Israel claims of the only true democracy in a sea dictatorships .is no longer true. Israel is now a democracy for a class only system. its new law says its an exclusive democracy for Jews only and the other 20% of Israeli citizens are an afterthought. to make things worst the Netanyahu government is destroying the two state solution everyday thru more settlements in the west bank .i it begs the question if you are excluding the 20% of Israeli citizens within Israel. why are you adding another 3 million more thru your expansion policy
15
The State of Israel, in preaching fear-mongering and racism, has made itself into a parody of a democratic nation.
For too long, Israelis have hidden behind American skirts while flouting international law and human rights.
Netanyahu brought this to an all-time low by showing up, uninvited, to address our Congress and denigrate our president because he didn't get enough money from American taxpayers. He has now gone farther by marrying a racist ultra-right party to save his election and try to hide from his corruption indictments.
Israel no longer deserves American blood and treasure. If this is the path the country chooses, it must walk it without holding American hands.
26
Nice column
But if Rep. Ilhan Omar had written or spoke it
wouldn't it be deemed antisemitic
and she be viciously hounded even more
29
I always get a kick out of Iran is the #1 threat to Israel.
Iran has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel in the Middle East.
16
Trump's support to Netanyahu, and adherence to AIPAC's agenda, probably has less to do with any esteem toward Jewish voters than it does with (once again) shoring up support among his evangelical "Christian" base. Which loves Israel for reasons completely - and I mean completely - devoid of any actual affection for the Jewish people, and is all about Israel's role in a (twisted) interpretation of end-times prophecy.
24
It's been a long long moral collapse from Ben Gurion and Weizmann to the Bibi/Adelson thugs and their Bantustan plans for Occupied Palestine. The E.U. is ready to say "Enough Already", imposing sanctions painful enough that Israel will make peace based broadly on the Green Line as stipulated by the UN security council. The restoration of justice will lead to a golden age for the Jewish state.
6
The occupants of Palestine have been stateless forever. Why is it up to Israel to create one with/for them!
10
From NPR:
Netanyahu Says Israel Is 'Nation-State Of The Jewish People And Them Alone'....and he means it.
5
"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." So chant marchers. Their goal is clear: to isolate Israel and stigmatize it as an apartheid state, thereby weakening it and driving it to settle for a one state solution that is no longer a Jewish state.
Why would Israel embrace this?
12
Israel faces multiple existential threats, but the most dangerous of these is the Left’s sinister alliance with various and sundry Arab factions who’ve been perpetrating a century of terror wars, cultural appropriation, and propaganda in an effort to reenact their forbears’ conquest of the region and drive the Jews (whose indigenous homeland it actually is) into the sea....i.e. destroy Israel by any means necessary (economically, demographically, militarily, diplomatically, etc.)
Apologists for 70+ years of terrorism perpetrated against Israeli citizens, the Left’s hypocrisy is staggering. There’s your existential threat.
11
And with whom exactly is it that the Israelis are supposed to make peace?? The Palestinians have rejected three separate peace overtures since 2000. All Trump and his team are doing is confronting the Palestinian leadership with the consequences of their deadly rejectionist policies. You should also be ashamed of yourself for saying that the PA does "at times" incite violence. You know better. From the Jew-hatred they teach their children from kindergarten on to the payments for terrorists, the PA is a cancer on the Palestinians and on the world. Let it fall and perhaps the Palestinian people will elect a new government who will more realistically assess what's best for their people (although they did elect Hamas last time they got a chance - what does that tell you?). But until the Palestinians are ready to realistically compromise, there's little the Israelis can do. And it'll make no difference which party is running Israel. Remember Menachem Begin (the ultimate Hawk) made peace with Sadat but Sadat had to accept Israel first. I suggest you demand that the Palestinians give up their nonsense positions like the right of return or claiming Jerusalem. Indeed, if you know history you'd know that prior to the 1967 War, when the Palestinians were still trying to destroy Israel even though there were no "occupied territories," the Palestinians had no interest in Jerusalem. Only after Israel conquered the West Bank in a defensive war, did Jerusalem become an issue.
15
The American Christians want Israel "in tact" so the apocalypse will transpire. What they neglect to tell the Jews is after the battle between good and evil is over they'll have 24 hours to renounce Judaism and convert to Christianity ... Funny how that is never mentioned by the Christians who travel to Israel for "end of the world" tours.
10
With Ms Omar and her supporters it is hardly correct to say there is complete support for Israel in the house. Now there is an extreme ant- Israel group in the house and it is indeed correct to say it is anti-Semitic. What they are saying about Benjamins etc is classic anti-Semitism. Maybe because Friedman and Omar are from the same enclave in Min ( earlier piece by him espousing support for Ms Omar), he doe not see the grossly obvious. Anyway, as to the Golan, Syria used to attack Israel. In the war that Syria and others stared against Israel, Syria lost it to Israel. Israel also took back Jerusalem. When you start wars, that is what happenes. Israel gave back the Sinai and let the Gazans have Gaza. But, the Golan must be kept unless more is to be rained donw on Israel. Just today there was incoming from Gaza. The two last week were supposdily a mistake. We can sit here and be complacent in our security, but the Israelis have no such security. Keeping the Golan, helps a little.
8
This article makes the same foundational mistaken assumption that almost all commentary on Israel does: that there is some form of Palestinian Partner for Peace (PPP) either within or without the Palestinian leadership that would accept any form of a Two State solution whatsoever. This article feebly tries to suggest that Abu Mazen -- a corrupt, despotistic, likely KGB plant with a literal degree in Holocaust denial -- could somehow be such a person. Would you be willing to bet YOUR life on that assumption?
Generally, Israelis correctly see that there is no PPP and that past "dares" for peace have been met with bus bombings, rockets and terror tunnels. Western commentary laments the lack of momentum for a two state solution on the Isrseli side without even contemplating that Palestinianism is an annhilationist ideology first. The answer, then, should be overwhelming rhetorical pressure to demand peace from the Palestinians. Instead, by focusing solely on Israel we reward the Palestinians' intransigence, with this article even suggesting that barring the PA from using US taxpayer funds to pay terrorists somehow makes the PA less likely to make peace.
As for the settlements: Why can't a future Palestine have a single Jew living in it? We foolishly accede to a judenfrei for Palestinians and award their annhilationist ambitions time and again, and then wonder why there is no peace.
8
Friedman pits progressives against Israeli supporters. But one can be a progressive, an Israeli supporter, and abhor Netanyahu and his oppressive policies.
6
The biggest problem is that the US has never had a red line for Israel. Israel could and does what it pleases. And another exception, Saudi Arabia. And when the Europe and the rest of the world protests and condemns the US vetoes any actions against Israel. True Israel is going to be smothered to death by us.There is a critical mass for everything.
7
The Two-State solution is what it has always been: Jordan and Israel. But nobody wants to talk about it.
8
1. The two-state solution is already dead. Israel buried it by building settlements intended to render a viable Palestinian state an impossibility. Pretending it is a real possibility is promoting a lie that only prolongs Palestinian misery.
2. Israel already rules over a majority Palestinian population. Israel's apologists like to pretend that Gaza is no longer "occupied" because IDF troops no longer maintain a permanent presence on the ground. But Israel retains control over Gaza's coast, airspace, electricity, and access to food and medicine and routinely shoots and bombs targets in Gaza.
3. The Palestinian Authority is utterly corrupt. It exists at the sufferance of Israel and basically acts to enforce the occupation. Fatah lost the 2006 PA elections which they effectively abrogated and have ruled without democratic legitimacy ever since.
4. Israel is already a de facto apartheid regime under which rights of democratic citizenship are differentialy allocated on the basis of ethno-religious identity depending on where you live. No amount of pretzel logic can conceal this to people with eyes to see.
5. The only defensible solution is a democratic secular binational state based on the principles of equal citizenship rights, one person one vote, and protection of the communal language and religious rights of minorities.
6. The Palestinian Civil Rights/Democracy movement is coming whether you like it or not. The only question is which side you are on.
8
I hope the writers' prediction comes true, separation it's the only way to get lasting peace. Perhaps displaced Muslims can live together under a flag of an existing Middle East country. No sense in pulling punches with respect to the Arabs, their way of life, ie sharia law, is not compatible with the west and never will be. The way they treat woman in their society is so beyond the pale we can never accept it and they won't ever change. Peaceful co existence, is the best solution, especially when we move to a post oil energy future. No oil, no power base, just sand and the Koran. Lots of luck, don't call us, we'll call you. See ya!
1
Sorry Tom the time for a 2-state solution is long past and Israel has only itself to blame. Relentless settlement building combined with increasingly brutal and brazen oppression of Palestinians has sealed the deal. Time to acknowledge that there is no justice, no defense, in continuing to oppress Palestinians.
8
I believe Israelis will have little difficulty choosing between a democratic Israel and a two state solution on the one hand, or jettisoning democracy for the Arabs and incorporating Gaza and the West Bank into one state. The will choose the latter. While some left leaning American and Israeli Jews will protest, obtaining the "promised land" and jettisoning democracy will be an easy pill to swallow for the majority of Zionists.
3
Friedman is arguing for perpetuation of a status quo that already functionally is identical to one state denying much of its population its rights. This status quo is covered up by the fiction of the two state solution. Much as Trump’s and Pelosi’s embrace of Netanyahu and his openly fascist partners accelerates the collapse of that fiction, it was never going to last much longer.
1
It is widely believed that Israel has nuclear weapons. Thus if Iran were ever to acquire them, Israel would be ready to deter any nuclear attacks. Thus, the probability of Israel being destroyed by a nuclear attack any time soon seems to me quite unlikely.
1
“...the question of whether or not to still support Israel — when it’s no longer a Jewish democracy — will tear apart every synagogue and Jewish organization across the world.”
Not to mention it already tears apart American taxpayers tired of neocon friends of Israel assuming they will readily pay for wars against countries Israel doesn’t like (the latest one being Iran) — especially when America and Israel don’t even share or promote the same set of fundamental values.
Equality of rights no matter your race or ethnicity, one man one vote, separation of church and state — these concepts are utterly foreign to Israel, where rights accrue based on one’s ethnicity and religion rather than citizenship. Jews have fundamental rights which are denied to Israeli citizens not Jewish by ethnicity or religion. Most fundamentally, the right of return after having been forcefully expelled.
9
you describe a situation very similar to what we have here in America: ultra religious zealots maneuver into a position of outsized importance to the sitting rightwing government, which comes to believe it cannot hold onto power without kowtowing to the crazy positions of the ultra religious. here, we have born again evangelicals readying for the Rapture and fighting the war against Christmas screaming about abortion; in Israel, there are rightwing haradeem sects who believe they and they alone are actually Jews, therefore, they and thy alone should make all major national decisions, and that God demands of them returning Israel to the lands they believe it traditionally occupied in the days of Judea and Samaria prior to the Roman conquest which was given them by God. in both countries, outlandish, backward-focused positions sieze the rudder of goverment and everyone else is supposed to be quiet about the emperor's new clothes.
5
In the center of all this is the unfortunate concept that you cannot speak out strongly against Israeli policies or practices without being tagged as anti Semitic. This is another of the unfortunate legacies of The Holocaust. There is a whole package of issues revolving around Israel and the Palestinians. Many seem to forget that it is the Palestinians that have paid a major price for the creation of Israel. A case can be made that violence from their side is really understandable. Has not the US used violence to fight for what we think is right? I don’t say this as pro Palestinian or anti Israel. I do think it’s important to try to be objective.
6
While most of your "Israel" columns are insightful and perceptive, I think this one is off base and is seems to be full of selective retrograde amnesia.
First the obvious, I know you know this, but for 'newbies" to Israel bashing, perhaps you should have included some mention of the Oslo, madrid, Barak, Olmert string of offers and PLO/PA rejections that got us here . The Palestinians could have been flying a flag, & printing their own money in their capital in East Jerusalem 20 years ago, had they not rejected Olmerts offer. . Oh and BTW...Paying government stipends to people who drive their cars into innocent crowds or blow buses is not really a inspire overtures by Israel, either
Also, I am not sure what quantum number of 'reckless" (as in recklessness of youth??/with lack of forethought??) rockets launched into civilian, urban areas constitutes an "existential threat". What would that number be in Midtown Manhattan or West London?
In Israel & Vegas, the best bet is usually the one you don't make.
7
More likely, Israel will have millions of second class citizens within its borders, the world will look the other way and there would be no massive expulsion nor uprising, because after all, life as second-class citizen might be better than on the other side of the wall? Given two evils, choose the lesser one?
4
Don't blame Congress.
Blame those American voters that vote my country right or wrong - their country not being the US, but Israel
Until that stops, every Congress member must support, uncritically, Israel, to be re-elected.
4
The real existential threat to Israel is not the Palestinians, not Iran, not Trump and Congress loving them too much. The real threat is evangelical Christians in America.
Eventually, how long it will take who can tell, they will grow tired of waiting for the return of the Messiah, and will cast around for someone to blame. The obvious scapegoats are the Jewish people.
I have had some dealings with a couple of evangelical Christians recently. Both of them had Jesus-loves-me looks on their faces. I found it quite creepy, quite irrational.
5
In this case aren't Israeli politicians simply reflecting the mood of the majority of their constituents, namely a loathing of Palestinians ?
