuff is mine.
8
If it were not for the USA, Israel would have ceased to exist long ago. One can debate the up and down sides of that but there’s no denying that without military and financial aid Israel is kaput. Walls loom large in Israel, let’s see how well they really work, cut off all aid except carte blanche for concrete and steel. Have at it with your big beautiful wall(s). I’m sorry, a country that stokes the kind of animosity, and sidles up to dictators as Israel does has lost my respect from now until I die. Palestinians, you had your chance and you blew it too, no sympathy here.
The only ones who have benefited from this five decade old nightmare have been the trough gluttons of the MIC. I fully expect another major war to erupt in the short time I have left. There was hope once for peace but it was a sham. I am tired of the charade of the US position that our military is for ensuring and spreading democracy in the world. We don’t even have it at home.
6
@Thomas Your premise is incorrect, to say the least!
Israel didn't receive any military aid until 1973 (the Nixon Admin), and they've done fine defending themselves.
As for financial aid, you do realize that they are loan guarantees to purchase American military equipment. The Israeli economy is booming, and governments around the world, from China to India, are knocking themselves out to create business deals with Israel.
So your assertion of "kaput" is very curious indeed.
4
@ David G. The sly insinuation at the end of your post indicates you have something more to say. Why not say it plainly? I didn’t sugar coat my post. Bibi and Putin and Xi and Modi and Trump, kinda proves my point about democracy, the lack thereof. If the Israeli economy is flourishing, why the necessity for apartheid? Reparations to the Palestinians along with restoration of their lands should be a no-brainer.
Trump, Netanyahu and MBS are formidable warhawks. The world is in peril until they have been deposed.
Trashing the Iran deal and the INF treaty, enslaving the Palestinians and annexing their land just because they can get away with it, and disposing of Khashoggi in such a gruesome way to scare the opposition shows what they are capable of.
Remember the Iraq war and its horrible aftermath. Stop them before they invade Iran.
3
Complexity, paradox, confusion and outright contradiction reign throughout the region, and throughout this these comments too. There are no simple solutions -- the effects of an abrupt withdrawl and of annexation would be equally distatrous.
Meanwhile, despite the Israeli government's Herrenvolk [master race] attitudes and actions, Israel is probably the safest, economically well-off and happiest place in the Middle East for most Arab men and women to live, and the Palestinian Authority West Bank area is possibly the second best. I know that's a bit like saying that South Africans blacks were better off under apartheid than most other Africans -- but most of them have not benefitted greatly from the "democratization" of that country -- didn't I say complexity, paradox, confusion and contradiction reign?
Gaza is one of the worst places in the region, among a very bad lot. Were it not for Hamas, Gaza could be at least as well-off as the West Bank.
4
The problem with the idea of the Islamic World being upset about Palestine not gaining independence is that most Islamic leaders view them the same way Trump views mexicans.
Sticking it to Israel however, now that is something most islamic leaders want to do.
Don't believe me? Look up how Palestinians are treated outside of Israel (and I'm including their treatment by Hamas in this) such as Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine (whoops, that one isn't a country), Iraq, Iran, etc.
5
The Golan Heights was used by Syria to attack Israel in 1967 in a war of aggression, which it lost. Because of the strategic nature of the land and it’s sparse population there is absolutely no reason why it should not remain part of Israel. Indeed the author of this peace wants to reward a Syria country whose leadership just butchered 400,000 of its own citizens using poison gas in the process.
2
Annexation of the Golan Heights.
Used to bomb Israel from ’48-’67? UN Gen. Burns would disagree. Gen. Dayan admitted that Jerusalem provoked many of the battles.
Victory justifies conquest?
Pres. Eisenhower, speaking in the aftermath of the Suez War, explained to the public why he forced Britain-Fance-Israel to end their invasion of Egypt. He reminded us that we had just fought a war against Nazi Germany who rationalized their conquests as necessary. He advocated that to allow this attack would undercut international law.
The UN Resolution 242 that was reached precluded annexation of conquered territories. Inadmissibility of conquests was a cornerstone.
Peace between Egypt and Israel was achieved only when Israel returned the Sinai Desert. Negotiations between Israel and Syria have been on-going both in public and backdoor channels. The 1990s almost saw an agreement reached. And since then there have been contacts between Damascus and Jerusalem.
US backing Israel’s annexation will please the hardliners of both nations. But that will not end the dispute. In spite of the deep Syrian divisions, no acceptable Syrian government will concede the Golan Heights. It will remain irredentism—just as with France in its loss of Alsace-Lorraine.
1
@doughboy
"...in private conversation he [Eisenhower] told Richard Nixon that the crisis [1956 Suez Canal] was “his major foreign policy mistake.”
https://providencemag.com/2018/05/american-blunders-middle-east-book-review-michael-doran-ikes-gamble/
Resolution 242 calls for "secure and
recognized boundaries." It doesn't say what those boundaries are. It can't be the 1967 boundaries because those are really the 1948 cease fire lines & the cease fire agreement said that those lines were not to be considered permanent boundaries.
1
Perhaps a different take is in order, one that doesn’t treat the Israeli electorate as needing a pundit to point out the obvious. When the Oslo Accords were signed, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, in his last speech to the Knesset (Israel's Parliament), spoke of an Arab Palestine that was less than a full state -demilitarized but for police, Israeli security over air space and borders, among other items. After his assassination, Palestinian terrorism helped sideline the dovish Peres who was expected to win the election and opened the door to Netanyahu.
Since then, Israelis saw no movement by the Palestinians to create a civil, stable government or even prepare its people for peace side-by-side with Israel. Instead, the Palestinians doubled down on their irredentist fantasies and antisemitic rhetoric. More Israeli civilians were murdered in cold blood by Arab terrorists since Oslo than in all the years before. The Palestinians in Gaza showed the world what a Palestinian State would look like: a corrupt dictatorship.
While the Palestinians have their apologists, who for the most part treat them like infants without agency, the Israelis have been required to draw life and death conclusions, principally because they must live with the consequences.
Having given the Palestinians decades of opportunities to prove themselves as true peace partners, most Israelis have little reason for optimism. Rabin's vision is back on the table. Maybe that will spur Palestinian change.
3
Okay, I really don't see why we all can't come up with a peaceful solution to this, Trump's stupidity notwithstanding. Has Israel ever just tried to buy the Golan heights and the West Bank? Why can't we just do a modern sort of Louisiana purchase? Both Syria and Palestine certainly need the cash, and even if Israel paid billions for it, it'd save money in the long run, reduce international tensions, and save many, many, many lives.
I swear, I really can't understand how anyone at all can listen to completely-corrupt Trump and completely-corrupt Netanyahu stand around and thump their chests as they stumble back into another major conflict in the Middle East, which of course would create an even more serious humanitarian crises, even more illegal immigration all over the world, and generally plunge us toward World War III. It's insane.
2
@Brannon Perkison
‘son's death was "best day of my life," says Palestinian mother’
How can a mother who loves her son say that his death was the "best day of my life?" The explanation is that she believes that her son's becoming a martyr by dying while attacking Jews gives him instant access to Paradise & eternal happiness. People who believe as she does don't want peace. They want conflict because conflict provides an opportunity for martyrdom.
1
The policy Shift is not only coming from USA, Ultra rich patron Arab countries are all abandon Palestine and it's cause.
MBS is way more better friend with Kushner and Netanyahu than the Abbas.
Unfortunately, Palestinians are going to pay dearly to missing Rabin Arafat peace agreement. They must be way more proactive in 1990's.
Sun set long ago Palestine land.
2
Wearily true to form, it only follows that the crooked president would condone stolen land. From a man who steadfastly and shamelessly would not even acknoledge losing the popular vote by a significant margin, all things follow.
1
@Thomas Wright
If someone is shooting at you, but somehow you manage to grab his gun, I wouldn't say that you stole his gun.
It's time to recognize Israel for what it is and has been for many decades: an apartheid state that deserves no support whatsoever from Western states, let alone the endless military supplies, political cover and economic largesse that it, instead, receives on a regular basis. Israel has been building to this for decades. Decades of building endless settlements, of placing 600,000 settlers in Palestine, was always done with the intention of holding on to that land forever. At this point, the only option left for Israel - and, certainly, for its enablers in the West - is to accept the one state solution. As difficult as it may be and as problematic, it is time for Israel to accept that it either keeps millions of people in permanent subjugation - which many of its right wing leaders are perfectly comfortable doing - or it extends them citizenship and accepts that it must become a binational state. If it won't do that - and it won't - then the West needs to stop making excuses for Israel and recognize the Frankenstein monster that we have coddled and nurtured for too many decades.
4
@Shaun Narine
The settlements make an independent Palestine feasible. Agree on a border. All settlements on the Palestinian side of the border become part of Palestine. All settlers become Palestinian citizens. Because settlers are generally wealthier than Palestinians, the presence of the settlers will help the Palestinian economy.
1
Israel Is on the Brink of Disaster. Trump Just Made Things Worse.
This is hardly news. Doesn't he make everything worse?
The Middle East is aflame with war and tension, outside of Israel. Why the constant focus on Israel?
The prejudice of low expectations of the surrounding states?
1
All president trump did was give Netanyahu a life jacket who was gonna sink he has already been announced as a corrupt leader by the attorney general. Yet Israelis don’t seem to honor morality transparency. Hence the entire world continues to see Israel as a sad country inhabited by sad people who are hyper vigilant about being attacked and hit by missiles from hamas or heaven forbid Iran, instead of focusing their energies on creativity, a positive force of democracy. How on earth did Iran become enemy #1! Netanyahu has even sought unholy alliance with Putin. Jared Kushner has broken every security norm by using his WhatsApp account to broker deals that our state department will be the last one to find out! What kind of “intelligence” does our country have when Kushner is single handedly carrying his personal business diplomacy without being asked any questions and with full security clearances!! Trump had promised to upend American government and so he and his family are working overtime to demonstrate the uselessness of state department, justice department, congress (oversight committee given a middle finger by Trumps), NATO, the UN..All the whole Trump’s base pumped by FoxNews sing his praises and republicans tremble in their boots for fear of speaking a word against the dictator! Even late John McCain who dared to speak out, is not being spared!
2
@petey tonei
Israelis are the 13th happiest people on earth.
Israel is called the "start-up" nation because of its creativity.
Iran became enemy #1 when the Revolution changed Iran into a theocracy.
Israel was ranked 30 out of 167 on The Economist's Democracy Index. That's better than Belgium, Greece, Cyprus & at least a dozen other European countries.
Israel has maintained democracy even though it's been under continual attack. By contrast, we Americans locked American citizens of Japanese descent in concentration camps during world war 2 & we confiscated Joe DiMaggio's father's fishing boat because he was of Italian descent.