Ironically the polls reflect that this contempt appears to have increased since the Wall has lessened everyday interaction between Israelis and Palestinians.
Thus the Palestinian Authority gets no credit in Israel or the West for working with both the Israeli army and Shin Bet to keep a long standing peace on the West Bank. Instead there are only stories of rockets from Gaza.
3
Two state solution is not on the drawing board over the next two years. Europe's sick of the US and Israel, and Russia will seize this opportunity to gain leverage in Europe. China is already making economic deals in Italy. Be careful what you ask for. Golan Heights
will be fought over in the next decade. Syria will be brought back into warfare against Israel through Iran's leadership. Poison gas is still in Syria. England is currently falling apart. Isolationism will speed up as the Trump doctrine accepts dictators regardless of their past. Iran has helped placed Russian missiles in Syria that will cause destruction which can be laced with gas. . There should be a way to diplomatically negotiate a peaceful settlement now that Saudi Arabia gets Israeli advice. Think long term and come to a middle point so both sides can reach an equilibrium point without nuclear weapons or waste being used.
1
Quote: 'There is only a competition over who can love Israel to death the most - for their own reasons.'
What are their own reasons?
The media has made a fetish out of tiny Israel and the Jews...scrutinizing, condemning, censuring...every single day, ad nauseam.
Here’s a thought: Israelis will do whatever is in Israel’s best interest to do to defend their nation, their citizenry, and their future against the many antisemitic and genocidal forces that daily threaten them. Thankfully, they’re now armed to the teeth, as well they should be.
The era of Arab Islamic conquest and dhimmitude in this little corner of the Levant is OVER and it’s not coming back. Time for Israel’s many enemies and armchair critics to come to terms with that reality and move on.
15
I really don't get it. Why have the Democrats in Congress not uttered a word of condemnation for Bibi's alliance with anti-Arab racists? Are they okay with it? Could it have something to do with the Israel lobby? Is the latter question as a matter of course anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic? Someone please explain!
9
I think its high time that Thom Friedman's trite platitudes on the Middle East get put out to pasture. He drones on constantly about a kind of liberal utopia in which all sides will somehow come to the table with an open mind and open hearts and somehow a deal can be made. The problem is that no such environment exists. The Palestinians for their part have never shown any indication that they are willing to sign onto any deal that will get them anything less than 100% of what they want. It is unrealistic to believe that a deal can be done when one side has never had a realistic desire to resolving a dispute. That is not to excuse Israel entirely; there are certainly things that Israel has done that have made the idea of a deal less viable. But there is no doubt that the primary cause of the ongoing nature of the dispute is the Palestinians. Israelis of all stripes know this which is why the peace movement has lost support. The Trump administration has taken a new tact here; demonstrating that their will be a cost to their intransigence. This is the only method that has not been tried but it is also the one that has the highest likelihood of success. There are far more deserving causes than that of Palestinian Nationalism which demand our attention; Climate Change for instance. Mr. Friedman should spend his energies on that. Successfully solving climate change will help everyone including the Palestinians.
20
It's been 30 years since I read From Beirut to Jerusalem. I'm sure you aren't the only person who's been saying this for 30 years. I don't know what will happen, but it's so much lost opportunity over decades, whoever one chooses to blame.
1
Don't be silly.
Very few Palestinians want Israeli citizenship. They want an internationally recognized state in the lands they govern. They already have a state (two states, one on the West Bank, one in Gaza) in all but name. It issues travel documents that are accepted as passports, has a sort-of-parliament (but it's been many years since the last election) in the West Bank and a thuggish dictatorship in Gaza, each with police and military forces, representation (not officially called embassies, but fulfilling that function) in major capitals, the various agencies that modern states have...everything a state does.
If they want universal recognition as an independent state, all they have to do is sit down with Israel and haggle about boundaries. They're the world's best bazaar merchants, and should do very well.
3
It was Zionist policy before, and since 1949, Israeli policy, that there will never be an Arab state west of the Jordan river. The Palestinians will never get their land back, never get a state. The most they will get is municipal self government over islands of territory. An archipelago of municipalities would be a good description.
5
Those debates at American synagogues already happen, at least at mine, where many members are conservatives and the rabbi is a fan of AIPAC.
Trump has stirred the two-state pot twice now: once in moving our embassy to Jerusalem and now with his declaration about the Golan Heights.
There was no need to court problems with either move. The best thing that could happen, in my opinion, is that Palestinians finally agree to a two-state solution that includes the West Bank.
That is fast becoming unlikely, even improbable, as Netanyahu allows more settlement in the West Bank. It can still be accomplished without razing Jewish settlements, but for how much longer?
1
Until Israel determines it is not entitled to all the "riches" it appropriated in the 1967 war and all it has forcefully taken from the Palestinians by 'settlement" bearing false witness as to the 'why" they came into Israel, there will not be peace in that land no matter what it's name nor by whom it is occupied.
International agreements never ceded the lands to Israel it took from other surrounding nations. The 'right" doesn't exist in international law.
Israel has been a consistent aggressor in land taking; just as we were in this country from it's beginning. It was given a beginning; a land that was theirs to work with and be free in. That was not,howerver satisfactory. It wanted it all.
8
I don't see how any nation can survive without ensuring that all of its citizens have equal rights, without qualification.
4
Support for the Israeli Settlement Movement is premised on the fact that Israel was commanded by God to live in that land. Others argue that Jews were the inhabitants of "Palestine" 2000 years ago, and now have returned as the rightful owners. If the Bible, or ownership of property centuries, or millennia ago, were to determine rightful sovereignty, the entire world would be at war with itself. In order to have any viable future, Israel needs to negotiate internationally recognized borders, guaranteeing Israel's security, based on UN resolutions declared after the 1967 War. There is no other just solution to a conflict that continues to create new generations of Palestinians who have never known freedom, whose parents and grandparents have never known freedom, and who hate Israel more with every day of occupation.
7
I am surprised that Mr. Friedman got this so wrong. The Mid East is essentially a Sunni, Shiite battlefield. Iran v Saudi Arabia, to use short hand. Israel is in a powerful position given this changed Arab world. Trump and Bibbi see that Israel can strengthen its position further with some help. Thus, the Goal Heights decision. Armageddon will come. (Ok, some hyperbole). Israel needs to be ready. Getting stronger is never a mistake in that part of the world.
4
Israel will never make peace so long as there is unconditional US support for whatever actions they take. Obama tried to push back on the blank check, just a little, but got savaged in Congress and in the American media. Mr Friedman offers a cogent explanation of the problem, something rarely seen in our media. Trump's actions, like Bibi's come from the deep well of political cynicism.
10
Israel won 2 wars. They are not exactly talking from a place of weakness.
4
Thanks. This article provided an insight into Israel's domestic politics, and its interaction with the Trump camp and the US, that I previously didn't possess.
1
After Omar was well known to be slandering Jews and the Jewish State of Israel long before Pelosi embraced Omar and inexplicably appointed her to the House Foreign Relations Committee,
and Omar remains on the Foreign Relations Committee.
12
@rob asks:
What if Ghandi had been a Palestinian?
.
@rob
But Ghandi wasn't a Palestinian.
.
Ghandi opposed the establishment of the State of Israel.
.
And what would the fate of the world's Jewish people have been without Israel? Those who remained in Europe after the Holocaust would have been compelled to assimilate into Christian Europe or been destroyed in a future pogrom.
.
The Jews in the Arab/Muslim world would have remained in a state of dhimitude (subserviant state of non-Muslims) or been killed.
.
The Jews in the U.S. would have been so demoralized by the loss of Euopean Jews that they would have assimilated out of existence.
.
Ghandi did a good job for India. His opinions about establishment of Israel were completely wrong.
9
As usual, Friedman is absolutely correct. The Palestinians will have no land and Israel will have no peace. Then Israel will be gone and the Anti-Semites of the world will say "See, the Jews cannot even govern themselves. lets get rid of them."
4
Hmmm.... that sounds like something Congresswoman Omar might say. But of course she couldn't make similar point for fear of being tarred as an anti-Semite, right?
10
Trump and Congress are indeed loving Israel to death.
But let us also acknowledge that Israel returns the embrace, because it has a death wish.
The progeny of the Holocaust come in two varieties: Those who believe that "never again" means not being Nazis, or allowing Nazis to ever rise again; and those who believe that the only way to ensure "never again" is to emulate the Nazis.
One variety of Holocaust descendent re-embraced all of the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Rabbi Hillel; the other variety of Holocaust descendent re-jected the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Rabbi Hillel.
The latter variety have made an existentially questionable bet: That the next appearance of Naziism will not be met as was the first. The latter variety has bet that the vast majority of humans will accept, long term, subjugation and efforts to extinguish them.
The latter variety what most Israelis are. They have no intention to live in any normal way with not only the Palestinians. They have no intention to live normally with others who also call themselves Jews. They have no intention to live in any normal way with the rest of the world. They believe they can effect a long-term, slow motion holocaust, without reaping the consequences. However, their fatal mistake is that they cannot do so and remain actual Jews.
They can't. They may, in fact, have effectively committed a second holocaust. On themselves.
8
Tom Friedman's passionate view is astute but superficial. The realities of the existential-cultural lies beneath the political.
There are two internal civil wars that must be settled before a two state solution is bearable for either Israel or the Palestinians:
One, in Israel,lies between secular civil society and the Orthodox Religious right; the other lies between modern, Palestinian civil society and their own Islamist elements sworn to sacred holy war. These core, internal existential struggles entail each society's basic identity. Resolving them is, sadly, prerequisite to trusting and living with the Other.
4
It's very clever what AIPAC is doing to Rep. Engel, Nadler et al.
2
This is just so wrong in so many ways that it hardly requires a response. So instead let me offer challenge to Thomas L. Friedman when he says, '. . . the Aipac convention of 2022 will feature a panel it’s never had before: “Who lost Israel?’’'
Would you like to place a substantial wager on that, Mr. Friedman?
Furthermore, the sentence "It’s the threat that America will love Israel to death" is rather insensitive. Certain Arabs and the Iranians are actually threatening "Death to Israel" on a daily basis and they are not using it as a figure of speech.
You are in way over your head, Mr. Friedman.
14
"Israel...faces two existential threats — a nuclear-armed Iran..."
Thomas: this is 100%, pure, unadulterated propaganda. No where is there any reason to believe that Iran has a nuclear weapon, wants one, nor poses a threat to, or even wants to engage with Israel in any sort of armed conflict. This was the same lie propagated in the run-up to the Iraq War: that Saddam wanted to attack Israel with nuclear weapons. Lies, lies and lies--again and again and again. Friedman has gone full-blown neocon, and it is alarming that he is incapable to stopping and thinking rationally about this situation. Why would Iran want to fight Israel? It would assuredly lose, given that Israel has around 200 nuclear weapons of its own and the full backing of the United States. Even if Iran were to attempt to obtain a few nukes, they know that their country would be immediately obliterated by the U.S. and Israel before they ever got to use them. Why would Iran want to bring this upon themselves? And if you recall: Netanyahu and all the right-wingers in both Israel and America, have been screaming that Iran is "just years" or "just months" away from completing a nuclear weapon...since 1993. And they say it year after year, no matter how many times it is proven false. These hysterical articles from Friedman are dangerous, and someone at the NYT should push back against this shameless lying and fear-mongering.
24
Last week students at Brown University approved a referendum (with 69% of the vote) demanding the University not invest in corporations complicit in the brutal human rights violations in Palestine. Brown is not required to act, but the referendum's passage makes a strong statement.
16
@Lillie NYC
The Palestinian Authority is committing genocide. The PA pays people to murder Jews. The more Jews they kill, the more money they get. More than doctors or judges. That's genocide! Why a boycott of the Israeli victims of genocide, but no boycott of the PA which is committing genocide?
15
@Lillie NYC: but of course, all the other MUCH WORSE violations of human rights in the Middle East -- lack of women's rights, female genital mutilation, gays and lesbians being stoned to death -- the persecution of CHRISTIANS in Syria and elsewhere -- thats all A-OK and only Israel is guilty.
9
So he's saying it is all about the benjamins?
9
Trump and Netanyahu are doing everything they can to guarantee there will never be peace between Israel and its neighbors. By ensuring that there is no cost to Israel from continuing to expand they guarantee that, at some point, Israel's neighbors, Iran? Hezbelloh? even Egypt will have to raise the cost considerably to force Israel to the table. War ends when the costs exceed the benefits. Eventually, Israel will be forced to pay the costs of what Netanyahu are doing. The old adage applies, "Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered." These two hogs will cause the slaughter of many Israelis.
1
Another insightful editorial by someone who has a broad perspective on this region of the world.
2
Jared is a close associate of Bibi and his family invested in the settlements and he is in charge of middle east policy and gets big fat loans from Arab princes. The personal rule of the Trump family they think they own America now and as much money as they can get from that "ownership" will go into high gear if re-elected.
7
Israel is turning into a typical Middle Eastern country, with one ethnic/religious group ruling and oppressing other groups and a government that runs by balancing and bribing and accepting bribes from powerful parties. Elections and the rule of law become charades, the curtain behind which the real decisions are made.
Such governments can be depressingly stable, but are rarely economically dynamic even if they have oceans of oil. Israel may manage to be an exception (the exception), but in a country of deals between power brokers, a business can find success by enlisting government against competitors rather than winning on competitive merit. Competing for government favors becomes the main sort of competition, and this is the death of economic dynamism.
8
It's almost as if Mr. Friedman agrees with Rep Ilhan Omar that "pro-Israel lawmakers in Congress and from Aipac" are part of the problem, representing an existential threat to Israel. Perhaps there is a subtle distinction in that Congressional support for Israel is not issue of "dual allegiance" but instead one of "blind allegiance." This blind allegiance to Netanyahu's government may not be in the best interests of the nation of Israel.
Mr. Friedman was also more deliberate in discussing the role of money in politics with mega-donor Sheldon Adelson driving US-Israel policy and touching upon AIPAC campaign fundraising. So is a concise summary: "It's all about the Benjamins, baby." Is that correct?
Overall, I do not think that Mr. Friedman is trafficking in anti-Semitic tropes, but identifying the problem of money in politics and lack of strategic vision by the Kushner/Trump team.
10
As a Democrat , I am disappointed and disheartened by the Democratic leadership's continued "blind support of the State Israel" . I am appalled by their treatment or Representative Omar.She clearly struck a sore spot. The issue has never been antisemitism ,.it has been anti Israeli State
1
Not to mention what happens when America's right wing extremists are out of power! Israel lost me when their right wing government started exclusively supporting republicans. I really question why the US is helping Israel at all at this point. I'm not alone. If it's clear that the US has no influence over what Israel does, why should we be interested in them at all (especially since they seem to be gaining influence over what United States citizens do i.e. the movement to make it illegal to boycott Israel? US representatives being forced to parrot the AIPAC line? Really??). In fact, I also wonder why we aren't trying to get closer to Iran, that seems to me the most productive use of our Middle East diplomacy dollars. Sometimes you need to walk away from toxic relationships. Israel is making their own bed - too bad if they end up laying in it.
18
@Tim m: remind me of the last time Israel kidnapped the US embassy and held all the embassy workers hostage for a year.
7
@Tim m
What does Hamas want to do after it defeats Israel?
When the rocket attacks first began against Israel, a senior Hamas leader, Dr. Yunis Al-Astal, published an article in the Hamas journal, Al-Risala, where he compared Hamas’ al-Qassam rockets to the Manjaniq catapult which the Prophet Muhammad used against the Jews of Khaybar. The fall of Khaybar, he explained, opened the gates of the Byzantine Empire to Muslim conquest and was the first step towards the fall of Constantinople. Now, the fall of Israel, he said, would open the gates of Europe to Islam and lead to the fall of Rome.
Hamas MP and cleric Al-Astal proclaimed in 2008, “We will conquer Rome, and from there continue to conquer the two Americas and even Eastern Europe” (Al-Aqsa TV, April 11, 2008)
It’s in our interest to give Israel weapons so that Israeli soldiers will fight
Hamas over there rather than needing to have American soldiers fight Hamas over here.
6
There will never be a two state solution. The world must decide to either accept a truly Jewish state of Israel or the right of Palestinians to be citizens of some nation. That is the question. I, for one have no problem telling the Palestinians to go fly a kite. Israel should absorb those who want to stay and enjoy economic prosperity without the right to vote. Same solution for illegals in the US.
8
The question "Who lost Israel?" has been asked before -- after defeats by the Greeks, Romans, etc. They came about when Jewish fanatics decided their brand of Judaism was the only valid one, and turned to killing fellow Jews and destroying unity. When asked how Israel can continue when Palestinians outnumber Jews, the response is that God wants Jews to have the territory and God will protect the Jews. Depending on God a couple of generations after the Holocaust is lunacy.
8
Tom, you are stuck in 1982 when you wrote "From Beirut to Jerusalem" The world has changed but you have not and you are still stubbornly defending your outdated and in incorrect theories. In the intervening 37 years, we've had the Lebanese War, two intifadas, car rammings, bus bombings, incendiary balloons, and much more. The Hamas charter still calls for the destruction of Israel. The hopes you pin on Abbas are completely misguided - he still teaches his children that Jews have no place in the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan. There can never be peace under these circumstances - ever. You are personally enthralled by your access to leaders throughout the region who use you to foist their ideas on the NYT that you have lost all objectivity. You are doing Israel, the Jewish people, and the citizens of the United States a grave disservice with your misguided editorials. Keeping the Golan is radically different than the situation in Judea and Samaria but you erroneously lump the two together. When the Palestinians give up their dream of return, expelling Jews, and destroying the State of Israel, then we'll talk. Until then, just be happy with the one Pulitzer you have. There won't be any more.
26
Judea and Samaria? Guess we know where your coming from...
2
Threat #1 a nuclear armed Iran is false. They would have nukes, Israel would have nukes, and nobody would dare to use them. But even that was taken off the table by the now broken nuclear agreement.
As for #2 this threat is real. The world's sympathies are with the Palestinians in their desperation. And BDS has sprung up as a result.
#3 AIPAC just adds fire to #2. As you acknowledge, many Jews are stepping back from its attempted imperialism. Rather than Israel being loved to death, its AIPAC wing has become something of a pariah. The last I heard no democrat contender for the presidency will be at AIPAC'S meeting this year.
They may have Trump and the neocons, but they have lost the rest of the world.
8
@betty durso
MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) doesn't work with people who value martyrdom. Iranians value martyrdom.
The Twelver beliefs have raised concern in conjunction with Iran's steeped interest in furiously pressing forward with its nuclear program, combined with threats against Israel and the West. Critics of the Islamic Republic allege that Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Leader would even go so far as to hasten a nuclear showdown and cataclysmic strike—perhaps an attack on Israel and inevitable retaliation—to hasten the arrival of the 12th Imam.
1
Well reasoned and hardly extremist. Friedman is most likely neither anti-Semitic or anti-Zionist. So consider this excerpt:
“Trump’s “anything goes’’ approach for Israel (and America’s Arab allies — that’s how Jamal Khashoggi got assassinated by the Saudis) is presented as a strategic shift. In fact, no strategic thought has gone into it. It’s actually driven by Trump’s quest to get more campaign donations from far-right Jewish mega-donor Sheldon Adelson and to get Jews to leave the Democratic Party and vote Republican — by getting Bibi’s blessings for Trump, and, in return, giving Bibi anything he wants, including a tacit presidential endorsement for his re-election.”
How is this any different from assertions of divided loyalties and saying “it’s all about the benjamins”? He may have said it more politely but he said it... and I think he is correct.
16
It’s because people support Israel, as does my family: it’s their understanding of its significance and importance to Jews around the world, threatened everyday with anti-semitism and group animosities...unlike the Arab and moslem countries, Israelis and Jews and Jewish friends and enemies around the world openly discuss/criticize/debate Israel’s internal problems, and Israel in general is under the microscope; while, Arab and Moslem self adulating countries are not democracies and their citizens and friends criticize their own countries at their own peril....objections and protesters are beaten and imprisoned and hurt/killed, seeking refuge in other countries, even Israel..! Please, revisit all the nyt articles about Indonesia, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and, yes, Gaza! Does anyone believe Tom Friedman is anti Israel???? Or that he’ s afraid to speak out as he does in this column or country? If Omar and her supporters are so outraged by the Palestinian condition, then where is their commentary on Hamas and what they are doing to their own citizens. There is none, as it doesn’t fit their narrative, and, that is why their narrative is not an impartial criticism of Israel but is one sided and steeped in anti semitism...Israel true supporters are not motivated by mindless mantras such as “Benjamin babies”, but by their commitment to make Israel better, and an understanding that its existence is vital to a democratic and educated world and Jews everywhere.
16
Jewish democracy is nonsense. It's the negation of democracy. Bibi and likes want nothing less than a Jewish State, option that excludes any Arab in their country.
14
@Roland Berger: provably untrue, as 20% of the citizens of Israel TODAY are Arab Muslims. FULL CITIZENS!
Israel has total religious freedom, and has churches, mosques and a large Baha'i house of worship in Haifa.
Funny, you don't seem to mind the OTHER 20-some nations in the Middle East that have NO religious freedom, are NOT democracies at all and are run under Sharia religious law!
6
@Roland Berger
According to Freedom House, Israel's Freedom Status is "Free." Israel is rated "1" (on a scale from 1 to 7 where 1 is most free.) in "political rights" and Israel is rated "2" in Civil Liberties."
Israel is the only state in the Middle East that is rated "Free."
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 ranked #19 on HDI Human Development Index
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index
5
As an American-Israeli, living in Israel for the last 20 years, I'd like to put my two cents in here.
A lot of Israelis despise Bibi and his lunatic right-wing coalition. They are desperately looking for an alternative and, with elections a couple of weeks away, our choices come down to (a) the Blue and White party, lead by 3 former IDF generals and a fomer TV personality, which is almost as right-wing as Bibi (but arguably less corrupt), (b) the Labor party, a center-left party which is no longer recognizable as the party of the founders of the State, (c) a good handful of right wing lunatic parties (including one which wants to kick out the Arabs and legalize pot), which make Bibi's racism look like the ravings of a nursery school, (d) the very religious parties, who are solely preoccupied with making sure that only their rabbis can perform marriages and funerals (there is no civil marriage in Israel), (e) the Joint List of Arab parties (with which Bibi and most right-wing parties would never allow to be part of the governing coalition), (f) one sole, lonely left wing party still trying to push the two-state solution, as well as compete to see who in the party is the most anti-religious.
So what's an Israeli voter to do?
13
What options are you considering?
The President will finally get his big beautiful wall, only it will be in Israel. The plans are probably in the books. The cement trucks and rebar are at the ready. An enclave built from the Golan Heights through the Jordan Valley to the Gaza Strip meant to keep the enemy at bay will further isolate Israel and emboldened the worse parts of those who seek its destruction. Millions of people will be caught in the middle as the virulent factions on both sides ramp up their game. All this to purify Israel as a nation for Jews only. They have taken a page from history, occupy and purge. Wasn't that always the not so hidden goal?
2
"It’s actually driven by Trump’s quest to get more campaign donations from far-right Jewish mega-donor Sheldon Adelson and to get Jews to leave the Democratic Party and vote Republican"
So then, it is "all about the Andrews, baby" ?
Note for those who don't get the point - Andrew Jackson appears on the 20 dollar bill; and Andrew is a name that has no Jewish connotations I'm aware of - unlike the slang term for the 100 dollar bill.
7
Everytime I read an article about the Palestinian Israeli conflict, I always find myself asking one question, what if Gandhi had been a Palestinian?
6
Non violent protests would be very welcomed in this situation.
7
@rob
But Ghandi wasn't a Palestinian.
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Ghandi opposed the establishment of the State of Israel.
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And what would the fate of the world's Jewish people have been without Israel? Those who remained in Europe after the Holocaust would have been compelled to assimilate into Christian Europe or been destroyed in a future pogrom.
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The Jews in the Arab/Muslim world would have remained in a state of dhimitude (subserviant state of non-Muslims) or been killed.
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The Jews in the U.S. would have been so demoralized by the loss of Euopean Jews that they would have assimilated out of existence.
3
It will be hard for Israel to be the only 'pure' Democracy in the Mid-East. That is the reality in that Religious part of the world. Last I heard Turkey and Russia were democracies too (not to mention the US). If the Palestinians don't accept Peace on Israel's terms, Israel will continue to function as democratically as it can, while making sure it survives as a Jewish State; that value 70 years after the Holocaust is the key value for the foreseeable future. Israel will afford citizenship to it's various minorities including it's Arabs, protect the rights of women and the LGBTQ community and so on. The West Bank and Gaza will flounder behind a wall. The Truth is you can't compare the situation in Israel and the mid-east with anything else no matter how people would love to paint the situation as the most flagrant abuse of human rights, oppression, apartheid, etc...
The real threat to the character of Israel is from the Religious fundamentalists. Jew or Muslim, same problem.
3
The PA "... is corrupt and mismanaged and does at times incite violence, but Abbas is the last best hope for a two-state deal between Israelis and Palestinians." Sorry Tom, stop deluding yourself that the PA is some source of hope for peace.
The P.A.:1. Is an authoritarian government, without elections in over 15 years; 2. Is so highly corrupt and mismanaged, that its leaders like Abbas and Erekat live in luxury, while Palestinians suffer for lack of employment and for basic services; 3; The PA official school curriculum is heinously anti-Semitic and disavows the existence of a Jewish State; 4. The PA has been offered multiple options for a 2 state solution, from Clinton onward, all rejected.
The "peace camp" is without support in Israel, because Israelis are not without compassion and interest in a Palestinian State. But Israelis are not "suckers" and not naive to understand that the PA and certainly Hamas, only seek to destroy the Jewish State, ("from the river to the sea"-the current mantra). Tom, stop pretending that the PA is currently or ever has been, a viable partner willing to recognize a viable Jewish State.
13
Friedman writes, "Many Aipac officials know that all this could end in disaster for Israel, but they are too afraid to speak out." Answer me this: Who and or what are they afraid of and why?
3
Baloney! The two-state solution is dead! It's been dead for years, now. Neither side wants it. Neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis will even agree to discuss it.