1
In 1948, Israel secretly conspired with Jordan (Transjordan) to divide Palestine between the two countries. Thus, the West Bank started out as part of Jordan, a state friendly to Israel.
In 1967, Israel conquered the entire West Bank from Jordan, and has been not-annexing-cum-annexing it ever since.
Today, it turns out that the seized piece of Palestine may well blow up in Israel's face.
There is Justice in this world.
1
@alyosha
Israel conquered the West Bank because "Jordan, a state friendly to Israel" attacked Israel. Israel needed to go into the West Bank to silence the artillery firing at innocent Israelis.
1
It's all part of Trump's 2020 strategy. Start a war.
1
@mkc
You think that Trump has any strategy?
He shoots first and then justifies what he did.
@mkcMaybe.
Israel already occupies and controls the Golan Heights. Trump is interfering in the democratic election by tossing his Mini-Me, Netanyahu, a symbolic plum.
The solution to the "Palestinian" problem is the creation of a super Abrahamic state encompassing the Jewish and Palestinian nations. Stop interfering as the Israelis and Palestinians move toward that inevitable goal at their own pace!
@AynRant
Christianity is also Abrahamic.
1
What could possibly go wrong here?
1
And to think how Trump talks about an 'America first' foreign policy! Netanyahu calls the shots to Donald, whether it's about Iran, Jerusalem, or now, the Golan Heights.
He’s fanning the flames of war, and hoping for an flare up just in time for the 2020 election.
2 "minor" disinformation: First the Golan does not belong to Syria, certainly not legally. It was given to Syria by the Sykes-Pico agreement without consulting anybody because France wanted to increase its sphere of influence (Syria and Lebanon at that time). Jewish people own part of the Golan legally even Hertzel, Zionism's founding father, included the Golan in the Jewish Homeland. Israel, by the way, controls the Golan much longer than Syria,
Second, the demographic threats about these 2.5 million Palestinians is false.
I suggest that before someone, especially Turkey or Russia, threat Israel on the Golan they should give up areas that really do not belong to them like 1/3 of Cyprus or large pieces of Finland or Poland
1
Trump moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem and declared Jerusalem the capitol of Israel w/o giving an equal right to Palestinians to declare East Jerusalem their capitol, Trump closed the doors of negotiations for a peaceful end to this 70 yr conflict.
With Kushner supporting construction in the West Bank and Trump declaring the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, he has now destroyed any and all possible compromise for offering the rights of both Israel and the Palestinians, their fare share.
Step by step, Trump and his minion Pompeo are destroying all the hard- earned good will, US foreign policy has had over decades, with MENA countries...
1
Comparing the Golan with the West Bank is the proverbial apple and oranges comparison.
As most informed people know, the Golan was used as a staging area for constant attacks on Israeli civilians before 1967. Syria attacked and lost the territory. The idea of returning it now to a regime that has killed nearly one million of its own people, as well as providing Iran a platform to attack, is ridiculous.
I have many family members in Israel. I've never heard anyone advocate for a takeover or annexation of the West Bank. They're self-aware enough to understand what it would mean.
But the author is correct that most Israelis have tuned-out. They rightly assume that there isn't a single Palestinian leader who is serious about compromise, rather than stubbornly clinging to maximalist positions, and hoping for the eventual destruction of Israel. To the average Israeli, this means, why bother?
2
"Mr. Netanyahu himself has been the sole Likud leader not explicitly supporting annexation in the West Bank"
That is a critically clear way to put it.
A man nobody believes is the only supposed dissent.
We know exactly where that government means to go, and it isn't some super-deal by Jared.
2
Israel is looking and sounding more and more like a crusader state - and Trump is pouring gasoline on the fire. Not only is the right wing in Israel promulgating and expansionist and exclusionist rhetoric, but Trump's tweet on the Golan Heights discards one of the fundamental structures of postwar international law - that territories taken through military conquest will not be recognized. The combination is highly dangerous for Israel.
7
@John Egan
It's possible that if Syria knew that attacking Israel could mean losing territory, then maybe Syria would not have attacked Israel in 1948, 1967 & 1973.
1
Unconditional support and cover by the US for Netanyahu's aggressive approach expires with Trump's term.
Relying on our foreign policy consistency, with politics being what they are in the US, is a bad idea.
The best bet for Israel is to be an honest broker and wait for the world to wean off Middle East oil. It won't be another 50 years.
2
The US media clearly is still learning how to cover appropriately presidential tweets. How is that some tweets, expressing all manner of bazaar and personal opinions, are routinely ignored, if not attributed to Trump’s troubled psyche, while others are elevated to the level of US policy. Trump essentially has no filter when he tweets. Whatever comes to mind as he watches the news, late at night, all alone, feeling aggrieved, feeling grandiose - such are his expressions. We the people did not elevate such impulsive expressions of past presidents to the level of policy. A twenty-first century twitter account is indeed a mighty megaphone. But at the end of the day, it often merely allows us to examine more closely the impulsive and troubled minds of individuals.
The United States, as leader of the free world, cannot run the ship of state by such impulse, where even Trump’s own administration is often caught flat footed. It is no wonder that America’s allies and adversaries alike find our current administration to be untrustworthy. They are gradually learning to ignore what he says.
12
Israel should annex the Golan. I don't see this paving the way for annexing parts of the West Bank leading to the conclusions the author seems to think are inevitable. Maybe annexing the Golan will cause the Palestinians to unite peacefully and willingly to negotiate what they can with Israel leading to a Palestinian State on some part of that land. And then Peace. And then maybe after 50 years of peaceful coexistence and cooperation the borders won't seem to matter as much. Impossible, you say? What else is new?
5
To Trump, whether it's the Golan Heights under Netanyahu, or the Crimea under Putin, it's the "things dreams are made of". Three autocrats; one mind set.
3
Let's face it, the only viable solution is a one state solution.
Israel is tiny geographically and cannot live with a failed enemy state (Palestine) next to it, in addition a one state solution will eliminate the Iranian threat, terrorism will be dealt by the police and not the army, and in addition Israel will emancipate the Palestinian women and this will eliminate the demographic threat. As for the Palestinians they will live in a prosperous, democratic, and successful country,
Two state solution is bad for Israel and for the Palestinians.
5
The problem would be, just like after the US Civil War, that just because a war is won, or an annexation takes place, and rules and laws are put into place to try and make all people equally protected, there will be groups of people so set in their ways that they will not feel obligated to abide by the new rules and laws.
Even though the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution were made into law, and various other laws to protect the freed people were applied, Southern states really did not abide by them and hatred and pseudo-slavery continued for years in the South. I believe the same would happen in Israel, where any changes for the good of all people would be ignored by those who hold narrow views now. Israel would give Palestinian women certain rights? Many Palestinian men would ignore those laws and the current behaviors would continue for years, despite anyone’s altruistic intent. Religious differences would stay in place, with all their inherent hatred of others.
It eventually could work out, with enough effort and some meetings of the minds of a new generation, but it will require extensive work.
@G. Mimassi
The One State would soon be majority-Arab. Majority-Arab would mean the end of democracy.
Israel was ranked 30 out of 167 on The Economist's Democracy Index.
That's better than Belgium, Greece, Cyprus & at least a dozen other European countries.
The highest Arab state is Tunisia which is ranked 69. Palestine is 109, Libya 154, Sudan 155, Yemen 158, Saudi Arabia 159, Algeria 126, Egypt 127, Qatar 133, Oman 140, United Arab Emirates 147, Bahrain 148, Morocco 100, Lebanon 106, Iraq 114, Jordan 115, Kuwait 116, Comoros 121, Mauritania 119, Djibouti 146, Syria 166. Iran 150.
1
Israel is a parliamentary democracy, with cobbled together coalition governments similar to what one sees in Great Britain. Israelis are an educated and informed people who understand what's at stake every time they head to their polling stations to vote.
The Middle East is a quagmire of political sinkholes, and nobody is better informed about this ever shifting terrain than the Israeli citizenry, who've been surrounded by threatening neighbors since their post WWII beginnings as a safe haven Jewish nation.
Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and despite critics like Mr. Koplow, its political system functions quite well.
75
@Stone Israel is certainly a parliamentary democracy, though I share Mr Koplow's pessimism about a truly democratic future if the West Bank is annexed, not least because of the provocative change to the Basic Laws to declare Israel a Jewish state (are Palestinians then destined to be legally considered second-class citizens). But I'm puzzled by Stone's reference to "coalition governments similar to what one sees in Great Britain". In the UK coalition governments are very rare: the Tory-LibDem coalition of 2010-2015 was the first since the Churchill government during the Second World War. Personally, I would much prefer coalitions (and the proportional-representation system that tends to create them). As it is, the first-past-the-post system common to both the UK and the US is what has led to the current nonsense of Brexit (and, you may think, Trump too...).
26
@Stone I'm sorry but Israel has been moving further and further from being a real democracy for the last few years, and its political system is not functioning well but moving further towards extremes. Consider the proposition in the article -- " Israel would then have to grant citizenship to the 2.5 million Palestinians living there, giving itself the choice of no longer functioning as a Jewish state, or destroy its democracy by denying the Palestinians political equality." I will bet a large sum of money on Israel refusing Option #1, leaving itself with destroying the democracy you claim it has. Does Israel have the strength of character to grant citizenship? I hope so, but I fear not.
J
65
@Stone
How it is a democracy if a majority of people it controls aren't allowed to vote? How is it a democracy if the government can close the West Bank off for 4 days for only Palestinians for the Purim holiday?
98
Are the Palestinians expected to accept the loss of their claims to Israel, not only the West Bank, without a murmur? Is the Muslim World expected to never put their wait into
getting at least equality for Palestinians?
Clearly, unless the Israelis learn to treat the Palestinians whose land they continue to steal correctly, Israel will always be a pariah state and it's people will pay the price.
Personally, I believe Israel is in a lose-lose situation. It's only a question of when they will lose.
5
@Henry Whitney
In 1929, no land had been stolen.
On August 24, 1929, racist Arabs of Hebron attacked their Jewish neighbors. Violent mobs burst into Jewish homes and fell upon anyone they found inside. The commander of Britain’s police force in Hebron, Raymond Cafferata, later testified about what he saw when he entered a Jewish home in the midst of the massacre: “On hearing screams in a room I went up a sort of tunnel passage and saw an Arab in the act of cutting off a child’s head with a sword. He had already hit him and was having another cut. . . . Behind him was a Jewish woman smothered in blood with a man I recognized as [an Arab] police constable . . . standing over the woman with a dagger in his hand.”
…found a pile of bodies and a “sea of blood.” …of the dead and dying that “almost all had knife and hatchet wounds in their heads. . . . A few bodies had been slashed and their entrails had come out.”… two of Hebron’s senior rabbis had been castrated together with five of their students. By the time the Hebron massacre was over, sixty-seven Jews had been killed and dozens more wounded. Two days later, the surviving Jews of Hebron were evacuated. Hebron, the second holiest city in Judaism, was now Jew-free.