Each thinks it can ultimately win out, the Israelis’s by annexation, the Palestinians by appealing to international public opinion. And the Arab governments are now more concerned about Iran and the price of oil, than the fate of the Palestinians.
Only American Jews harbor the fantasy of a two-state solution. It is a form of reality avoidance. They need to believe that Israel can survive in the cauldron of the Middle East as a European-style democracy, when the truth is far harsher, as most Israelis understand.
Those who accuse Israel of "apartheid," conveniently ignore the assimilation of Arab-Israelis. They vote, they form coalitions and get themselves elected to the Knesset. They are appointed to the supreme court and to leadership positions in the police. They attend colleges and universities. They marry whom the want, even Israelis, and raise their families as they see fit. They live openly as gays and lesbians. And many reject the idea of their home village joining a new Palestinian state if one is formed. Some apartheid!
Eventually, some Palestinians will accept Israel citizenship without destabilizing Israel as a Jewish state—as liberals hysterically predict— and others will simply leave because the climate is too hot and water too scarce. Climate change will be the ultimate arbiter.
17
@Ron Cohen: OR they will go to Jordan, which is the true Palestinian homeland.
What's clear from many of the comments in the thread (especially those from Israelis) is that the writers not only agree with Thomas Friedman's prediction of disaster if Israel annexes the West Bank but would welcome that disaster.
What's clear is that their hatred & contempt for Palestenians is limitless, has been limitless since 1948, and that to them all talk of a two-state solution is empty talk, and has always been empty talk.
Right now, the population of Gaza is around 750,000, and the population of the West Bank is around 2.5 million. Right now, 750,000 Gazans, whose only right is to slowly starve, are bitter enemies of Israeli Jews. If the Tel Aviv regime continues with its annexation agenda, there will 3.25 million bitter enemies of Israeli Jews.
4
in what Universe are you living? are 2 million Gazans and only a short while ago there were only 1.5 million. they can have more and more children because the haters of Israel will always feed them. the hatred is more on the Palestinian side. They just fired a rocket that destroyed a home and nearly killed 7 or 9 people. They blow up buses and stab children in the street. Hamas sends out its people to kill Jews and the Abbas rewards terrorists who killed Jews. there are nearly 2 million Palestinians in Israel. There are 0 Jews in Gaza and the PA . who's the bigger hater who's the bigger bigot?
10
@camorrista
Obesity is a major problem in Gaza.
1
Very thorough!! Good!!
1
As Mr. Friedman speculates once again about what is good for Israel, rickets from Gaza hit a home in Tel Aviv. There were several injuries, hopefully, no deaths. There have been numerous stabbing/murders in Judea/Samaria over the past year by the Palestinian “peace partners” who are then paid handsomely by organizations who know what is “good for Israel.” Chin-stroking is not a substitute for the approach required for combatting neighbors who are still trying to win a war they have lost many times. Mr. Friedman seems quite concerned about the collapse of the PA. Maybe TF should advise Abbas that it is time to hold elections again since he has been promising since 2009 to hold them. Those living in Areas A and B could then vote for representation that they think will better suit their needs. Maybe TF could also advise Hamas not to shoot their own people as has occurred these last few weeks and to stop launching rockets and incendiary balloons into Israel. These are not “peaceful incursions.” While TF contemplates he should imagine his response if his neighbors approached him in the same manner.
10
The trump gambits are disgusting. US foreign policy is now whatever keeps trump and his donors in power, and in office so he can't be prosecuted.
US foreign policy should not be held hostage by this man and his designs to destroy America.
8
Important article. Wish more people would read it.
4
The Palestinians will be subjugated with the Israelis occupying
their territory without giving them representation. I don't
know if the Israelis will argue to the death over this, but the
real question is how the Arab world will react. I'm talking
about Syria, Hamas and Iran. They could all have a go at
Israel at the same time. And at our presence as collateral damage.
1
Nah. When push comes to shove in the West Bank, Israel will sign a peace treaty if the Palestinians are ready to establish a multicultural, open, demilitarized, human rights-sensitive democracy, or cede the territory back to Jordan, who should be running affairs there. If Jordan doesn't take it, Israel will continue to administer it, this time blamelessly.
2
What if Middle East Arab Governments have reached the same conclusion as Mr. Friedman? Their problem with Israel may be decided without the firing of a single shot- but with lots of love for the current Israeli regime.
1
And there's another narrative, frequently censored here but the truth to many Israelites: The land of Israel in its entirety belongs to the children of Israel, as promised in the Hebrew Bible.
Islam has been blessed to rule over 99% of the Middle East.
Dig that for second. Over 99% of the Middle East.
Israelites are branded racists for believing that the less-than-one-percent should be a homeland for the people of Israel, who have endured countless genocide attempts for ages, when Islam controls the overwhelming majority of the area and does not let Israelites visit (let alone live in) most of it.
This as every single reliable indicator demonstrates that the great majority of Muslims in the land of Israel (Palestinian AND Israeli Arab) do not want to live in peace with an independent Israel, but want to destroy it in favor of yet another Islamic country.
It's funny. Were we talking a century or more ago about nations conquering nations and ills visited by the conquering on the conquered, we would be talking about most of the world's great powers of the 20th century (yes, including the United States). How convenient for all that today it is Israel that is singled out, despite its very legitimate claims to the land of Israel - including the Hebrew Bible that forms the basis of several other major religions.
How convenient no other country has to look at itself and what its own history has to say.
5
The Hebrew Bible is now the " definitive " source for the justification for the occupation of Palestinian territories ? History may suggest otherwise .
1
@levitical1948
> The land of Israel in its entirety belongs to the children of Israel, as promised in the Hebrew Bible.
The children of Israel are the Palestinians. The ancient Hebrews at one point converted to Christianity and again later converted to Islam. Its still the same people.
As Euripides rightly said for all time, "The things men think will happen do not happen." Friedman is dead right here. Adelson and Bibi, with their hand-puppet Trump, abetted by all the Benjamins at Adelson's and AIPAC's command, are in the process of destroying Israel's legitimacy. They really should go back to their Bible and see what their God does to those he blinds with hubris. It ain't pretty. Just ask the Pharaoh, or the Jews being hauled off to Babylon. Despite the last destructive chapter of Boomer narcissism for America, the Boomers' election of their Narcissist-in-Chief for their "ME Generation," the Boomers and their right-wing politics will soon enough be dead, right along with Shel, Bibi, and Trump. The future of American politics--the numbers!--belong to the young, since the Millennials were always the biggest generation in our history, even before the Boomers started dropping like flies. The young, including young Jews, are gong to turn on Israel, and rightly so, exactly as Americans once turned on South Africa. Since Europe will long since have anathematized Israel, that will leave Israel naked with its nukes and their new best friend MbS, whose own future is none too bright in America and the West. The Israelis have been warned about this suicidal path for decades, but hubris always glories in scoffing at the "Stop" signs, doesn't it? Now that Bibi and Shel have found their perfectly matching sack of idiotic hubris in Trump, it's straight over the cliff!
2
@Fred White: the oldest Boomers are 73 or the age of Trump and Hillary.
The youngest are only 54!!!!
Predictions of our imminent demise are premature!!!!
The size of the Millennial generation grew only in recent years, with massive illegal immigration. It was SUPPOSED to have been the "baby bust" but thanks to overpopulation….no.
In time, the Millennials will grow up and become MORE conservative as all people do.
After all…..we Boomers used to be the hippie Woodstock generation!!!!
Your threat #1 a nuclear armed Iran is false. They would have nukes, Israel would have nukes, and nobody would dare to use them. But even that was taken off the table by the now broken nuclear agreement.
As for threat #2 this threat is real. The world's sympathies are with the Palestinians in their desperation. And BDS has sprung up as a result.
#3 AIPAC just adds fire to #2.
Rather than Israel being loved to death, its AIPAC representatives have become something of a pariah. The last I heard no democrat contender for the presidency will be at AIPAC'S meeting this year.
4
If the Palestinians give up, and call Israel's and the US bluff by calling for citizenship then what? Either they get citizenship, and all that it entails, or apartheid/ethnic cleansing. All bets will then be off.
2
@jrgolden. Let’s have a thought experiment. If non legal residents in the US demand citizenship, then what? Once you remove “Jews” from the equation, it’s amazing how clear the solution is.
2
Earth to Mr. Thomas Friedman: The two-state solution is dead. It's so dead it's putrefying. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank long ago became a full-fledged colonization. Professor John Mearsheimer is right: a single state is all but inevitable. At first it will be an apartheid state, with Arabs in the former colonies denied the rights of citizenship. World opinion will, however, eventually force Israel to become a single binational state with full rights guaranteed to all its citizens, Jewish and Arab. It will no longer be an ethnocracy.
7
In other words, LIEBESTOD ("love death" or death by love) would be Wagner's sweet revenge for being permanently boycotted in Israel...
1
I agree my Jewish friends, two state solution is much beaten, it is not breathing anymore...
but
Netanyahu's solution is for that problem is Apartheid state...
That is the truth my friends.
4
Thomas Friedman weaves a tangled web, one bordering on the factitious.
Apparently, Israel, the US, and Aipac should ardently support Palestine and the fantasy of a two-state solution in order to stave off the genocidal reality of having to absorb 2.5 million Palestinians as Israeli citizens, from which newfound status they can dominate Israel politically. History suggests that Palestinians would refuse Israeli citizenship and sovereignty—as did East Jerusalem Arabs and the Druze in Golan Heights after the Six-Day War.
Friedman should give Israelis a little more credit. Israel’s leaders, from David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meier to Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin have ably shepherded the nation’s destiny—with the help of its formidable ally, the United States.
Friedman need look no further than the example of the US. What happened in the aftermath of the Anglo-Saxon/American Indian encounter? What role did black Americans assume in the nation’s history? Latinos? Asians?
Israel’s settler expansionism makes the nation stronger—especially when the nation does its part in improving the lot of its Arab allies. Israelis who live in the crucible of the Middle East understand this. Friedman, from the supreme comfort of his NY pad, does not.
The Palestinians have consistently refused a two-state solution and ceded power to terrorist groups such as Hamas, which brook no political unrest. Is the ascendancy of Netanyahu, Likud, and Israel’s attritive territorialism so surprising?
4
@ChanceTerrorist groups? Would you put that same label on the Irgun - a murderous religious outfit that saw its goals of the creation of the state of Israel reached soon after its attacks started. Terrorism worked for one side - and is to be respected. But terrorism on the opposing side is to be viewed as despicable? Well, it is arepeatedly a despicable part of the world that includes no "innocent" nations.
"President Trump has his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, working on a peace plan for the West Bank and Jerusalem"
What a waste of taxpayer dollars. Who is going to accept a "peace plan" whose authors are all under criminal investigation? Trump, Kushner, Netanyahu, and MBS are too suspect to have their motives believed. The "Deal of the Century" will be DOA.
2
the premise that for Israel to exist, Palestinians HAVE to be cast out as their numbers are an existential threat to Israels identity, is mildly offensive, at a minimum. But it doesn't compute and is often then cast as an iron clad assumption that doesn't allow any interpretive discourse on the subject. It is now morphing into a premise that for GREATER Israel to exist, Palestinians HAVE to be cast out. THAT in a nutshell, is Mr. Netanyahu's thinking on this, and buyers beware.
3
I’m biased.
Against both Trump and Netanyahu, as men; to me, they’re both despicable people, power-hungry creeps driven almost wholly by self interest. Their respective countries may or may not matter to them, but, even if they do, both men’s motivations are so profoundly warped by solipsism that they simply can’t see beyond their own noses.
I know that quite ignoble people sometimes end up, in spite of themselves, doing something that ultimately serves the greater good. Human history is replete with paradox. The Jews have endured centuries of traumatic stigma and abuse. So it’s hardly surprising that they’ve succumbed to demagoguery to the extent they have. That this is their way of shooting themseves I’m the foot may, in the end, be inescapable. Trump’s and Netanyahu’s power-grabbing like there’s no tomorrow may ensure that there’s no tomorrow, particularly for a Jewish state. I hope so. I find the idea of a Jewish state rather stupid; for such a state simply can’t be a place where non-Jews and Jews have the same rights or live together in mutually respectful companionship and peace.
3
@David. What are your views on Abbas and the leadership of Hamas. After all, as rulers of the Palestinian Arabs (other than the 5% in Area C) they certainly have a say in these matters.
2
Too many commenters hung up on the false apartheid charge, and that Gaza is occupied. Occupied by its own people and run, to the ground, by Hamas with help from Islamic Jihad. Israel doesn't control Gaza anymore than Egypt does - both restrict border crossings and monitor what goes in and out.
Netanyahu is wrong for provoking Israeli Arabs, but that doesn't mean they live as 2nd class citizens. Unfortunately internal crime is becoming an ever bigger problem, including the murder of young women and girls. Israeli police are often not welcome in these towns, but then the populace blames them for poor policing. More Arabs need to come forward and fill those shoes, but then they are sometimes seen as collaborators. The relationship between Arabs and Jews in Israel is sensitive, to say the least. Worse is their elected officials do little to nothing to try resolve that population's problems or needs; they mostly hector against the state of Israel which doesn't get roads fixed or school buildings built.
Thomas, you failed to carry thru on the peace plan proposal. No mention that Abbas and co. refuse to hear it, read it, consider anything, except something Putin alone puts forward. Maybe the world has loved the Palestinians to death for too long, and thus they just might lose the chance at statehood if they remain stubbornly entranced by their dream of Israel going under. This is what they teach their children.
9
There never was a viable 2 state solution. All the Palestinians were ever offered were the crumbs Israel was willing to give. Even the U.S. negotiators who worked under Bill Clinton said as much. The goal of the Zionists was always to make the ancient land of Judea/Palestine empty of Arabs. The U.S. paid the price for this endeavor with money and blood. It is too late Mr. Friedman to pine for a 2 state solution.
5
@an observer. Actually, Bill Clinton blamed Arafat for the failure of the negotiations and the Saudi Foreign Minister said Arafat’s refusal was a crime against the Palestinian people. Among other issues, Arafat claimed that the Jews had no connection to Jerusalem and the Temple was never there, blithely insulting all Christians as well as Jews. After decades of militarisons his people, he was incapable of preparing them for peace. He was afraid he’d wind up dead at the hands of a fanatic. That was the lesson he took from the Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel. He didn’t have it within himself to be the next Sadat because he dint trust the people he led.
3
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....are still trying to win the war they started 70+ years ago....and LOST? Despite the $billions in foreign aid thrown at them decade after decade, they have excelled at three things only: kleptocracy, propaganda, and terrorism.
Land for peace? Been there, done that, got 20,000+ Hamas rockets, tunnels, and a terrorist base camp on Israel’s southern border.
Statehood? Never. ‘Limited autonomy’* is what the Arab Palestinians shall have and...after a century of Arab terror wars perpetrated against the Jewish population...that’s more than they deserve.
*By the way, there are hundreds of ‘limited autonomous areas’ throughout world, existing upon every continent. The so-called West Bank (Areas A and B) is just another one of many.
11
I have rarely read a more paternalistic comment ! The Palestinians have a right to self determination. They deserve it.
@Michal
> Is there any doubt that the Arabs...themselves the descendants of invaders,
You do understand the Israelites were invaders too right? Its in their holy book.
2
@Michal, yep many autonomous areas in the world- where those within the autonomous areas have citizenship (without which = apartheid...)
Israel needs to think about strategy what will 50 years from now _ where will Palestinian go?
Bibi can wish all Palestinians can jump to red sea and free Israel of any sign of Palestinian inhabitants.
World will forget there were any such people like Palestine ever existed, much like Indians tribes in US.
Bibi is the hero of new Israel.
For me, this is a racist game. There is no longer a viable two state solution. Trump and Bibi run things. They are not going to usher in a Palestinian state. Bibi has been in office so long, I have forgotten when he began. I don't know the last time Labor ran things. 400,000 settlers live in the West bank. The Israeli people killed the two state solution by voting over and over for a man they knew would never let there be an actual Palestine.
The real question, for me, is one of Palestinian development. They are a people facing extinction. For those of us not telling ourselves racist lies, the question becomes one of civilizing the natives. To anyone with half a brain, we can see the Jews are going nowhere. The only solution is living side by side with the Palestinians in a secular government. Why is it fine for us to do it America, but the end of the world if Israel does it?
The path to getting the Arabs to accepting living with Jews is the only way everyone comes out of this in one piece. For those of us not telling ourselves racist lies, we must make the Arabs face the fact of the permanency of Jews in Israel and Israel as thee state and power of the land where they live. In other words, we should be pushing non racist democratic thinking in Israel and the occupied territories.
3
Another solution: Palestinian leaders ought to invite a few communities of Jews to live among them under the PA flag as citizens of Palestine, and petition the United Nations General Assembly to recognize it as "Palestinian Israel," the legitimate secular democratic state to replace the one recognized by the U.N. wrongly as Israel in 1948. For the U.N. never stipulated that Israel, as Netanyahu insists, is a country only for Jews, a declaration contrary to the original U.N. charter and a violation of Israel's U.N. membership. The new Palestinian Israel deserves to be in the U..N seat presently occupied by Israel. For its recognition would be one way to force a split in the U.N. & bring down the Netanyahu government. On its present course Israel is on a political version of the Titanic's maiden voyage.
3
Sounds reasonable to me.
Am I missing something here? The Palestinians have sided with Hamas, a murderous terrorist organization whose main purpose is to destroy Israel. Tell me again, how is that interpreted as Palestinians wanting peace?
9
This column makes sense as far as it goes, but it is a) saying nothing new and b) giving Trump far too much blame/credit for creating this situation. Contrary to what Friedman says, every American President has facilitated Israel's radicalization and internal dissolution since the 1980s. The fact that Israel was going in this direction has been obvious for decades; only a complete ostrich could not see this coming. The US govt has had many opportunities over decades to punish Israel, to force it to make concessions, and to withhold support to keep it off this suicidal path. Instead, the US has held Israel's hand and permitted to whatever it wanted to the Palestinians. Trump is only different in that he is absolutely blatant in his support, but he is only different in the degree of his support, not in the nature and extent of it. This lock on American policy was always the product of the Israel lobby whose power is largely due to its ability to send money to the campaigns of US Congresspeople. It's amazing how when Friedman talks about this, it is fine; when Ilhan Omar points out the same thing, she is "anti-Semitic."
9
The problem with this column is that although Mr Friedman decry's the current Israeli government and most specifically Mr. Netanyahu's "seeming" abandonment of the so called Two State solution, the context of years of failed proposals starting with, ironically, the infamous 1967 NO NO NO response of the Arab League in Khartoum, the 2000 Clinton Parameters and the ensuing "Intifada" , the 2008 Olmert proposals and the 2014 aborted efforts John Kerry which have left Israelis from the right and left with a bitter taste at the futility of it all and, much of that is the realization among Jewish Israelis that the insistence of the "Right of Return" of millions of Palestinians to Israel proper and Abbas's unwillingness to recognize Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People belies a continuing and never ending hope, and, indeed, expectation that ultimately the Jewish State will cease to exist. Has Mr. Friedman or any of his fellow idealists conjured up a viable two State Plan that will be agreeable to both the Israeli and Arabs that would not leave Israel's only international airport within mortar range of terrorists, hamper the IDF of its ability to defend its people or strip the Jewish people of their historical connection to Jerusalem, despite the inane proclamations of International institutions such as UNESCO. Context counts, Mr. Friedman!
10
Unnecessary provocation number two by Trump.
The first was recognizing Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel , w/o giving credit to East Jerusalem to be the Capitol of the Palestinians. He slammed the door shut on the possible resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
This last suggestion regarding the Golan Heights has now locked the shut door for good...
6
The Israel that so many here are quarreling over is a simulacrum. It is of the ilk of ‘the American Dream’. The reality is that w/out aid and abetment of the US Israel could not hold its place in world politics and world markets. There are a lot of non-governmental organizations with their goals and dollars at work in Israel, whose acronyms are probably familiar.
If the US did a fraction of what it does for Israel for say, Puerto Rico, PR would be a fabulous country to live in, w/the wonderful ‘plus’ of no religion involved.
9
"It is corrupt and mismanaged and does at times incite violence, but Abbas is the last best hope for a two-state deal between Israelis and Palestinians. "
Abbas is your great hope? Say no more! He could not beat his own opposition party (hamas) and you want us to believe he is the last great hope?
9
Does anyone on the Israeli right have any plan other than to create what would effectively be an apartheid state? And do they really think such a state would be desirable -- or even viable -- over the long term? To date, Israeli survival has depended to no small degree on -- as the region's only functioning democracy -- their claim to the moral high ground in this conflict. The second they annex any portion of the West Bank, that claim will evaporate.
Has anybody thought this through?
5
Neither side here accepts the other state’s right to exist. For an acceptable outcome, this existential obstacle must be resolved or tacitly ignored.
@JMcF
Israel's acceptance of the UN Partition Resolution, the Clinton Parameters, & Ehud Olmert's proposals all show that Israel accepted Palestine's right to exist.
5
As mentioned by Mr Friedman, the PLO and Hamas are not interested in peace. They wish to eliminate Israel from the scene completely. The President actually will help these dictatorial led regimes wake up. Nothing else has helped !
4
So what if the current status quo collapses and Palestinians ask for Israeli citizenship? Israel can always create a dual-class structure where Palestinians can be citizens in name only, with no more rights than they currently have (possibly worse). Israel can then claim it is a sovereign matter.
I think this argument is a red herring insofar as the Republican Jewish donors or AIPAC are concerned.
2
One of the rare decent opinion posts on here. A few things I'd like to address:
1) The plausibility of a 2-state solution is long gone. Please, go visit the West Bank and see how encroaching the settlements are. Land & Home Theft + Demolitions continue to happen, and as long as they do, they dig the grave deeper for any idea of a lasting peace deal. Where will the hundreds of thousands of settlers go to if there is a peace deal?
2) The Palestinian Authority is inherently corrupt, but it is important to recognize that corruption is facilitated by the Israeli Government. The PA is essential to do the dirty work that the Israelis don't want to do.
3) There is a strategy, and it is to ignore. It is to keep pushing us out towards the Jordan River and into Jordan with temporary refugee status. Eventually, maybe some lucky Palestinians will get israeli citizenship when an eventual total-annexation occurs, but enough of us will have been killed or pushed out to make that possible.
Until policy makers address these issues, the status quo will remain.
199
@Laith Shehadeh
Agree to a border. Settlements on the Palestinian side of the border become part of Palestine. Settlers become Palestinian citizens. Because settlers are generally wealthier than Palestinians, the presence of settlers in an independent Palestine would make Palestine economically viable.
17
In your estimation were you against the deal that Clinton worked out & Arafat turned down? Why?
The late Golda Meir said, “we will get peace only when they love their children more than they hate us.”
At first I didn’t understand what she meant. Now I think I do.
By turning down all of the offers for peace, they make it that much harder to provide a better life for the next generation: in terms of education & economic development.
A half loaf is better than a no loaf. A 2nd class something is better than a 1st class nothing.
If there had been two states existing peacefully & developing side by side, maybe something like a common market could have been formed allowing freer movement between the 2.
By not making peace, development is stilted & the next generation has less than they could have.
I’m sure I don’t fully understand Palestinians. But I don’t think Israelis will want to leave their children a dimmer future. That’s the part they won’t want to concede. So you either accommodate that aspect on, or you concede that you will have to wait it out a very long time to get a whole loaf. How many generations of Palestinians will have highly truncated opportunity for personal & economic development while waiting for that day?
I wish the Israelis would leave a standing deal that was fixed giving Palestinians time to come to a consensus that it’s the best they can do. But they aren’t. The Clinton deal is gone. As you imply the offer probably gets worse over time.
18
@Tim KaneHint: Arafat agreed. Israel broke the deal.
16
"Trump has his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, working on a peace plan for the West Bank and Jerusalem"
The Trump-Kushner-Netanyahu "Deal of the Century", financed by Saudi MBS, will attempt to buy Palestinian rights under international law. All parties developing this plan are currently under criminal investigation, so forget about a deal that conforms to the law.
2
Eventually, Israel will create a situation where the current conditions on the ground are accepted in perpetuity without being enshrined in an actual legal agreement.
There won't be a treaty, there will just be Israel; refusing to grant citizenship, but likewise adamant that they will not cede territorial control over Palestinian areas.
Some will decry the human rights abuses and the sheer unfairness of it all, but it will matter in the future as little as it has mattered for the last 60 years.
Also, the more you weaken the Palestinian Authority, the stronger Hamas will get. Same goes for Islamic Jihad. It's not that people are automatically violent, but when they see no hope in the political process and their political institutions seem to do more for Bibi than they do for their own people, what else can they do but support the violent groups?
4
Israel is still dealing with the outcome of the Six Day War during which Israel won the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem on the battlefield. Like a dog who has caught a car, Israel does not know what to do with its prize.
Rocket and suicide bomber attacks make it difficult for Israel to allow the establishment of a Palestinian state on its border. Both left and right wing Israeli governments over the year have decided to keep the territories. No realistic offer for a Palestinian state has ever been offered or considered by Israel.
At the same time, Israel has done what it can to make life miserable for people in the territories as retribution for violent acts against Israeli citizens. While politically popular, impoverishing Palestinians has been proven to be counter productive.
For their part, the Palestinians have continued their campaign of low level violence against a well armed state. The violence has been proven to be counter productive.
What can be a realistic solution? While far from perfect, a semi-autonomous region like the Syrian Kurdish district will work.
1
It's here assumed that Palestinian leadership, identified solely as Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, sees the two state solution as the definitive resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. In effect sidelining the mindset and strategic agenda of what functions as the PA terrorist arm, Hamas. For Hamas's position as clearly outlined in the Hamas Charter of 1988 is that any two state solution would be considered no more than what can be called a lull in the storm, an interim solution to be tolerated until an ultimate goal is achieved. The destruction of Israel. This desired solution is held to no time table but seen as a holy mission to be carried on and forward into future generations until achieved. Further, this is not present as a challenge for the Palestinian people alone but one subscribed to by many other populations in the Mid-East Islamic hood. Oh, and reality check for Bibi. Is he adequately attuned to what the triumvirate of Trump/Republican Party/Christian evangelicals are all up to in their proclamation of love for Israel and by extension the Jewish people? Is Netanyahu conscious that these power brokers see Israel as an expedient pawn to be manipulated as a tactical device in carrying out a broader regional agenda? No matter at what cost to Israel itself.