1
Yes, yes, yes!
American Jews should distance themselves from Netanyahu and Likud. He is corrupt and immoral, and is eager to exploit Americans. Trump is cynically inflaming the situation.
I am grateful for the timing of this piece - it coincides with the AIPAC conference. It would be great if there were thoughtful conversation about this in that setting, though I am not hopeful about that.
3
@Cousy Is AIPAC itself now anything more than yet another tentacle of the hard right? It all needs a good wash cycle.
This isn't the first really bad decision which doesn't benefit the US in the last few months. When POTUS chose to abandon the Intermediate Range Nuclear Force Treaty because Russia was cheating, the primary beneficiary was... Vladimir Putin, who didn't have to defend his obvious transgressions.
Who benefits from this decision on the West Bank? It doesn't change facts on the ground. Once again, the real beneficiary is... Vladimir Putin, who could now claim Crimea and some parts of Ukraine under the same "we're there, it's ours" argument.
In both cases the US interest is summarized by who in the US profits from these decisions? In the missile deal, clearly it's the military-industrial complex which stands to make billions (maybe trillions) from the development of a new type of missile, and who presumably will funnel some additional tribute to... Trump. In the Golan Heights, it's Trump again, hoping to pick up more support from traditionally Democratic-leaning Jewish voters.
Perhaps the hats should say, "MTGA".
1
As usual, anything Trump touches turns into lead, as in a lead weight added to the problems of our nation. He seems to have so little understanding of the international big picture. He loves the “strongman” approach and wants to befriend all such people.
Israel has been on the brink of disaster since 1948. And has survived and prospered despite the challenges and threats to its very existence. Never again is a great motivator for the survival of Israel. Never again!!
3
This is certainly a political move by Trump but not just to gain a few Jewish votes. Does anyone think he really cares about Israel or Jews? He sees the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis as being between Muslims and non-Muslims. Trump's support for hard right policies in Israel is part of his campaign to energize his anti-Muslim supporters.
2
Knowing the president is such a stickler for detail and a human sponge for soaking up all the facts before, expertly, explaining to the world the change in decades of American foreign policy in a 280 character or less tweet: why would anyone have any doubts about this decision. After all, he is a stable genius with a very large brain.
1
@RNS hm, very-very, even.
Regardless of what Israeli so-called 'moderates' believe, the possibility of a two-state solution has been destroyed by the Israeli far right's - Likud and it's partners - policies promoting the hyper-expansion into the West Bank and the annexation of Jerusalem.
Palestinians are understandably moving away from their historic demand for a separate state and setting their eyes on a democratic and secular Israel-Palestine. I wish them luck!
4
@J Albers One state solution is the only way now. And increasingly anything looks more palatable than the non state solution
@J Albers
If Palestinians cared about democracy, then the Palestinian Authority & Gaza would be democracies, but they're not.
Israel was ranked 30 out of 167 on the Economist's Democracy Index. Palestine was ranked 109.
1
@Thomas Wright
Jews had been persecuted for centuries in majority-gentile countries. Even when not actively persecuting the Jews, the majority-gentile countries refused to give refuge to the Jews when they needed it. There would have been no Holocaust if majority-gentile countries would have allowed in Jewish refugees who were escaping from the Nazis. The idea of Zionism was that Jews would return to their homeland & have a majority-Jewish country because majority-gentile countries had failed to provide safety for the Jews.
The one state "solution" would soon mean that there would no longer be even one majority-Jewish state.
1
The possession of the Golan Heights by Israel has nothing to do with the West Bank. There is still the possibility of negotiations leading to a 2-State solution, which I happen to support. The problem there has always been the rejection of this by the Arab States. Much will depend upon the upcoming Israeli election. If Likud wins and Netanyahu stays, I fear that a 2-State solution will be forever dead and Israel will be the worse for it. The Golan Heights is another matter. It was captured by Israel at great cost in a war that Syria started. And it was done after years of shelling and rocket attacks by Syrian forces on Israeli farmers below in the Galilee. And people want Israel to return the Heights to Syria? Note that Syria is a failed State gradually being taken over by Iran, which has been supporting terrorists like Hamas and Hezbollah in their attacks on Israel. What country in the world would be stupid and self-destructive enough to allow Iran to move to its border?
4
Trump is obviously interfering in the Israeli election, so why can't Russia, or anyone else, interfere with ours? Fair is fair, or rather, unfair is unfair.
5
So how many housing sites will Kushner, Inc. get?
3
Israel has always intended to annex the West Bank. Why else develop the "spiderweb of settlements"? The question is not "whether" but merely when. And Palestinians in the West Bank will never be given full citizenship any more than the current residents of the Arab areas in Northern Israel. Within that context, Trump's shift in policy will at worst result in a premature annexation effort.
And we have the disturbing picture of a people who narrowly escaped totally destruction in the Holocaust themselves planning genocide, or something close to it, less than a century later.
2
@Ara
How is life for Israel’s Arab minority?
Khaled Abu Toameh, the Arab journalist who reports for the Jerusalem Post, U.S. News & World Report and NBC News, talking about life for Arab Israelis: "Israel is a wonderful place to live ... a free and open country.”
Arab women in Israel live longer than Arab women in any Arab country.
Arab babies in Israel have lower infant mortality than Arab babies in any Arab country.
Hadassah University Medical Center in Israel established a registry for Arab donors of bone marrow and stem cells to facilitate life-saving transplants. The registry at Hadassah Hospital is the only one in the world for Arabs and will no doubt save the lives not only of Arab Israelis but also of some citizens of Arab countries, not a single one of which has a registry of its own.
1
If then if then, if then. Wow, a whole lot of assumptions from a writer who did not pick up a gun in 1967 and fight for his nation's survival. The Golan will NEVER be returned to Syria for obvious tactical reasons. Israel wants and will always push for defensible borders. I dislike DJT (major understatement) but I am extremely disappointed in the people who voted for him. He pulled the wool over their eyes and pretended to be the "all powerful wizard". Doesn't anyone get it yet? How many times do you have to see the movie?
Living in the Middle East is another issue, and the complexity of inter-relationships, religion, land, and so on makes playing chess
look easy in comparison. The Arabs will either learn to live in peace or they will choose the opposite path. They seem just as willing to kill one another as attacking Israelis, as we keep on seeing in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and so on and so forth. Some of them want liberty and justice for all, at least if they can only find asylum somewhere else. I want those latter folks to have what they deserve, but you know the oil conglomerates would rather have control over the region at any cost. Fill up your tank as you must, but know how you got "cheap gas" for the last 60 years. Or go on, dreaming about big cars and "great again" and other popular myths. Israelis
have to deal with the real world as it is. And they, like all humans, make mistakes- but survival is not one of them.
1
Well, it might not be a good time or politically correct but Trump is merely admitting the reality on the ground so to speak. The Israeli's have occupied the Golan heights for over fifty years and won't give it up it's too Strategic for them. And all the UN proclamations and assertions of that they have no right and land won by conquest can't be kept it always is to pretend otherwise is foolish. How much of what is now Poland was Germany in 1930 and then made part of Poland by Russian proclamation. Pretending nations don't keep what they take in war doesn't make it so. Has for the West bank and Gaza ? The 2 state solution hasn't viable in over 20 years. Has for a single state solution? Doubtful the Israeli's would find them indigestible and no Arab state with half a brain will take them in not after the several attempted coups in Jordan. Not a viable solution in sight for the Palestinians. Of course the Palestinians refuse to face the fact they were and are the losing side in not one war but several. And when you lose winner dictates terms not the losers. And so the Palestinians refuse to face reality. And the reality is like it or not. UN Proclamations, Proclamations of Human rights, Proclamations of immorality, or calling on the so called laws of War will change the facts on the ground. Unless of course someone is willing to use military force to do so. An unlikely prospect I think. Barring that however the Israeli's will always have the final say like it or not.
1
There's not enough room there to grow in the future, that will mean if Israeli's and Arabs can't get along then there is always going to be war and annexation of land to grow. All the talks in the world won't stop that. It's hard not to sound hypocritical as an American who's ancestors took up residence on land that was owned by others to begin with, but let's look at that past, we cam here squatted and took over. Israelis have history in the location they have now 1000's of years ago, they were "given" the land back 1000 years later.,but it's like trying to grow orchards in the desert, they were planted there on a tiny piece of land and expected to stay in one place. There will never be peace and to be honest it isn't fair to the Palestinians. I would like to see what the end game would be, and if it isn't fair to all. i believe the US should bow out of helping.
1
My idea that will not work is to leave the settlements as part of a new Palestinian state and draw the border where it is. That leaves a substantial tax base and a large population of Jews (non-Muslims, more importantly) to increase the pluralism of the new country. With border control arranged so that workers may easily work on either side of it, the consequent integration of the two economies, and the two independent political systems, it just might be possible for these neighbors to finally live in peace.
Advocating a viable 2 state solution to the Israel-Palestinian dispute is a worthwhile endeavor but the ground reality is that Israel is not on the brink of disaster and Netanyahu is not completely in the basket of the right wing leaders. Washington is firmly behind Israel's security and territorial integrity.
Unlike in the last century the Arabs do not see Israel as their enemy number one and Islam is no longer the unifying force of all Muslims behind the Palestinian cause. The failure and decimation of extremists and terrorists has weakened the advocates of violence as a means to make the 2 state solution a reality.
The leadership of the Trump administration in the middle east deserves credit for making the world a safer place by sending a clear message that violence and terrorism will not be rewarded. I think the Trump administration is creating the right ambience for peaceful negotiation to a a successful implementation of a viable 2 state solution. It may surprise the critics but that is what could be a reality before the end of the first term of the Trump presidency. There cannot be peace without trust and renunciation of violence on both sides.
3
Fueling the fire just to get BNY elected? Sure, that is what friends are for. Very dangerous for everybody.
Biblical mandate or not, with this move, Israel is lees secured. Better option would be to normalize ties with Syria as ties have been normalized with Jordan, Egypt, (unofficially) with UAE, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain and (secretly) with Saudi Arabia. Why not try Asaad, who is week and wounded and probably more open to work with Israel? May be he will be willing do the right thing, i.e, end of hostilities.
Israeli public should vote for status quo on this particular issue. Leave Golan as is. Talk of officially annexing it will certainly hand out another propaganda tools to the militants on both sides.
Annexation is the best course of action for the Palestinians at this point. They can then demand their rights and vote. I'm not sure why they haven't been pushing for this over the last 5+ years.
1
Annexation of territory is embedded and inbuilt in Zionism and in the creation of the State of Israel. To this very day, despite international pressure, Israel continues to steal land, expel Palestinians, build settlements, and transfer Israelies to the West Bank. Anyone can say or believe that Israel had no intention to steal land in the past, but its present actions prove otherwise.