Recognizing the Golan Heights is not a green light for annexation of the West Bank. Two completely different situations.
For decades we’ve acted as an honest broker in the conflict, refusing to recognize Israel’s capital, calling for restraint in the face of countless atrocities against civilians, condemning settlement activity, criticizing Israel for defending itself, and promoting a two state solution. Where has it gotten us? Where has it gotten the Israelis or the Palestinians?
What if the knowledge that America will always curtail settlements and restrain Israel’s military has undermined the urgency of making peace for the Palestinian leadership? What if the best way to get them to accept a good deal soon is to show them that they won’t get a better one later?
At least it has the virtue of having never been tried.
Anyway, if Mr. Friedman's argument is that Democrats would be better for Israel, it’s pretty tough to take that seriously these days. The annexation of the Democratic party by far left wing anti-Zionists is well underway.
5
Mr. Yadlin is too optimistic. We are a few decades past the time that two-state was a viable solution. Proponents of the "Jewish state" inflicted that upon themselves. Now the only possible solution is accepting the fact that Israel (or whatever its future citizens want to call it) will be a diverse, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic country with Muslim Arabs being a a big part of its population.
The only thing Bibi (with the help of AIPAC's misplaced love) can do is make the transition more painful for everybody, which he will do if Israelis don't vote him out.
1
Mr. Friedman is a great observer of the region, but Is it not abundantly clear to him that the two-state solution has already been accomplished? The Palestinians have their state: it is Gaza. They will lose it if they continue to use it as a launch pad to fire rockets. The “last, best hope for a two-state solution” is not Abbas; it was the Clinton Plan. Flawed as it was from a Palestinian point of view, Arafat should have said yes. They could have addressed the problems with much more authority as a real State with a seat at the U.N.
The Palestinians have not learned that the offers don’t get BETTER each time. They get WORSE.
As for Israel as a “fully democratic” state: Democracy is nice when feasible, but Israel is a Jewish State. THAT is its entire reason for being. 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank can scream all they want for the vote. They will not get it if it gives them anything close to a majority. This will not destroy Israel: the unenfranchised Arabs will remain as partial citizens in an apartheid state, or be given incentives to leave, sometimes not nice ones.
Does Mr. Friedman not see that this is clearly the plan, and that any resistance from the left is but weak, and dwindling? Most of America has tacitly or explicitly signed off on it. Israel is too important a strategic ally to lose in the region. No left-leaning Administration will dare to challenge it. Trump has rightly seen this and is acting to consolidate his own re-election.
3
Excellent analysis. It begs the question about whether Mr. Abbas can see the same writing on the wall. With Trump and Netanyahu, he has zero chance of negotiating for a two-state solution. If either is or both are defeated, he has a slim chance.
In any case, one wonders why he wouldn't soon force Israel's hand. Give up the West Bank in exchange for Israeli citizenship. Now Israel is faced with THE decision: one shared state or two. Put up or shut up.
1
While I generally agree with what Friedman says here, it doesn't escape me that given the history since the failure of Camp David2
and Israel's counterproductive evacuation of Gaza, I'm not that
surprised that both sides have come to the present impasse.
The day that the Palestinians assume responsibility for their
own foibles, as Arafat's were for both the breakdown at Camp David and the despicable Second Intifada, might also be the day that in real terms they too give peace a chance. In the end even
Sharon tried his best, and look where that got us....thanks in no
small way to the lunacy of an American president putting Hamas into power against the literal pleas of both the PA and Israel. That's too late to change although it might yet provide some basis for mutual redress only Trump would keep out of internal Israeli politics. Rots a'ruck!
1
Israelis should just do what we do - talk democracy and equality for all while actually denying meaningful rights to minorities. You can go on like that for hundreds of years.
3
Tom doesn't even mention the elephant in the room. The Palestinian unity government has as part of its ruling body, HAMAS! This is not a partner for peace. This is not a political organization that is willing to accept a two state solution and is not even willing to accept Israel's right to exist! So just who is Israel supposed to negotiate this 2 state solution with???????? Doesn't that even merit a mention Tom?
Israel has proved to the world that when it has a real partner for peace such as Egypt and Jordan, not only can a treaty be struck; but Israel is willing to give up land for peace.
It is mind blowing to me that Tom pretends that this situation doesn't even exist and just goes about blaming Trump, Netanyahu, AIPAC, etc.
When Israel has parties on the other side that unequivocally accept Israel's right to exist, there will be peace. Until that happens, we will remain in permanent limbo.
6
It is really weird that there is a lack of empathy for the people that were just hit by a missile.
7
You mean Gaza. Yes.
Agree in principle. But hard to predict. People thought Begin would be a disaster for Israel and it didn't nec. Happen that way. It’s very hard to know.
1
@Mike LivingstonBegin a disaster? Nope. But it is ironic that you bring him up. Wasn't he a leader of a terrorist group that murderousily attacked British troops at the same time the Brits were battling Nazi Germany. The IRGUN were seeking the creation of a Jewish state. Those attacks were part of a great diplomatic victory in seeing creation of the state of Israel soon after the war. Would Begin's outfit have kept attacking if there hadn't been quick victory in their political battles? We'll never know.
Begin later in his life was elected PM and is considered a national hero - as is the IRGUN. His history does have similarities with Yasser Arafat (though Begin was far more successful).
Ironically, he later shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Egypt's murderous President Anwar Sadat. What a wonderful world.
All that talk about Apartheid is basically lack of imagination. Israelis are in a unique position right now to annex the West Bank and encourage the Palestinians there to leave.
There is no one in the Trump administration that would object in a meaningful way. The Arab countries are in no position to do anything about it. Syria is a mess, Egypt would be alone and would not not risk a certain thumping. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states might cry foul but that is about it. The US can veto any UN Security Council resolution. The EU has bigger fish to fry.
1
Would you rather be an Israeli being shot at from a Syrian Golan, or a Syrian farming next to an Israeli tank? Israel can be (somewhat) trusted with the Golan. Syria cannot. We know this.
If president Trump should stay out of Israel elections, so should president Obama have stayed out. No standard unless it applies to all.
Thank you, Mr Friedman, for pointing out that Mahmoud Abbas and his West Bank government, for all their faults, do some good and useful things. So it might pay pay us, and Israel, to support them somewhat, especially if they: amend their constitution to explicitly recognize Israel, let Israel choose its own capital as other nations do, drop sharia law, drop the requirement for legislators to take oath of office by Allah (triune God, with God the Son incarnate in human flesh, differs from a supposed god simply one all alone), and drop the 'right of return' since, e.g., Germans prosper without the right to return to the formerly German parts of Poland. And the same for Hamas in Gaza, but Hamas acts worse than the West Bankers.
For true peace, both sides need the Prince of peace. Evildoing abounds? Messiah died for our sins. Along with justice as punishment and restitution, there has to be a lot of justice as forgiveness: God is just, and the justifier of him that trusts in Jesus. To balance order and freedom, worship triune Jehovah in whom one and many, unity and diversity, balance: read Rushdoony's book "The One and the Many."
It is time to stop all the nonsense. It is time to discuss the details of the two state solution. St Louis and Chicago as the two capitals seem a good start for the discussions.
4
It is very telling that an Israeli politician is spending a critical period of time campaigning in the United States of America. To make matters worse, this politician is under no less than 3 criminal investigations and is being welcomed by a President himself under criminal investigation.
4
Tom, let's separate Mr. Netanyahu from the rest of the issues you bring up. Israel is about to have an election and they will decide if they want more of Bibi or not. Bibi does bring a host of ancillary issues but none really that address the topics you discuss.
First, the Palestinian Authority exists in name only. It has no real power. You say it will collapse and then Palestinians will want to become Israeli citizens? Doubtful. That would mean making a real decision and nothing in the past 75+ years supports the PA in all its forms making an actual decision in their own self-interests. It's much more likely that Hamas will fill the power vacuum. Of course, western media doesn't cover the violence and suppression of protests against Hamas by the Palestinians. That doesn't align with the Israel-Palestinian narrative.
Doing nothing has create a status quo that will eventually fail. No one cares about the Golan Heights as they used to (even Syria doesn't). Times have changed. I still support a two-state solution but someone needs to be brave on both sides. I know it can't be unilateral (see Gaza for what happens when one side unilaterally leaves).
Eventually someone will replace Mr. Netanyahu but these problems will still remain.
3
There is no Kushner two-state plan. There is a Bible-based plan to take all the land between the sea and the river, and push the remaining Palestinians into Jordan, already a de facto Palestinian country. That is the plan.
The winner of the war writes the boundaries. As demonstrated in the Mexican-American War, and more recently in the Crimea, it might work.
3
Mr. Friedman makes the case of an existential threat to Israel, "particularly from President Trump, but also from pro-Israel lawmakers in Congress and from Aipac, the main Israel lobbying organization...driven by Trump’s quest to get more campaign donations from far-right Jewish mega-donor Sheldon Adelson and to get Jews to leave the Democratic Party and vote Republican--by getting Bibi’s blessings for Trump, and, in return, giving Bibi anything he wants, including a tacit presidential endorsement for his re-election", also described by Mr. Friedman as "the threat that America will love Israel to death".
Are these statements any less "anti-Semitic" than the substantively equivalent statements made by Congresswoman Omar condemned by Friedman in this article because of her use of different language which on its face was not anti-Semitic?
And is Mr. Friedman so naive that he doesn't see what is coming, namely laws of Israel limiting the voting rights of non-Jews to preserve a Jewish state and undermining Israel's status as the only democracy in the Middle East?
1
So you brush off the indiscriminate rocket fired from Hamas controlled Gaza into central Israel by glibly stating that Hamas is not an existential threat to Israel. As if you or anyone in the US would just pooh pooh rockets indiscriminately fired by Isis or other terrorists into the US from Mexico as insignificant because they don’t pose an existential threat to the US. Nobody in his right mind is giving an inch to people who have not unequivocally sworn off terrorism and agreed to recognize Israel as legitimate.
11
Since separation of church and state ks a bedrock policy in America (or used to be), and since Israel is a "jewish state," a theocracy, I've never understood our affinity It used to be based on the ideal of the kibbutz, where everyone was equal and shared the work and the profits, and the bravery of Israeli fighters, but al that is decades in the past. Supporting Israel is no different from supporting a theocracy like Iran.or the other brutal theocracy that is the stuff of Trump's dreams, Saudi Arabia.
5
I have to admit, I just don't get this. I don't understand the Israeli right's obsession with annexing the West Bank. I wonder, can they not see where this path is going to lead the nation of Israel? Or are they thinking only of immediacy; meaning, a kick-the-can-down-the-road mentality: 'I need this now and I'm going to do whatever it takes to get it, and let the future generation (that I don't care about) deal with the consequences.'
Like I said, I don't get it. It makes me wonder if there is literally no one in the Israeli government that is thinking strategically and long-term about what the country needs to remain secure.
If Israel wants to remain a Jewish-majority democratic state, annexing the West Bank and encouraging ever more settlers to move out there is both the quickest and easiest way to ensure that will not happen. Even if there was a peace solution, those settlers aren't all going to move back into Israel. Where would they go? The desert? The Golan? Israel is already one of the most cramped countries I have ever been to. Finding housing is awful.
Although I've always supported the two-state solution, I think it died with Rabin and Oslo. I hoped to be proved wrong in the years since. But perhaps the best way forward, the best acknowledgement of the inextricable ties and grievances that both peoples - Jew and Arab - have, is for Israel to be a bi-national state. Both groups desperately need the other. Both sides claim the same land. So, let them share it.
2
Simply put, ANY country that fails to seperate Church from State is ultimately unsustainable as Israel is now learning the hard way. We were lucky though, our founders, mainly non-Christian Deists codified a Constitutional way out.
4
Trump’s breach of the wall of separation between religion and state constitutes an existential threat to American democracy.
Rebuild that wall!
4
Dear Mr. Friedman,
I am sympathetic to your views. However, I would like to know why you never include Jordan, which was about 88% of the British Mandate for Palestine, as part of the solution for the conundrum facing Israel and the Palestinians in its territories. Borders change and countries come into and out of existence as any timescale mapping of world geography will show.
Thank you.
8
The thing is the left's argument against Trump's declaration was equally appalling: that the Golan Heights were already de facto Israeli, so making it official just attracted unwanted attention and played at the hands of the Russians.
1
Once again, Trump is the TV personality playing to his audience for "ratings." He divides his target audience into groups with the sole objective of getting their votes. You speak of the negative effects his and Netanyahu's power plays may have for Israel's future. As an American citizen who sees religion and geo-politics as separate entities, I am concerned with the effects of what Trump's "get votes anyway I can" attitude may have on the security of the United States and on Jewish Americans who feel as I do about their national loyalty. Sheldon Adelson and AIPAC do no favor to Jewish Americans who put the rightful interests of the United States ahead of those of a foreign country. Rather, those two support Netanyahu in treating American like it's a sub-state of Israel.
5
What the Trump Administration has done and what many members of the US Congress have done, is to portray the USA as a rogue state, a state that acts outside the law and without moral principle.
13
Israel is only a "Jewish majority democracy "because 750,000 Palestinians were expelled in 1948. Erasure of Palestinian towns went on after the creation of Israel.
Friedman admits that the US and Israel have stalled for a very long time and it may not be able to keep up the ruse of working on a solution. It is really expanding in all directions.
7
@penney albany
Ahistorical nonsense. Whatever ‘Arab exodus’ took place in 1948 was at the behest of their own leadership, promising to wipe Israel off the map and drive the Jews into the sea.
Arabs didn’t factor in the possibility that they could LOSE the war they started...but ‘lose’ they did. And Israel has no obligation to grant citizenship to enemies of the state. Period.
7
@penney albany Plus the importation of 700,000 Arab Jews in well-organized campaigns funded BEFORE Israel was founded, as well as the importation of 1 million Russians, many not officially "Jews."
And what is Israel's strategy for dealing with Iran's nuclear threat? Bombing their reactors and demanding that harsh sanctions be reimposed on Iran with the goal of ... having the Iranian gov't collapse? And then what? Will conservative Iranians then see the light and vote for a more moderate leader? Will moderate Iranians who were championing Iran's rapprochement with the West be thanking Israel for it's role in collapsing their economy? How is that working for them in Gaza and the West Bank?
This is not a chess game Tom. There are people involved beyond the leaders who are playing the game. Israel's 50+ years of heavy handed intervention to manipulate/force the Palestinians into becoming more moderate has not worked. Period.
When is a terrorist group not a terrorist group? When they are supported by a significant portion of the people they represent. Hamas is not a terrorist group, because even if some of their tactics are counterproductive, they have in their ranks plenty of supporters.
It has been clear for a long time that Netanyahu has no interest in furthering the peace process. His opposition to Abbas working with Hamas said it all. How do Palestinians cultivate good leadership when their leaders are hamstrung? Israel has always preferred dealing with their own extremists internally, but thinks it should be able to call the shots for the Palestinians. An Israeli extremist murdered an Israeli Prime Minister, but the culture which fostered him is now ascendant.
5
Israel is not going to accept a "2-state" solution that will give any Palestinian state attributes of sovereignty that include a military or police apparatus remotely capable of contesting Israel's power to dominate its most basic features. But this means ceding to Israel in principle a right to police and control a restive and politically unsatisfied population in total contradiction of Israel's vaunted democratic ideals, which is what is going on now. Since although the U.S. essentially bankrolls and diplomatically underwrites a good portion of Israel's current position in world politics, it does so mostly in a passive attitude towards Israel. Mr. Trump has only aggressively exposed this fact. A real crunch will come at a time when and if the American people get savvy enough and bitter enough at the cost of this posture to do something about it. Most Americans vaguely realize that this entails the targetting of our country or its citizens by Israel's enemies--who are always conveniently labelled "terrorists." Accordingly, the American people don't want their kids stationed in the Middle East. Their may come a time when they don't want their dollars and their reputations at risk there, too, which includes Israel. Meanwhile, the U.S. population as a whole is losing its familiarity with and reverence for the Christian and Jewish scriptures and traditions, at some cost to our support for Israel. The future is not rosy, as Mr. Friedman says.
6
There are sometimes that I believe that the UN Security Council should lock themselves in a room and all agree on a solution that should be forced on both sides.
Clearly many people take positions on issues that are politically expedient or create narratives that support their own ambitions at the expense of the people in the nations that they are supposed to lead. That is why I sometimes think that a solution needs to be pushed here rather than let the parties involved try to solve this on their own.
We also need to get serious about Iran's contribution in pushing both sides to conflict. The idea that they support a non-state actor like Hezbollah which operates militarily in other countries should petrify every nation on the planet.
If the world can get serious about both of these issues perhaps we can rise above this conflict and make real progress toward peace.
2
Although some people didn't like Representative Omar's language, this article highlights the basic truth of what she was talking about. But she got hammered for it, so other potential truth tellers will be more reluctant. There is no such thing as a religiously based democracy, anywhere. Discrimination is baked in.
52
Tom - Did you see the article in the Times over the weekend about the peaceful demonstration in Gaza that was violently suppressed by soldiers in full combat gear? But they weren't IDF; they were Hamas. Hamas has set out to prove that: 1) They can be an effective government in Gaza, keeping order and delivering services, and 2) That they can be an effective negotiating partner with Israel, capable of attacking Israel when they want to and, this is key, of preventing any unauthorized attacks when they don't want to. If Hamas can prove in Gaza that they can control the Palestinians and adhere to any agreements that they make with Israel, then they have a good shot at gaining control in the West Bank as well. Now you have the basis for a two-piece Palestinian state. If Hamas can make and enforce a zero-terrorism policy, they can then negotiate free-passage and economic agreements with Israel.
3
@Larry Covey
You're kidding, right?
Hamas is the source of the terrorism.
3
I agree with much of this commentary with one overwhelming important problem. Is Abbas the best hope for a two state solution? Friedman talks about the reluctance of Netanyahu for a two state solution but the PA has the same problem. They are still committed to trying to reverse the existence of Israel based in part on the "Right of Return" While we want to protect Jordan, we have to discuss if they have any role in the solution because of their large Palestinian population and their initial responsibility in the failure to create a Palestinian state in 1948?
3
@Andrew Drexler A just peace offer that might work could include realistic compensation as an alternative to return.
The great irony here is that reparations to Jews from Germany after WWII not only built fully a third of Israel's infrastructure, electric grid, factories, etc. Reparations to victims via the Claims Conference has amounted so far to $90 BILLION. And still, JEwish organizations are also pressing France, Poland and other countries for more, 70 years later.
Yet Israel balks at extending reparations to those whom it dispossession. Unseemly, really. What's good for the goose is good for the gander and might go a long way toward solving the "right of return" issue.
3
Trump relies heavily on his trusted bankruptcy lawyer, David Friedman, who he appointed as ambassador to Israel. His appointment was strongly opposed by moderate American Jews.
4
a whole new young generation of american jews has a problems with Arabs in israel being denied the rights other israelis get..the apartheid issue is real and it goes against the grain of how young american jews see a lack of fairness.
they will not support israel.
does israel care...maybe not....not now......
but this will divide american jews deeply and alienate many
all people in the israeli domain need to be treated fairly...history shows some have been left out...time to re set the clock and deal with it..painful...but needs to be done....
260
@ZEMAN
What rights are denied them, exactly?
They work, vote, study, drive (women have always been permitted to drive (unlike in Saudi Arabia)) ..
Ah .. they doi not have the right to violently overthrow the gov't. That *right* is in fact denied them.
25
@ZEMAN
Actually Arabs In Israel are not denied the rights the other Israelis get.
It is Arabs on the West Bank who are denied rights of citizenship, the right of property ownership, and freedom of movement.
26
@ZEMAN
Tell American jews who do not support Israel to go and live in Israel for a year.
And then we shall see whether they support Israel or not.
Thank God that Israel does not need their support.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/netanyahu-cuts-short-washington-trip-mobilizes-military-troops-after-gaza-rocket-attack-wounds-7
10
Well written. And it makes me so sad for the state of the union
1
Israelis should see the title of Rick Wilson's book as a blinking red light: "Everything Trump Touches Dies."
6
Supporting Israel's existence as a Jewish state is hard wired into my soul, but I will not support an Israel that abandons basic democratic principles and relegates Arab Israeli citizens to permanent second class status, an Israel that rules by apartheid.
Friends don't let friends drive drunk.
15
Well stated.
Once Israel officially rejects the two state solution (the current government already has - albeit, not officially), Israel will become an apartheid state.
Remember the last apartheid state - South Africa - it didn't end well for the minority whites.
You say, that in Israel, the Jews are the majority! That is today, but that won't last for long. Trump has bedazzled the Israelis with his "largesse."
I am shocked that a country famous for its brainpower can't see the long-term consequences of these actions.
Yes, the Trump "strategy" will result in the death of Israel. The sin here is the Israelis are in lock-step with him.
235
@MS
So something out of the box. There is a way out. Mr. Friedman makes a point of the continued collaboration between the PA and Israel in intelligence gathering, and I know from years past, with water rights as well. And Israel indeed is encroaching on the West Bank, negating a two state solution. If the spirit of cooperation is already there, why not explore the possibility of a Federation? In other words, a copy of what the EU would like to be. Israel itself remains sacrosanct, it's citizens will continue to be only Jewish, Palestine (the West Bank) will become it's own entity, a country of it's own, completely autonomous. West Bank settler areas will have shared responsibility between the two governments, as well as Jerusalem. For good measure, invite Jordan to join it. Free trade between all three countries, complete and full diplomatic relations and high level cooperation in everything from finance to energy to tourism. Leave Hamas (Gaza) out of it for now - but the economic draw of the Federation will attract them to negotiate themselves in. A great way to stop rocket attacks. The EU is a great idea, let's expand on it.
5
@MS Good points, but I fail to see why Israel's delay in "officially rejecting" the two state solution is relevant to determining whether it is or is not in fact an apartheid state. The facts show that if two people are born within Israel's officially recognized borders, and one of the two happens to be the "wrong" religion, the person of the "wrong" religion has a lesser set of rights than the person of the "right" religion--wrong religion is restricted in getting permits to build, cannot enlist in the army or get the numerous privileges that everyone from the "right" religion gets (since they all have to serve a year), such as beneficial mortgages, etc, and can NEVER have a relative who is not Jewish "immigrate" to Israel and become a citizen (even if that relative's parents and ancestors lived in what is now Israel for hundreds of years before being one of the refugees who was prohibited from returning because he or she was the "wrong" religion. "Wrong religion" spends his or her life as a de facto second class citizen, subject to being rounded up and questioned repeatedly. Then if you go into the occupied West Bank, compare the rights of the residents of the illegal Jewish-only settlements (citizens of Israel) and their neighbors, who have much longer historical ties to the West Bank, and you have an even worse and blatant form of apartheid. Why would Israel ever "officially reject" the two state solution if by doing so, if it avoids the apartheid label by not?
6
@MS But "Palestine" rejected a two state solution years ago.
6
The Jewish State is self destructing with the aid of ideologues from the GOP to evangelicls
No surprises here
But the idealigues will indeed be ‘ shocked’
at the eventual outcome
2
So we get Palestinian apartheid in the West Bank (under a suitably sanitized name and organizational fig leaf). I don't see anyone who's going to stop it.
3
Nonsense.
Who is " everyone" who is " getting their way"?
How did the 6 million Christian Muslim Arab Palestinian Israelis living under the dominion of 6.1 million Zionist Jewish Israelis by occupation, blockade/siege, exile and 2nd class citizenship vote in the last Jewish state Israeli election?
What right of return, time and space do Christians have in their Holy Land in the two-state solution?
Are Christian Muslim Arab Palestinian Israelis divinely naturally created equal persons with certain unalienable rights of life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Are either an Islamist Muslim state of Palestine or a Zionist Jewish state of Israel civil secular plural egalitarian democracies?
Which American state, territory or possession is named Israel?
7
@Blackmamba
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
The bottom line of all this, whether the Israelis want to acknowledge it or not, is that they are on course to becoming a true apartheid state. They better figure that one out and how to avoid it, because nothing will save it should that happen and I, and many others, want Israel to survive as a Jewish state.
5
This commentator has always tried to equate Israeli actions and Palestinian actions. He equates the desperate, suicidal, and counterproductive actions of Palestinians, whether they be carried out by PLO or Hamas as equivalent to those carried out by the state of Israel, a nuclear armed country supported by the single superpower, America.
He has himself to blame for not having either the courage or the political acumen to see that this suppression of criticism of Israel will lead to this outcome.
Nixon's Southern strategy made the Republican party a haven for racist Southern Democrats. Now McConnel's drumbeat of anti-Semitism will move those Democrats into the Republican party who are unwilling or afraid to stand up to the might of AIPAC.
3
Friedman keeps sinking. Before offering advice, he should know that the Arab West Bank population is not 2.5 million but less than 1.6 million and its percent is rapidly shrinking. Arabs living in the former West Bank of the Hashemite Kingdom of Trans-Jordan are still citizens of Jordan. If they do not wish to become loyal residents of the Jewish State, Jordan is 3 times the size of Israel and would no doubt be welcomed by the Autocratic King or his successor.
No Arab ruler has ever recognized the fact that Israel was is and will remain a Jewish State. Without that acknowledgement all of Friedman's observations are hopeless.
6
There is a 2 state solution.
.
Israel and Jordan.
.
No none complained when Jordan illegally occupied the West Bank from 1948 to 1967. The Arabs in the West Bank did not call themselves "Palestinians." They called themsleves "Southern Syrians."
.
A potential solution is autonomy for parts of the West Bank in association with Jordan. "Palestinians" already make up 70 percent of Jordan's population. And the rest are ethnically identical to Palestinians.
10
There is an old saying ,”Fool me once shame on you, Fool me twice shame on me.”Israel turned over Gaza to the Palestinians , and were rewarded with rockets. The only thing that a two state solution would accomplish is to put the Rockets closer to the heart of Israel.There is a way to stop the rockets without war. Allow the Palestinian refugees to return to Israel, and at the same time incorporate the Jewish settlements, on the West Bank into the State of Palestine.If Palestinians can be citizens of Israel, Jews can be citizens of Palestine.Wishful thinking you say, but the alternative is chaos, and death.