Even when it came to building the wall, Israel couldn’t simply build a wall around its legal international borders. In the process, it had to annex 9% of the West Bank. Despite claiming that wall was built for security reasons, Israel continues to transfer its population and build settlements on other side of the wall, precisely in areas where people “want to destroy” Israel. Also, even though Israel realizes that building illegal settlements and stealing land threatens peace, Israel continues to say it is looking for peace with the Palestinians.
There are just too many contradictions in Israel’s stories and policies.
7
What is written in the article may be true hypothetically. But if we think in another way, Trump might have mad the things better for a Palestinian state. Trump's action is a clear signal to Palestinian that if they do not agree with a Palestinian state under the terms that will be put forward by Kushner, their dream will most likely die. So, there will be a higher incentive to Palestinian leaders to accept it than it was a few days ago.
1
I feel Dr. Koplow's assessment is a bit alarmist but certainly possible. I guess the scenario hinges on whether pro-annexation Israelis see a reliable connection between the Golan Heights and the West Bank. Trump is a notoriously unreliable partner in just about everything.
The administration spent most of yesterday trying to walk-back President Trump's tweet. If things in the West Bank go south for Trump politically, the Likud Party should fully expect the complete US abandonment of their position regardless of the consequences to Israel.
A thinking mind would take a moment's pause. If Likud obtains the necessary leverage over Netanyahu and Netanyahu wins the election, Likud has already achieved their political goals. Why risk the advantage by actually annexing the West Bank? Walking into Palestine unprepared is the dog who caught the car. Better to slow walk the issue while exploiting the power you have.
Sometimes the best political issues are the ones that never end. I trust someone in Israel is smart enough to figure this out before they go upsetting the geopolitical order.
Annexation of the Golan was justified. Israel was attacked and in their defense occupied territory which is strategically very dangerous to them. They should never give it back. It has become a part of Israel and is thriving. No one has been promoting the annexation of the West Bank as far as I know. To do so would be extremely dangerous. This would result in one state solution and, if the Palestinians were not given full citizenship with full voting rights, Israel would become just like South Africa and that situation could not last indefinitely. Israel would cease to be a democratic Jewish state.
95
@LAM
Doesn't Dr. Koplow state that 28 of 29 Likud legislators running for re-election are on record as being in favor of annexation of at least a part of the West Bank?
7
Israelis keep building settlements on the Palestinians land and they keep taking more and more every day. when the Palestinians try to defend themselves, the Israelis kill them and their young children. When does this stop!!!!!
28
@LAM Mr Koplow says "Of the 29 Likud legislators running for re-election, 28 are on record as supporting annexation of at least a part of the West Bank, as is the Likud Central Committee." Yet you say that "No one has been promoting the annexation of the West Bank as far as I know." Are you saying that Mr Koplow is lying or are you just being careful not to read that bit ?
11
Trump makes such international announcements when he feels threatened by polls. He attempts to distract our attention from the central issues of tariffs, loss of GDP and calamities caused by our lack of controls on ecological issues. He's playing games with our country. Ironically, China is not buying our soya beans, they are dealing with other countries. The question to consider is this: is playing chicken with a behemoth like China helping our farmers who are being hit by catastrophe? Mr. Convey is right our President is mentally not there.
So what groups in the US will love this policy and how many votes does this gain Mr. Trump? Or is this a financial transaction to benefit the family? Nothing else motivates our President.
So who's vote is he after? With the exception of FL, the states with highest populations of Jews didn't vote for Trump - and won't in the next election.
Which leaves, financial gain for the Kushner's/Trump's real estate deals in the middle east as the motivator.
I agree with Mr. Koplow's concerns.
He referred to the Golan situation as "The...Golan Heights, seized from Syria and annexed by Israel in 1981...were being used by Syria (in 1967) to bombard Israel’s Galilee region below."
I want to add some context the to situation in 1967 that has been mostly lost to history, namely Moshe Dayan's (and others') statements that Syrian shelling or other skirmishes were largely incited by Israel, to create a pretext for the annexation of the Golan, for non-military reasons. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/11/world/general-s-words-shed-a-new-light-on-the-golan.html
Trump's position on the Golan is another illustration of his unfitness for the job. All he cares about is doing anything that will help get him re-elected, without consideration of context, policy, history or an eventual peace in the region, which would benefit our own and Israel's interests.
2
Israel is on the brink of disaster?
I believe the world is on the brink of disaster and the charge is being led by Trump with his divisive rhetoric and hate. This is a President who takes every opportunity to plant seeds of division, destruction and hate not only here in the U.S. but all over the world. It’s bad enough there is violence all over the world, including here in the U.S. and millions of innocent people are getting killed. His tweets are very irresponsible and designed to incite and it is very disheartening and upsetting when I witness leadership from other countries following his lead. His tweet; “it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights” sets the stage to make matters in a very sensitive and delicate situation worse but what does he care……if there any fighting involved, he won’t be present, he’ll be playing golf.
Allow Israel and its people to decide its own destiny without any intervention and negative rhetoric.
1
The writer doesn't take into account the logic of his own prediction. The ultimate logic of an Israeli takeover of the West Bank is an American West-style "removal" or trail of tears for the Palestinians, rather than "allowing" them to become citizens, first or second class, of Israel. Look at the rhetoric of the right in Israel. It's all about "pushing" the Palestinians out, with the self-pitying idea that the alternative is for Israel to be pushed into the sea. It's true also that to "push the Jews into the sea" is the preferred rhetoric of Palestinian leaders, sadly. These people are doing themselves no favors.
1
This piece is the definition of a “Straw man” argument. Use the obvious acknowledgement that Golan is now Israel, to imply that annexation of the West Bank (and all of its Arab people) will become Israelis without rights. Let’s talk when that actually happens. Until then, let’s argue genuine points, not fantasies.
4
I think most of the world knows that Trump does not represent the views of the majority of Americans. They know he lost the popular vote and received help from Putin to win in the electoral college. Whether of not there was collusion is still not known. I think no matter what Israel does with regard to annexation Americans will continue to support the view that the Palestinians eventually obtain a sovereign country and also continue to defend the existence of the Jewish state of Israel, in other words, the two-state solution. The voters in Israel need to elect a leader who will push back against the Israeli right wing extremists. The US Congress should insist that the building of settlements in the West Back and East Jerusalem be halted and that Israel should not annex any more land unless it is part of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
5
There is no need to catastrophize. The solution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict is simple. The whole city of Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the major West Bank settlements are Israeli territory. The Palestinian controlled West Bank villages and Gaza are autonomous regions under Palestinian control. Perhaps, down the road, extra land can be given to the Palestinians in the Sinai Desert. This is the only acceptable outcome. No right of return or divided Jerusalem. Reality is a tough pill to swallow but it is what it is.
7
@MJG
A "solution" acceptable only to one side is no solution. The failure of Camp David is a case in point.
3
Trump is forever meddling in the political affairs of other countries and often at strategically important times when his twitter interventions are likely to have maximum effect.
This type of interference, often aimed at influencing the outcome of elections or plebiscites, as in the case of Brexit, is unpopular amongst the general public of the countries concerned and further damages America's reputation abroad
5
Just another roll of the dice in the real-life game of "Risk".
During the Cold-War, world domination resided between the United States and the USSR. Today, world domination has been replaced by the concept of "regional domination" and the willingness of all players to simply accept some regional powers so that they can win their own regional battles.
Some players are big ones like Russia, China, and the United States. Then you have your tier-two players like Iran, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, and Israel. And of course there are smaller players who are starting to figure out this real-life game of Risk like Venezuela, Turkey, and the Philippines.
This wasn't the way the game used to be played. But in just two short years with Trump, the US, the very last big player that viewed the game of Risk in terms where democracy could provide the counterbalance to dictatorship, we have abandoned that ideal completely, and with no less the support of Mitch McConnell and his Republican band of followers.
Yes, this means that Hasbro will need to re-map the much loved board game but in the scheme of things, that isn't such a big deal, is it?
2
Israel took over the Golan 52 years ago, as a result of a war that it fought to defend itself. The area is developed, thriving, and has virtually no Arab population. The Arab population that is there are Israeli citizens and have zero desire to be handed back to Syria. Syria had existed as a country and controlled the Golan for a period of 19 years, some 52 years ago. Current Syria has been a posterchild for undemocratic, repressive and barbaric behavior. In the entire 71 years of its existence it has been a highly repressive minority ruled state that is a client of a larger repressive state (Iran). It has in recent times generated millions of refugees and blatantly defied international and UN directives. Wars change borders. It's time to recognize that the Golan is now part of Israel.
14
Does anyone really believe a two state solution is anything more than wishful thinking? The solution lies in the delegitimization of religion as a determining factor in nationhood. That won't happen either, but it remains the only possible way. In this respect the Framers of the US Constitution were extremely perspicacious.
16
Who really thought that Jared would bring peace to the middle east? First you have realize that the trump administration is all about profit, how will it benefit me? Second, the history of the Kushner and Netanyahu families shows that its not about peace but about keeping Bebe in power. Finally, the moves made by trump moving the Embassy to Jerusalem, annexing the Golan Heights, extending building into the west bank are all things that his religious advisers called for not for peace. The consequences of all these moves is our interference in Israels election and the retention of Netanyahu.
16
@MLucero
A rump tower on the Golan Heights?
The author's concern is that an annexation of the West Bank will bring Israel to the brink of disaster. His reasoning seems to be based on a population density argument and a loss of security coordination with Palestinian security forces. From a data standpoint only, 300,000 Palestinians live in Area C ( the 60% he mentions). So there is no demographic disaster in annexing that particular area. With regards to security cooperation-- there is a very high likelihood of an ugly Palestinian civil war in the West Bank after Abbas passes away. There isn't going to be any cooperation for awhile at a leadership level.
The world should actually focus on the quality of Palestinian lives on a daily basis and should have far more concern about what is going to happen in the West Bank after Abbas passes than what Israel does or does not do. Israel is not at risk based on these decisions any more than they already are.
6
Maybe the best solution for Israel to remain a democratic, decent and ethical state as well a home for Jews from all over the world is not annexation, but a strategic retreat. Gaza could be handed over to Egypt, while the West Bank could be split up with Jordan. Settlers and Palestinians would be given free choice of whether to stay in their allocated area (which could become either part of Jordan or Israel), and would be offered full reimbursement of moving costs and guaranteed new housing should they choose to relocate.
The cost of all this would be a drop in the ocean compared to the enormous human, military and social cost of the current stalemate situation, or worse, of a unilateral annexation that would ultimately destroy Israel from within.
21
Jordan wants no part in this. It is a majority Palestinian country ruled by Hashemites. The last thing they want is more Palestinians.
2
The greatest fallacy of man has been to draw lines on a piece of paper (especially if they believe them to be divine) and then continuously go to war over them.
Having said that, the ONLY way for there to be peace, prosperity and security for the entire region (and as an extension the entire world) is there to be a two state solution where all parties respect one another.
I am hopeful that there is a majority of Liberal voters left in the state at the center of all this, and that next year there will be a massive Liberal majority in the U.S. as well.
We shall see.
Until then, the demagogues have the floor.
35
Don't expect the Trump administration be impartial with regards to West Bank Settlements. As Newsweek and ProPublica have reported, the Kushner Companies Charitable Foundation is funding the construction of the Bet El settlement, mentioned in your photo caption, in the West Bank. Furthermore Jared Kushner failed to disclose the donation in financial disclosure forms.
691
https://www.propublica.org/article/jared-kushner-kushner-companies-donating-west-bank-settlement
Advocates of a two-state solution said the donation was troubling given Kushner’s role.
“Under normal circumstances you would expect someone who has a background of activism related to Israel to be working very hard to take a step back from that to show that he can be a credible mediator. Not only is that not the case, it’s the opposite,” said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which eat away at any future Palestinian state, are one of the main obstacles to a two-state solution. Bet El, which was built on private Palestinian land seized by the Israeli military in the 1970s, is considered one of the most politically radical settlements.
https://www.newsweek.com/jared-kushner-disclosure-form-west-bank-settlements-israel-white-house-729290
Kushner failed to disclose his role as a co-director of the Charles and Seryl Kushner Foundation from 2006 to 2015, a time when the group funded an Israeli settlement considered to be illegal under international law.
Kushner also attempted to sway a UN Security Council vote against an anti-settlement resolution passed just before Trump took office, which condemned the structure of West Bank settlements.
The failure to disclose his role in the foundation follows a pattern of egregious omissions that would bar any other official from continuing to serve in the West Wing.
379
@CKG
Great comment! I wouldn't want to be on the other side of a negotiating table from this very corrupt and transactional Trump administration foreign delegation.
47
@Socrates Well said and "Spot On".
Kushner should never ever been allowed to receive briefings from the The White House. To bad he does not receive a salary from the White House because then Congress could step in and claim that this is blatantly "NEPOTISM" which it clearly is. Trump, Kushner and Ivanka are sleazy characters indeed and it is all about them.
78
Trump will continue as well because the signs are there as plain as day that Mueller will not show criminal collusion on his participation in election meddling. The signs: 1.Trump has stopped with witch hunt tweets and even encourages the reports release to the public.
2. Crazy Rudy has all but disappeared. 3. James Comey has recently publicly stated that he does not care if Mueller can prove that the collusion was done with “ criminal intent”. As long as the investigation was conducted fairly.
4. The Democrats moved to Trumps personal business dealings, well before the report is released, to avoid looking vindictive.
There are more clues here, than a impending stock market crash.
4
‘... in defiance of international criticism.’
The author apparently thinks a vulnerable sovereign nation surrounded by lethal enemies should determine its strategic necessities according to the cackling of other nations and critics who wish it harm. Amazing...
10
"To be sure, there is a big difference between the two territories (=Golan and West Bank), both of which came under Israeli control in the 1967 war."
Indeed that is correct. At that point Dr. Koplow should have called it quits. Everything he writes after that is his version of "what if" and for the most part fantasy.
"Israeli voters may be about to rush headlong into quicksand that they don’t even realize exists."
And then we have much for which to thank Dr. Koplow. How could a country that breathes politics 27/7 ever figure this out? (I would venture a guess though that I am the only one on my block who will read this op-ed. Whom is Dr. Koplow trying to convince?)
It would have been more practical for Dr. Koplow, "an advocate of a viable two-state solution" to have presented his version of a viable plan, one that would work for Palestinian leaders and the street and the same for Israeli voters and leaders. What the Palestinians would accept, no Zionist government would offer. These would be "Auschwitz borders", as Abba Eban called a return to boundaries of 6 June 1967. Mr. Eban was (Israeli) Labor, center to left.
So Dr. Koplow, I know it is really easy to attack Mr. Trump and the Israeli right, but present your plan. Show that both sides agree or can agree.
Fantasy we can do without.
12
Honestly, the only reason to pander to Palestinians is to get a Nobel Peace Prize. Once your ego gets past that now devalued trophy (Obama got one for...?), you realize allies and pragmatism should take over. The left is outraged that Trump embraces Israel. You know who else is outraged by Trump's move on the Golan Heights - Russia and Syria in public comments today. Why do the Democrats align with Russia and Syria? I thought they were anti-Russia? Political hypocrisy can be so confusing some times. It must be hard for Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to hold their tongues, as their anti-semitic tendencies seem to always be bubbling just under the surface. Anyway, I am fine with Trump's moves against the foreign policy orthodoxy of the last 3 decades, which was only notable for its inefficacy. Richard Haas may not like it, but maybe its only because he gets paid big money by MSNBC to act sanctimonious and demean Trump everyday. He can take the cash, we'll take the progress.
4
@TL, awarding Trump a Nobel Peace Prize would eternally invalidate the value of that award. And believe this from a Democrat: we do not embrace Russia and Syria. We do embrace democracy and respect for people and ideas we disagree with, and acknowledge that once in a while certain points of agreement align with those who are adversaries otherwise. Real life, not black and white Trump absolutism.
7
@TL I respectfully disagree. I'm pretty critical of Israel in regard to the West Bank and Gaza, but I support the Golan Heights move wholeheartedly. In fact, despite all the strategic warnings from military and policy experts on the consequences (e.g. future Russian hegemony and our loss of any right to complain), who could blame Israel for protecting itself from Syria. You say, "The left is outraged that Trump embraces Israel...Why do the Democrats align with Russia and Syria?" These generalizations are simply not true. I embrace Israel and I'm as left as anyone could be. And align with Russia and Syria? Not a single left-leaning person I know supports either. On the contrary. No one is above criticism - not the US, not Israel, not China. But we here in the US get to criticize our friends, and they, us, because we have influence with our friends (more so in Israel than anywhere else). We all need to fix the West Bank and Gaza, and the lack of movement on this problem only creates a lack of confidence with Israel's decisions, even this one, which is correct.
5
@TL no one needs to get paid to demean Trump. He does it to himself everyday, and unfortunately demeans our nation at the same time. Trump Undermines R Democracy. Also, the "Dems" are not aligned w Russia and Syria, they are aligned with the UN: remember them. Israel w its current leader has zero interest in developing peace with the Palestinians.
2
It should be clear to anyone.
Trumps MO is to create chaos, havoc and hate wherever he goes and whatever he does.
He doesn't actually care about any group or any issue, he just likes destruction. He has no moral compass.
All this hatred is so exhausting.
And for what: so he can avenge himself against a bullying and sadistic father Fred.
In the meantime I thought snarky Jared, the failed real estate mogul, was going to bring about peace in the Middle East.
The United States had been degraded by this presidency to the point where it's barely recognizable.
63
Once again, Trump putting his personal interests and those of his “friends” before the best interests our our country.
18
at least the board of Genie Energy, Rupert Murdoch included will be overjoyed at the prospect of oil exploration on the occupied Golen in violation of international law....who takes notice of that anyway ?
Trump prepares the ground for extreme right wing nationalists both at home and abroad to make their move to shatter any hope for peace and reconciliation in the world. How far can Trump go? Since he has absolutely zero conscience, his brazenness has no limits.
He consistently rewards the haters and dividers and the cumulative effects of driving these policies will have catastrophic consequences.
And let us pause to call out the obsequious Mike Pompeo, who calls Trump the Savior of the Jewish people, for what he is; a craven opportunist.
15
Does anybody doubt that now Kushner decides US ME policy. Let that sink in.
10
Well...
Let them take over of what is not theirs, again, and let them learn by experience.
Haven't we all...
1
Trump''s and Bolton's ignorance of the Middle East continues to show incompetence. Trump ignores intelligence briefings and Bolton is a war monger.
When the state of Israel was established, it did not have Gaza, the West Bank or the Golan Heights. They waged two wars to seize this territory. This was part of the USSR - USA Cold War chess game.
Since Israel's actions, we had two oil embargoes, the Munich Olympics attacks, the Iranian Revolution, the attack of US Marines in Beirut, World Trade Center bombings, 9/11, the rise of the Taliban, Al Queida, ISIS, the Arab Spring, the anti-Islam white supremacist movement, and the beginnings of the Sunni-Shi'ite War.
The US, by encouraging formal annexation this, is only going to heat up an already volatile situation; much worse. Maybe, that's the idea, Trump needs a diversion, what better diversion is another 9/11 like attack, in the US, and a major Israel vs Middle East conflict over there.
Trump could both justify his military budget, and oversee boots on the ground, in a war of his own creation. Well, he will continue the legacy starting just 100 years ago, when the League of Nations carved up the Ottoman Empire, and placed dictators in control. Then, since the 1930s, a source of oil. The scary part is that this could flame a US/Israel/Saudi Arabia/Sunni vs Syria/Iran/Russia/Shi'ite conflict.
Trump "Making America Great Again" with WWIII.
9
Has anyone thought of asking their SIRI or like minded devices to call the White House and relay a message, "you're so wrong again!" and keep trying until they get through?
1
It is the everlasting irony of the many divergent views of Christian Evangelists that at the Second Coming the Jews will become no more. Of course this necessity has as many different theological interpretations of how and when this happens as there are sects of this 'Prophecy". But it all ends the same way...believers in Christ go to Heaven, everyone else does not.
7
It's difficult to accept the view of a so called moderate whose main goal is to maintain a smaller territory for the sake of ethnic purity.
The point of no return has already been passed, there is no viable two state solution. It's time to press for equal rights for non Jews in Israel. Let's start the fight against apartheid right now, because we are already there, and have been there for some time.
Let's start with equal rights in land purchases, in marriage, etc. We should never accept the view, anywhere, that civil and political right should be dependent on ethnicity or religion.
16
@PNBlanco "Let's start with equal rights in land purchases, in marriage, etc. We should never accept the view, anywhere, that civil and political right should be dependent on ethnicity or religion." Great idea Blanco - let's start it in any Arab/Muslim country you choose and work down the list. We'll work on Israel after we checked off a dozen or so.
2
Annexation of the Golan Heights.
Used to bomb Israel from ’48-’67? Gen. Burns would disagree. Gen. Dayan admitted that Jerusalem provoked many of the battles.
Victory justifies conquest?
Pres. Eisenhower, speaking in the aftermath of the Suez War, explained to the American public why he forced Britain-Fance-Israel to end their invasion of Egypt. He reminded us that we had just fought a war against Nazi Germany who seemingly excused their conquests as necessary. He advocated that to allow this aggression would undercut international law.
The UN Resolution 242 that was reached precluded annexation of conquered territories. Inadmissibility of conquest was its cornerstone.
Peace between Egypt and Israel was achieved only when Israel returned the Sinai Desert. Negotiations between Israel and Syria have been on-going both in public and backdoor channels. The 1990s almost saw an agreement reached. And since then there have been contacts between Damascus and Jerusalem.
US backing Israel’s annexation will please the hardliners of both nations. But that will not end the dispute. In spite of the deep divisions of Syria, no acceptable Syrian government will concede the Golan Heights. It will remain irredentism—just as with France in its loss of Alsace-Lorraine.
2
As Trump and company help Bebe check of item after item on his wish list the rest of the region will stay in turmoil. Trump wants to have as big a role in the election in Israel as Putin had in ours.
1
The Trump business organization will continue its long term goals until Congress and the Senate have the courage to stand up. Until then, foreign policy decIsions are simply a means to enhance the Trump Organization balance sheet. See it clearly people. Our elected officials, both parties, are officially worthless. No courage and worse no professional ability to check this behavior. Trump knows their weakness and is steam rolling them and by extension us.
2
Netanyahu plays Donald Trump like a fiddle. Everyone knows that Trump may have intended his recognition of Israeli sovereignty over Golan as political support for Bibi. But the Prime Minister knew that it serves as precedent for formal annexation of the entire West Bank.
Trump is neither smart enough to know that or thoughtful enough to have any sense of its impact on American interests.
But Israel has been annexing the West Bank piece by piece for that last thirty years. A settlement expands, then an outpost becomes a settlement, then housing demolition is carried out, then Jewish only roads are built.
Palestinians request a permit to dig a well. It's granted but only for a depth of four feet. Meanwhile settlers have swimming pools. Palestinians already pay taxes to Israel and then are denied the services those taxes allegedly pay for.
The difference between formal annexation and de-facto annexation is rapidly closing. And we have both a president and a congress that has no articulated American position on any of this.
The only way average citizens have to express their views is through BDS or other protests. And even that exercise of free speech is at risk as congress considers punishing its own citizens simple for voicing an opinion!
Israel is not only becoming an apartheid state but they are dragging America down that sorted path with them.
Someone must introduce some sanity into this madness but it will not come from this white house.
32
Russia grabs Crimea. Israel annexes the Golan. Trump rewards his authoritarian buddies once again by approving these actions. This capitulation to illegitimate land-grabs with absolutely no negotiation is a simple give-away to Putin and Netanyahu.
The Golan action is timed to try and rescue Netanyahu's election on April 8. Trump has put America on sale to the most prominent flatterers of Trump. We are weaker as a nation as a result, and Trump doesn't care, because it is always Trump first, and U.S. take a back seat to presidential ego.
14
Israel has a historic claim to all of the territory it currently controls. Similarly the Crimea was once part of Russia and it has historic claims to that territory. Both sets of historic claims are deeper and much older then say any territorial claims of the United States including the continental US. Who are you to draw lines on a map or to say whom controls what?
1
Time for Glida Metudela, the Jerusalem ice cream parlor to offer Rocky Road peace in our time on waffle cones.
Since this is Trump, we must remember to follow the money. Trump want's to encourage the Israelis building in the Golan Heights and the West Bank. What's his end in all that building. How many Trump owned properties will result? Since we don't know all the side deals that Jared has secretly cooked up, we can't know how all this redounds to his bottom line. But at the heart of all of it, is not a love for the Jews, but a love for money.
5
If annexation of the occupied Golan Heights by Israel is essential for "regional stability" the definition of stability clearly equates with Israeli dominance of the region. This, like the recognition of the Jerusalem as Israel's capital, is a retrograde step. Playing partisan politics with foreign policy will ensure that Israel's relations with the US are seriously damaged. The 'island of democratic stability' that 'made the desert bloom' will henceforth be a source of divergence in US politics. Of course it will also energise those in the region who believe that the US role is and has been a negative one and should be fought, in short, fodder for the 'rejection front.'
135
@T.R.Devlin It is a response to Iran and Russia in Syria. And recommended by the American Intelligence community. It actually is not a President Trump administration idea or initiative.
6
@T.R.Devlin I fear that is already a boat that has sailed. The mutual co-dependence of US-Isreal hardright has already bloomed into interference in eachothers elections. May both coordinate their inflicting of misery ever after.
2
Perhaps it is the time for US taxpayers, and parents of military-aged children, to realize that Israel is not our 51st state. It is a Middle-Eastern country with Middle-Eastern ways and interests.
We, on other hand, are a North American country -- which strangely and to its own detriment -- often fancies itself to be a Middle-Eastern or Far Eastern country. That has not worked well, does not work well, and will not work well.
27
@Penseur, they just can't. American Jews are integral part of every facet aspect of American life. They have contributed greatly, enriching lives, in whichever country they have adopted, Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi. No matter what flavor, they are deeply committed to the formation of Israel, so essentially they have one foot there and one foot in America. One hand in one pocket here, the other hand donating to Israelis causes. America is Israel's largest donor. Physically emotionally psychologically politically American Jews remain attached to their identity as Jews first, chosen ones to inhabit Israel next. "Depending on religious definitions and varying population data, the United States has the largest or second largest Jewish community in the world, after Israel. In 2012, the American Jewish population was estimated at between 5.5 and 8 million, depending on the definition of the term, which constitutes between 1.7% and 2.6% of the total U.S. population."
So you see, Israel may not be the 51st state in constitutional terms, but in reality, it behaves as though it is totally dependent on America, for its lifeblood.
1
@Penseur RE: Parents of military-aged children. Israel has never asked the United States to fight its wars. They actually train our military to fight ours.
No one in the region envisioned Israel relinquishing the Golan Heights, but Trump's involvement in trying to help Netanyahu get reelected will force them to react. Trump = chaos.
4
True to form, Trump sees smoldering embers and exercises his gut instinct to douse them with gasoline. His decision has nothing to do with any kind of principle, as he has none, and everything to do with keeping his id fed by keeping his name in the news. "Look at what i just did!"
12
I agree with Dr.Koplow that annexing the west bank would be a drastic mistake.If those of us that love Israel and would like to see peace in the region, there must be a two state solution.
6 million Jews in a sea of Muslims are in a tenuous position.To occupy Palestinians is a rallying point for Israel’s neighbors who are getting more technical as the years go on. Iran & Saudi Arabia will have nuclear weapons, and the Middle East will be teetering on destruction.The first to go will be Israel. It is therefore imperative that Israel is on friendly terms with their neighbors.There is a obvious solution, allow the Jewish settlements to remain on the west Bank,and allow the Palestinian refuges to return.There is no reason why Jews can’t live and be citizens of a Palestinian State,as Palestinians are Israeli citizens.If it works in Israel it can work in Palestine.
4
I suspect Trump to make some decisions just to see how much trouble he can cause.
2
In the interest of accuracy it should be pointed out that in addition to the Golan Heights, the west bank was also used for shelling Israel. If 1967, when Israel had its hands full with the Egyptians and the Syrians (backed by the Iraqis), the Israeli government sent word to Jordan, which ruled the west bank (never the Palestinians) to stay out of the fight. Jordan responded with an artillery barrage on Tel Aviv, thus forcing the Israelis to open another front against the attacking Jordanians.
I think that annexation is a bad idea for the west bank and that this Trump pronouncement is counter productive, but the Israelis do remember the last time the Arabs ruled the west bank, and they see in Gaza what happens when you give Palestinians land; they launch rockets at Israeli schools from Palestinian schools. Until that changes, don't expect the residents of Tel Aviv to obsess over the west bank, or the Golan as the well meaning Mr. Koplow does.
3
"a far more dangerous step that would present Israel with an unparalleled existential threat to its Jewish and democratic character."
What democratic character? You mean Jewish character and democratic character for Jewish people? There is no "democratic character" for Arab Israelis, lets be clear, that's an illusion.
The idea of managing the demographics of a nation in order to maintain its religious character is not a laudable goal. Perhaps a one state demographic solution is the best option after all. I'm growing tired of the two-state charade, which is also an illusion promoted by the same people for decades who promise it will come soon.
Well, it hasn't.
8
@Marco Philoso
Arab Israelis have full democratic rights in Israel and hold seats in parliament.
1
Annexation of Golan Heights would make it easier to develop the Shfela oil shale beneath Golan Heights. No budding petrostate is just about gas, like Israel is with the newly developed offshore Leviathan and Tamar fields in the eastern Mediterranean. A true petrostate has to be the Saudi Arabia of an exploitable natural resource. With the Golan Heights secured, Israel could be the Saudi Arabia of oil shale. Oil shale shouldn't be confused with shale oil. Apparently Genie Energy is helping out with initial exploration. Dick Cheney was on Genie's board.
1
As someone not well versed in the subtleties of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I would like to point out that in the Trump negotiating method, the Israelis are being given absolutely everything they want from Trump. All they have to do is support Trump. The Palestinians are being told to cave or suffer brutally. Aid is being stopped. So all they have to do is cooperate or watch their people suffer. Sounds exactly like Trump's negotiations with the Polish workers who built Trump tower. I'll give you jobs with low pay and terrible working conditions. You accept and keep your mouth shut or I'll take your jobs and get you sent back to Poland. A WIN-win style. I win bigly, All you have to do is act like a winner even though you are losing. Sooner or later this will back fire. The angry Polish worker "forgetting to install a rivet or two" or increased terrorist behavior on the Palestinian side. To which Bibi and Trump will yell "Horror of Horrors. This is the thanks we get". In both cases the downside may not be immediately apparent, but, rest assured, it will be there.
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The “two-state solution” to the problem of Israel-Palestine has been rendered utterly impossible by the ever increasing and obviously permanent Jewish settlements in the West Bank since Israel first occupied it in 1967.
Anyone who calls himself an “advocate for a viable two-state solution” cannot be taken seriously. It’s as if someone were to insist that Saddam’s hidden WMDs are out there, we should continue to look for them.
And yet the “two state solution” does have a role to play for those who, like the author, prefers to keep the status-quo rather than rock the boat by choosing formal annexation. The status quo is fine, you see, despite all the incoherent arguments we have to put forward to whitewash or justify the oppression of Palestinians and despite the unpleasantness of having to deal with all the talk of “occupation” — hey, someday we’ll find a way to give back some of the land we stole, the Palestinians will get their Bantustan and all will be well!
The status quo is fine, you see, because life in Israel is actually pretty good. What Palestinian problem? Formal annexation of the West Bank is not worth the risk.
The author’s underlying concerns are certainly well founded. Someday Israel will have to face its internal contradictions. When it does, it is difficult to imagine how it will turn out well.
15
The UN is a feeble "power," and Israelis pay no attention whatever to UN resolutions. But I hope the EU can get itself together and raise the level of BDS against Israel to the point where it is effective. Israel has the formidable power of the US to use as it likes, as long as Trump is president. The EU must delay American-Israeli imperialism until Trump is gone. A new US president can undo a lot of the damage Trump has done.
3
Israel has held the Golan Heights for 50 years. Has the UN made a difference in forcing its return?
Trump may have finally brought this issue to a head.
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@George Yes Trump has brought it to a head and it hasn't cost him a penny. But it will probably or almost certainly, cost the lives of tens of thousands of Jews and Arabs, but what the heck, sure aren't there too many of them anyway. The main thing is to keep Bibi in power no matter how many lives it will cost.
11
During all these worldwide discussions of border walls, invasions, occupations and floods of refugees clamoring at fast closing border crossings, has ANYONE in the press or politics even mentioned the name of this pachyderm: global population increase.
There were 2 billion people on the planet when I was born, and the number is now 7.5 billion, and expected to double again in less than 15-20 years. Planet still the same size.
The closest thing to bringing up the topic of population increase we've seen in the USA is a present pack of legislative shock troops who not only want to deprive women of their constitutional right to continue a pregnancy, as well as many demanding a blocking of even contraceptive access.
Where is Captain Obvious when you need her/him?
1
Isreal's right wing leaders are just like any other country's right wing leaders. They do not give a rip what anyone else thinks. Those of us who prefer collegial debate and compromise may want to get in shape because these soccer hooligans are not going to give up without a fight. They are true believers.
8
Another example of a pretend president trying to meddle in serious foreign affairs without a hint of intellect, forethought or concern. Trumps path is erratic and full of land mines any one of which is likely to go off. But Netanyahu and Trump are buds and Trump knows best about everything. So how can we lose?
His big brain will protect us all.
5
The US is now and forever will be seen as a partisan supporter of Greater Israel. We will never be seen as a useful, much less fair, arbiter between Israel and the Palestinians.
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@Chris unfortunately that has been the case for over 50 years. And that is why peace will not arrive while Trump is in power. We are lurching towards another war in the region and this one could be the one that leads to a global conflict and the destruction of Israel. Rather than bringing peace Trump thinks that this war will be "winnable".
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@Ted It is a side story in the Arab press. Why? Because Assad, Russia, and Iran are not well liked. That is the issue here. Nothing more.
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@Chris The US has never been an impartial mediator. The Palestinians often complained that the Americans and Israeli's coordinated their demands, excluding them. The negotiations were between Israelis and Americans on how much to extract from the Palestinians.
That 'generous' offer the Palestinians rejected, and for which they were blamed by Clinton, would have cemented the worst aspects of the occupation for eternity. The US played a really very bad role in this whole mess.
You can find information here:
https://ifamericaknew.org/history/camp_david.html
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For at least three decades now, Israel has been goading America to start a war with Iran. I thought it might happen under W. but Bolton was sent to the UN. Now that he is at the right hand if Trump, we might see that yet before 2020. Israel won’t start it themselves even though they have the means. That’s what’s at stake here. I lost one family member in Iraq. I’ll be damned if I lose another one in Iran. The foreign policy of the previous administration, along with our European allies was on the right track in that region. Not any more. We send Israel $40 billion a year so they can have universal healthcare and free university. Just let that sink in for a minute. What have they ever done for America?
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This president doesn't even know where the Golan Heights is nor does he care. This is just a tactic in his 2020 campaign to secure the orthodox Jewish.
31
So much for not influencing elections -this tweet is election interference, and should be called out as such.
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@YC American politicians, including Trump, freely try to influence election in other countries. So, why is it a crime if Russia tried to influence election in America?
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@YC, you see Trump expects to win 2020, so he is laying out the groundwork for his son in law to achieve the most evasive goal, peace in the ME region. And for that he needs Netanyahu (however corrupt) to serve beyond 10 years he has already served. Trump is perhaps aiming for a Nobel Peace Prize for the duo, Trump-Kushner.
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@Alex E
Because it is a crime. Period.
20
The Golan Heights have enormous strategic value to Israel. There is almost near unanimity in Israel that holding this territory is vital to Israel's security.
The importance of this mountainous buffer is glaringly obvious today as Iran and Hezbollah are causing mayhem in Syria.
Israel had offered virtually 99% of the Golan to Syria back in 1999 in return for peace but Syria rejected this offer. Contrary to some of the anti-Israel rantings out there Israel has zero legal obligation to unilaterally withdraw from this territory.
I believe Trump's offer to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan might not be the smartest move but it will amount to little. The Syrians, Iranians and Hezbollah might complain about it but the silence from the rest of the region is deafening.
Syria has few friends in the Mideast and many enemies. Many of these countries are likely happy Syria is getting its comeuppance by Trump's declaration.
Incidentally, the Golan is a thriving and beautiful area steeped in Jewish history. The non-Jewish population living there are mostly Druze. While these people are not exactly pro-Israel they are not virulently anti-Israel either. Many Golan Druze have been quietly obtaining Israeli citizenship.
I doubt too many Druze - especially young ones - want the Golan to revert to the chaos and tyranny of the Assad regime. They much prefer the stability, prosperity and democracy of living under Israeli rule.
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@Sherman And the violation of international law this represents? Don't we recall some other 20th century leader who believed he could seize the territory of neighboring nations for lebensraum (living space)? He probably thought Poland was "a thriving and beautiful area," too.
Israeli citizenship is no great boon for the Druze since the Jewish State law, stating that Israel is for Jews alone, made them second class citizens. A major betrayal of the loyalty Druze have shown the state. Democracy? Not really.
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@sharpshin
For you to use the term "lebensraum" is beyond atrociaous.
This just shows the true colors of the anti-Israel crowd.
1
@Sherman Why do you make the comparison verboten on its face? Make your argument. Otherwise you show the "true colors" of the pro-Israel crowd: Israel is always right, no debate permitted.
4
The best possible outcome now may be that, in a generation or two, Israel will be a secular democracy. it could be an exemplary one. The intervening years are horrifying to contemplate. As an American citizen, I thought we were supposed to be supporting a peaceful two-state solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, no matter who was in office in Israel. Instead, our militarization of our foreign aid (for many years) and two years of Donald Trump's coy neo-fascism of have made this peaceful solution more and more unlikely. We have been more a friend to the defense industry than a friend to Israel.
39
Understand people's concerns here, but why were there no such objections raised when Russia annexed Crimea or China the islands in the South China Sea. The first step in any real middle east peace process is for the Palestinians to recognize, publicly and irrevocably, Israel's right to exist. Until that happens, realpolitik requires that Israel take the necessary steps to remain a free and independent state.
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@Dr B
What are you talking about? There were far more objections to Russia's annexation of Crimea than this.
7
@Dr B Please don't be so disingenuous. We have SANCTIONS against Russia for annexing Crimea. That's what we should do with Israel regarding its land grabs in Syria, Lebanon and the West Bank.
And stop repeating lies. The Palestinians have recognized Israel's "right to exist in peace and security" multiple times, most recently in 1993 when they also voided objectionable clauses in the PLO charter (since replaced by a constitution).
They did so publicly and irrevocably, meeting all diplomatic requirements. You can read those documents, as I did, of the website of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. israel was supposed to recognize Palestine's right to exist at the same time. They didn't.
3
@Dr B
Russia/Crimea - the US and EU imposed sanctions.
South China Sea - the US imposed tariffs ... oh, sorry.
That was to make American great again. Good thing that didn't interfere with Ivanka's Chinese trademarks, or it might have meant war!
2
Everything Trump puts his hands on turns to a disaster. He never thinks through the ramifications of his choices and even more so is not interested in informing himself of the issues and their consequences.
23
@craig, your comment assumes that Trump thought up this idea himself. I doubt it. Could Trump even find Israel on a map? No. He’s a puppet, following orders from Mike Pompeo, Steven Miller, Sean Hannity etc. Other than frequent and innate vulgarity and bombast, Trump is an empty shell.
1
I guess Jarred got again what he wanted, no matter the long term consequences to the lives of people in the region.
The next USA president is going to have a serious hard time repairing all the damage made by the trump administration.
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@Gianni
Long term consequences of the people in the region? If you're suggesting things have been going hunky dory for the last 7 decades you are likely alone in that belief.
The region has been in crisis for that long because no one is willing to budge. Palestinians have vowed to wipe Israel off the map and Israel has vowed to survive.
1
@Gianni As do all Democratic presidents after a Republican tenure in the White House since the days of Ike. The R's make a big mess of things and the D's are left to clean it all up, then the R's regain the White House after people are lulled into a sense of false security during the D's reign only to try something daring and vote another R into office.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
14
Mr. Trump isn’t the cause but just a symptom of decline of our democracy and social morality.
47
Anyone who thinks there is long term benefit to Israel from Trump’s politically-motivated “support” is deluded. The US extreme right wing has long sought to win American Jewish voters from the Democrats, and supporting the extreme right wing in Israel has been the main strategy. The short term gains are far outweighed by future risk.
How many other nations followed Trump into recognizing Jerusalem as the capital? None. How many will recognize annexation of stolen territory of the Golan? Most diplomats say none.
So, we have Israel hitching its star even more tightly to Trump’s wagon. Trump will be seen as a rogue, one- term aberration, and Israel will pay the price. When it comes to Israel, the American people are getting wise, and getting tired.
199
Particularly unsettling is our very own Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who, as an Evangelical, has spoken often about his belief in "The Rapture". His recent presser with "faith-based" media only is troubling. Perhaps he's interested in advancing the time-line and conditions to facilitate End Times. What a sad excuse for American foreign policy.@E
172
I agree with most of what you say, except at the end I would caution that it is not really Israel that is "hitching its wagon" to Trump, but rather the Netanyahu government. Israel is a vibrant democracy and hopefully in the April elections the Israeli people will give Netanyahu the boot, just like hopefully Americans will give Trump the boot in 2020.
80
@E
Thank you for this comment. This does Israel no favors.
Doing favors for Israel, or supporting it, is not really the point. Trump's "base" voters include extremist Evangelicals who really don't care much about Israel except as a catalyst for Armageddon - the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. They go on about the rapture. As far as they are concerned, the Israelis are useful tools. When the "Rapture" comes - in their eschatology - the Jews who refuse to accept Christ will go to the undesirable place (call it what you will) along with the rest of humankind who might not accept their particular version of Christianity. These extremists have been at this for quite some time.
I'm confident that those in Israel involved in projects with evangelicals are quite aware of this. They have treated them as useful as well, but it's time they started thinking about the danger these groups represent to Jews and to Israel.
This latest escapade of Trump's endangers real people's lives. Those people are both Israeli and Palestinian. They are Jews, Muslims, and Christians. A conflict could engulf other countries, and latent antisemitism will be energized even more than it has been.
Many pay close attention to Israel's lobbying, but (let's face it) every other country lobbies as well. We all need to pay closer attention to the religious zealots who are getting their way.
7
Leaving aside the political opportunism issue, the Golan Heights (with the high land on the Syrian side) was an Achilles heel for Israel. For the 1st 19 years of Israel's existence (including in 1948 when a coordinated attack caused nearly 10% of Israel's population to suffer casualties (source: Michael Lewis, "The Undoing Project" on Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky), the Golan Heights was the area that cost Israel the most lives to defend (much like the Poonch sector of Kashmir, where Pakistan had the high ground). Israel's occupation of this area was a strategic necessity, given the ongoing hostility of Syria's Baathist regime.
This does not mean that the Netanyahu regime's West Bank encroachments are morally defensible,
18
@PMN Agreed. The Golan Heights are a key strategic position for the Israelis. In light of what has and continues to happen in Syria, the world should not object to Israeli sovereignty over territory Israel won fair and square in 1967 and bled to defend in 1973.
10
@Jonathan
Love "won fair and square" as a euphamism for conquest.
Does that mean Vladimir Putin won Crimea "fair and square?" Crimea is a key strategic location for Russia.
1
Totally unnecessary at this point in time.
It should have been acknowledged timely, back when Israel delcared it. Land gained in a defensive war can be claimed by the victor, it is simple as that. Had Syria not attacked, they would not have lost the land.
But a transparent bungling attempt to collude with a favored candidate in a foreign country’s election is wrong. But not surprising given that Trump is doing it.
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@Jake Goldman
Wrong!
Extremely wrong and dangerous!
As you certainly know, the USA waged the defensive war during the WWII, but not only we returned all the occupied territories at the end of that conflict to the locals but even gave independence to Philippines that was our colony previously and helped rebuild the economies of the defeated enemy.
Consequentially, we have very friendly and cordial relationship with both the Germans and the Japanese, completely opposite to what Israel did in 1967 and its current relationship with the Arab and the Muslim world.
Of course, Israel can afford such behavior because Washington D.C. is bankrolling all the bills and the expenditures stemming from the endless occupation.
However, the smart people always look into the future and preempt the worst problems.
As you know, in the meantime the USA has accumulated the colossal national debt in the range of $22 trillion.
Can you predict what is going to happen at the moment we cannot afford any longer to borrow against our future but are forced to start paying off the national debt?
7
@Jake Goldman
If land gained in a defensive war can be claimed by the victor, Germany and Japan would be occupied by American settlers.
25
A major difference is that in WW2 we insisted on “total surrender” by Germany and Japan. There was no issue of recognizing statehood or law of return. There are those who suggest that utter defeat and humiliation are the only terms that will bring peace . They may be correct .
1
My first reaction to Mr. Trump's tweets regarding Israel is that they seem to be designed to provoke Iran into some kind of military action. It's no secret that his National Security Adviser John Bolton has long been hoping for any kind of excuse to attack Iran.
191
@Fritz Goebel That’s a stretch. More likely it’s a Jexit dog-whistle.
@Fritz Goebel. Fitting right in with the right wing Evamgelical expectation of Armageddon. Ridiculous? I wish it weren’t.
1
Israelis are well aware of the problems that annexation of the West Bank would present. And as you say, Mr. Netanyahu himself has never favored annexation. Claiming that a victory by Mr. Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition partners in the upcoming elections raises the prospects of Israel annexing the West Bank to an "alarming level" is rank speculation and insulting to Israeli voters who, unlike voters in this country, are well-informed about the issues. There are enough reasons for Israelis to vote against Mr. Netanyahu. You don't need to make up additional ones.
38
@Jay Orchard
Gush Emunim and their many followers and fellow travelers disagree with you.
3
@Jay Orchard If Israeli voters are so well informed, then you are saying they approve of the ultra-orthodox turning Israel from a secular democracy into a theocracy. If that is the case, the US should not support Israel any more than it should support a country with Muslim Sharia law. Pull our huge monetary support for Israel.
4
@Jay Orchard
This is one more reason to defeat the self proclaimed genius Dumb Donald Trump in 2020. Annexing the Heights will eventually lead to war with Iran and who knows what thereafter. In Dumb Donald we have a president who believes in “Apres moi le deluge” & has said so (but in English). Bibi and Donald have destroyed our political traditions. Let us pray that the voters of both countries are wiser than their leaders.
President Trump never seems to gain any real depth on issues. The Middle East is a complicated region and requires sound judgment and plenty of analysis and intelligence to understand. Our sound bite President is a surface skimmer - his positions are positioned for votes. With such a large pulpit to speak from he knows that his words - rather his headline speak - will travel the ends of the earth as fast as it takes to his send on his smart (not so) phone. He has no depth to his opinions and is out of his depth as the supposed leader of our foreign policy. It is embarrassing to have such a headline grabber representing us on the world stage. He should spend less time on Twitter and more time learning, listening and gaining depth on key issues. He may not gain more votes - but would certainly see a rise in his credibility.
80
@David Weber
'President Trump never seems to gain any real depth on issues.'
Very true, but when did that stop him, or encourage those with the requisite real depth on issues stop him?
40
@David Weber
It's possible that trump approaches this issue with the same degree of ignorance and apathy that he showed when telling a British audience that Brexit was a great idea, even though it had to be explained to him because he didn't recognize the word. I suspect it's Jared in the background using trump as a puppet to promote whatever his strange idea for the future of the Middle East is. Has Jared checked this out with his pal MBS? Is this actually a Saudi idea to promote instability in Israel? One never knows with this white house of posers and self-serving grifters.
9
@David Weber
If depth were required to sell products or politicians, then sound-bites would have no value and the ad industry would not exist. Unfortunately, the intellectual is out of place in the selling world--whether a product or a politician--because too many buyers and voters lack the sophistication to see that the thirty second ad is a scam. To move the consulate to Jerusalem or to annex the Golan Heights without negotiation means that there is no chance that the Palestinians will accept the Trump-Kirshner peace plan. They do not see an honest broker. And without a separation of the two peoples--Israelis and Arabs--into two separate states---the situation will never settle down .
4
It is so odd how countries complain of intrusion by foreigners into their operation, but there is no complaint when a foreign country gives impetus and a blessing to your intentions, no matter of how just or right they may be.
Give someone an inch and they take a mile, so West Bank, here we come. Good bye two state peace agreement. Has this been the plan all along? It is hard not to believe it's not.
106
In 1967 the Israelis seized the Golan Heights with a tank assault as part of their astonishing success in the Six Day War. At the time the heights were understood by all to be a key artillery position controlling the plains both to the East and to the West, which is to say northern Israel and Western Syria. Based on the military equipment and tactics of 1967, that made good military sense.
There is a saying that generals are always fighting the last war. The idea that tactics and weaponry will be the same in the 2020's is just wrong. Weapons today are much longer range and much more accurate. Miniaturization is now a key to effective weaponry, not heavy tanks. A war in that area today will not look like 1973. Artillery in Golan cannot defend all of Israel against attack with modern weapons.
52
@Old Ben. Then, it follows from the ways Syria and Israel have usedthe Golan and the disparity in strategic depth between the two at the Golan, the Golan should remain in Israel's hands.
2
@Old Ben The reality is that the Golan has been fully integrated into Israel and the presence of Israeli military stopped the spill-over of the Syrian conflict into Israel.
6
@Old Ben You do know that Israel has been making aerial bombing raids on Syria at will, right? More than 200 such raids in the last two years. The Golan is about 38 miles from Damascus, if I remember correctly.
1
It's utterly a sign of the scale of Trump's triumph over American democracy that he is able to obliterate chances for orderly life throughout the world by autonomous exertions of his resentment of their every progress. He has trained the nation to deny it can stop him.
137
@Carter Nicholas
While investigations continue into the open self dealing and reckless actions of the Trump-Kushner cabal, the threats increase.
What options exist besides following the rule of law to stop the descent into total chaos? None we should consider.
As I read my own words, I realize how pessimistic my outlook is becoming.
2
@MG Massive peaceful demonstrations on Capitol Hill and the White House is an option. That this option seems outlandish is only confirmation of "He has trained the nation to deny it can stop him."
I don't know if it's been said by others, but I believe Trump's reason for doing this is quite clear – trying to shore up his faltering base with some votes from supporters of Israel.
As to his claims that he wants to bring peace to the Middle East, I think that's either just an expression of Trump's delusion that he can achieve what others can't, or an attempt to give his incompetent son-in-law something to keep him busy.
Anyone who was mildly serious about Middle East peace, or knew anything about diplomacy, would know you don't set the stage for peace negotiations by chasing key players away from the table with overt hostility.
Then again, I don't think Trump really cares about peace in the Middle East. I'm sure privately he uses worse language to describe the Arab world than he did African nations.
291
@JHM
I think you are right about Trump and Israeli sovereignity over the Golan Heights as being strictly about ensuring the votes of End Times evangelical Christians right here in USA.
He doesn't care about peace, borders, nuclear weapons, trade, jobs, the economy. He only cares about holding on to his base for 2020.
11
Well this fantasy will push aggression by the Russians and Chinese in other parts of the globe and the Middle east. Lets create a reality where gains are not based on international law but on our dictation. Here comes volatility that may not be enforceable by international law. Maybe Israel and the US should just leave the UN. For others will mirror the ambition.
53
@Ralph Petrillo It is exactly that, Russia can now claim legitimate annexation of Crimea and China various islands etc. in the South China sea, thus flouting international law.
233
@Marc Faltheim - Your error is that Syria attacked Israel - It's land lost to Syria in a defensive war. The Crimea analogy doesn't hold.
2
@Ralph Petrillo
This lunatic proposal has been put forth by one shallow-minded person, Dumb Donald Trump, not by the nation of Israel & America.
1
Annexation of the West Bank guarantees a perpetual state of war between Israel and the Palestinians. It would probably inflame the Palestinians living peacefully at the moment in Israel, as well. Under the Netanyahu government, Israel, to paraphrase Abba Eban, has never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. It will take the emergence of a bold and popular leader to leave this path of slow, but inexorable, isolation and eventual self-destruction.
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@Sledge
The Palestinian arabs & neighboring nations have refused to live in peace with Israel for 70 years. So the idea that perpetuating the current disputes over land will somehow lead to peace is not logical. The enemies of Israel risk nothing by their violence unless they permanently lose some of the land they claim. That, and only that, might induce them to stop the violence.
12
@PCh the West Bank isn't only "land" : it is also people. If you consider the solution to violence is to seize the "land" that constitute the West Bank, what do you suggest to do with the people who live there ?
11
@Sledge
"... Annexation of the West Bank guarantees a perpetual state of war …"
The Levant has been in perpetual state of war since hominids first migrated into the area a few 10,000 years ago. If the state of Israel disappeared by magic one day, the area would still be in a state of war.
3