5
@Independent1776
You ALMOST had it. Allow the refugees to return to Israel? To what? Homes that don't exist anymore? Your suggestion would mean the end of Israel.
1
Normally, parties to a conflict resolve it. Either by agreement or by force. Previously, the Arab -Israeli conflict was a proxy war between the US and Soviet Union so outsiders inserted themselves.
There is no further justification for the outsiders to insert themselves here. Mr. Friedman’s continued interest in dazzling his readers with supposed insights not withstanding, the parties are only hurt by involvement of the Arab world, Europe, or the US.
When the NYT ceases to regularly publish articles on Israel and the parties are left to their own devices, the conflict will end one way or another.
Israelis have demonstrated that they can take care of themselves, perhaps more so than any country on earth. Why should Americans lecture them?
The idea that Friedman, or Americans in general, have a better idea as to what to do then the people there is arrogance - a cousin of imperialism.
3
When Israel stops accepting American Foreign and American jets and weapon systems then maybe it can " stand on its own."
1
I believe Mr. Friedman is correct that the two state solution is dead. Also, I believe he is correct that Israel's next step is annexation of Israeli occupied land in the West bank which will bring everything to a head. At that point what direction does Israel take? Absorb the remaining 2.5 million Palestinians. Not likely. Support a rump state and live with 2.5 million hostile neighbors. Possible but everyone knows this is not a politically stable situation.
Let's face it, Israel has no good options. In the mean time Israel's support in the US will gradually erode as it becomes a partisan issue. Tom Friedman is right: American Jewish support for Israel is going to split. And that in the end will be more dangerous to Israel than 2.5 million Palestinians.
3
I used to be a huge fan of Friedman. This column reminded me why. He lost me with his support for Iraq War and also his being Saudi Royal Family whisper/apologist for decades (finally on hold after the Khashoggi murder). But this column gets it right.
Just one disagreement: Trump does have a strategy. Trump’s goal is to destroy the American bipartisan support that Israel has enjoyed for decades. 70+% of Jewish Americans have voted Democratic for decades. But there were already real divisions in the American Jewish community before Trump: liberal/progressive Jews (the clear majority) vs. conservative/religious Jews, older Jewish Americans vs. their kids and grandkids, Bloomberg and Soros liberal billionaires vs. Adelson and Kushner (Jared and his felon father Charles used to be Democratic) blank check to Netanyahu billionaires, two-state vs. one state, Israel as a Jewish democracy vs Israel as a Jewish nationalist/theocratic state, organized Jewish group leaders vs. their membership, not just AIPAC vs. J Street but more so AIPAC (now center right, but trying to stay bipartisan) vs. IAC and ZOA blank check to Netanyahu and one-state and pro-Republican. As always, Trumps exploits those divisions. Then there is the split between Jewish Americans vs Jewish Israelis - with Netanyahu wanting support from White Evangelicals more than liberal Jewish Americans.
Israel needs to vote Gantz/Lapid coalition to save its democracy.
We need to vote Democratic in 2020 to save our democracy.
9
"the day when Palestinians will say to Bibi and Trump: “O.K., you guys won. We lost."
Mr. Friedman you fail to recognize a basic principle of the Muslim faith, the obligation to fight against injustice. There will never be real security for the Israeli people in the street until there is justice.
5
The entire premise of this essay is that power will remain constant within a political vacuum. - No.
Next year in the United States, it is a given that there will be a massive Democratic victory, and depending on how massive it is, along with who will be President will determine greatly the future of this country.
Elections in this country are in a couple of weeks, and it is not a given that this regime is going to last, and even beyond that, there are major charges relating to the Prime Minister. It is possible to win the election, but then be sent to jail.
The next few years are going to be a tumultuous few (even more so than in recent memory) and the political winds are going to shift from all of this talk of there not being possible of a two state solution to ones that require it before going forward with anything.
When peace, prosperity and security comes with that two state solution, then the dominoes will fall in the Middle East, and as an extension, the world.
We shall see.
3
The author described the situation perfectly. Ideally, the best option is to have one state but Jews will never want that and I'm sure many Palestinians also, so by denying Palestinians a state Israel is shooting herself in the foot and may collapse in some distant future.
3
"It’s disgusting, but the Trump administration has not uttered a word of condemnation for Bibi’s alliance with anti-Arab racists..."
Let's be honest, hardly anyone in the Middle East ever thought the US is an honest and impartial broker as far as the mideast peace between the Israelis-Palestinians. In a way, Trump's policy is more honest than most previous US presidents (on both sides of the aisle). As with any conflict between peoples, this one will continue until one party or another dominates- there is no such thing, as we may wish to think, that the people who are on the right will win at the end, justice/fairness is fungible.
58
@Dr. Professor I disagree, until the Bush administration took power, there was a real effort to make a peace deal. Jimmy Carter truly cared and did everything he could. Have you read his book? "Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid"
19
@Dr. Professor You start, "let's be honest" and that's where your intellectual dishonesty begins.
10
Thomas Friedman offers no realistic solution to the problems that Israel faces. He shows no understanding of the forces in the Middle East continuing with their desire to destroy Israel since her establishment in 1948. As he writes, Hamas claims two "accidental" firings of rockets into Israel civilian areas. It seems Friedman is living in a movie that he creates in his head that makes good reading for his followers, promotes him as a well-known columnist, but serves no other purpose when trying to find a realistic solution, if it exists, for an end to the conflict in Israel and in the greater Middle-eastern area.
6
There has never been a "credible two state solution", for the simple reason that Israel has never had any intention of allowing one, as Netanyahu himself routinely assures Israeli voters during every campaign season.
And American punditry, which can't stomach defending what amounts to apartheid, pretends that only lack of reasonableness on the part of Palestinians, and a few Israeli hawks, stands in the way.
Nothing is going to get torn apart, because everyone privately understands what the situation is.
6
In the end, it is not what you or I want, living safely and comfortably here in the United States, but what the Israeli people, living under an existential threat to their existence, decide. For all their faults, I see the Republicans and AIPAC backing for Israel to be much better than yours. Many liberal "Jews" are very conflicted when it comes to supporting Israel and Judaism.
4
"It’s actually driven by Trump’s quest to get more campaign donations from far-right Jewish mega-donor Sheldon Adelson and to get Jews to leave the Democratic Party"
It's more than that. It's also to humor crazy evangelicals who think Trump's actions are fulfilling "prophecies" that normal Christians don't take seriously. It's part of his scheme, which Netanyahu has been encouraging, to present himself to them as the reincarnation of a Biblical king and thus ruler of the USA by divine right. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Google "Trump Cyrus".
3
George Washington warned against the existential threat of national worship of sacred cows in his farewell address to the nation:
“Washington makes an extended reference to the dangers of foreign nations who will seek to influence the American people and government; nations who may be considered friendly as well as nations considered enemies will equally try to influence the government to do their will. "Real patriots", he warns, who "resist the intrigues" of foreign nations may find themselves "suspected and odious" in the eyes of others, yet he urges the people to stand firm against such influences all the same. He portrays those who attempt to further such foreign interests as becoming the "tools and dupes" of those nations, stealing the applause and praise of their country away from the "real patriots" while actually working to "surrender" American interests to foreign nations.”
9
The American citizen who would prefer not to be involved in the middle east sure is NOT getting what they want.
I see no solution now, and there has not been one for a long time.
I did not make any of this problem, and I don't want the blood and treasure of America committed to furthering it.
It won't end well. What part of that do you want America to be responsible for? What part of "you break it you own it" are people failing to understand here?
6
How about stop treating the Palestinians like children and have them suffer the consequences of their actions. Only then will there be possibilities for peace. Whether Netanyahu is elected or not, the next prime minister will treat security with the Palestinians in the exact same way. Their actions demand it. Count on it
10
"The job of the U.S. president has always been to draw red lines ..."
Well, that's the problem right there.
2
The PA in the West Bank has acted with a shocking lack of self interest.
Abbas is literally the last PA official of any stature whatsoever. This is by design; he wanted no competition as THE Palestinian premier. That said, he has delivered almost nothing to his constituents for almost 10 years.
The lack a tangible gains is the fault of the U.S., Israel and Abbas himself.
As Friedman hints at, the U.S. used to play both good/bad cop to all sides. But since Bush admin fumbled the Saudi peace plan, there has been no small wins and certainly no big wins for the PA.
Few new services, no roads, schools or business programs. The PA is still relying on what is essentially a state-sponsored UBI bribe program that gives a bare minimum check to its employees (many of which are no-show jobs) to keep a lid on simmering tension.
This has never been sustainable and the total lack of investment from the wealthy gulf Arabs should be brought up every single time Israel is critiqued; if they cared so much about Palestinians, why not open a business (any business!) in Ramallah?
Residents of the West Bank need something resembling improvement. It doesn't matter who provides it.
Because without small wins, the Hamas putsch in Gaza in 2007 is going to look like a cordial affair compared to the looming WB civil war.
5
Barack Obama’s was portrayed as anti-Israel, if not anti-Semitic, when he pressured Netanyahu to halt construction of settlements in Palestinian territory. AIPAC, as Mr. Friedman has pointed out, helped bring Netanyahu over to address congress and undermine Obama foreign policy towards Iran—a policy that Israeli generals said was good for Israel. No wonder so many Democrats are unwilling to challenge Netanyahu, who, like his buddy Trump, will probably be re-elected.
3
The Palestinian government does not accept Israel’s right to exist. This has always been a non starter for any “solution”.
It is compounded by the lack of respect for their own people, sexist culture and corruption. Thankfully Palestinian women are coming forward to demand their “rights to exist”. This is a positive move in the right direction. Let’s focus, acknowledge. and give attention to this positive shift. Billions of dollars are wasted in building tunnels and bombs instead of homes, schools,
and infrastructure. Can and will the Palistian people take charge of their own government? I hope so.
6
@liza Please stop spreading lies.
The Palestinians (PLO) have recognized Israel's "right to exist in peace and security" multiple times, most recently in 1993, when they also voided objectionable clauses of their charter. They met all diplomatic requirements. You can read those documents, as I did, on the website of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Hamas in 2017 issued a new charter saying ti would accept a negotiated state along 1967 lines.
As for women's rights, get back to us when Israeli women are no longer erased from billboards and news stories and are no longer subject to physical attack wile at prayer.
1
For the past 2000 years Jewish history as been a seemingly never ending series of tragedies. My fear is that the state of Israel will ultimately be another one of these tragedies. I think it’s difficult to foresee any other outcome except for this but I hope that I’m wrong.
3
This is an unusually blunt and realistic piece by Mr. Friedman. I appreciate that. But there's a core issue that isn't faced and which drives a good deal of opposition to the Occupation. Mr. Friedman writes, "This only hastens the day when Palestinians will say to Bibi and Trump: “O.K., you guys won. We lost. The two-state solution is gone, so let us become Israeli citizens and give us the vote.” And then refers to it as a "disaster". And of course President Obama and many others have unquestionably referred to the "demographic threat" of a Palestinian majority. But read again "The Declaration of Independence", The Gettysburg Address" and "I Have a Dream." Is there any room in these essential, inspiring, and democracy-defining documents for a race-based demographic threat? When we hear that idea stated in the US (everyone knows by whom), we condemn it out of hand.
4
Trump’s Israel policy, echoed by Pompeo who often uses biblical, evangelical references in official speeches, is strongly supported by Trump’s evangelical base. Why? Because his policy coordinates and advances their “end times” Second Coming beliefs. This is not a reassuring basis for foreign policy or our future, but then Trump cares only about advancing his own short term political fortunes and doesn’t see how he is being manipulated by the militant “Christian” forces at work in the Republican Party.
6
Mr. Friedman, you have written a very good essay, but you make a critical presumption that may be acceptable only in the USA. You presume that the USA controls what happens in the Middle East and that the rest of the world, the UN, and international law are simply bystanders.
If the USA and Israel choose to go it alone, both countries will be considered rogue states. Both will lose.
4
@Greg
Perhaps all the non-parties should stay out of it?
2
Tom
You are making a big assumption here. That Palestinians will accept citizenship in Israel if the PA dissolves. I don’t believe they will. They have been offered citizenship in East Jerusalem since Israel annexed it and few have accepted. It’s also incongruous with the Palestinian dream, which for most is not a state in the West Bank, but for all of historic Palestine (except Jordan). The expectation that the 2.5 million even if all accepted citizenship is enough to vote Israel out of existence is just wrong. There are more than 6 million Jews. And the idea that the millions claiming to be descendants of Palestinian refugees will be invited back in and given full citizenship is illusory.
So what’s the strategy? To continue to play victim (with sporadic attacks by groups they allegedly don’t control) until the world forces Israel to withdraw. But suppose the world can’t or doesn’t?
5
Very good analysis of what tragedies lie ahead for Israel. It's so sad to see the mayhem coming down the line with virtually no one with the will and power to change course or stop it. I can't help but think how that reprehensible concept of "facts on the ground", i.e. permanent West Bank settlements, proved to be the foundation for so much of the difficulty that ensued.
2
Mr. Friedman is saying some sensible things but I've been hearing these same arguments since I was in college in the 1980s - that is, Israel must withdraw from the WB and Gaza and allow an independent Palestinian state else it will cease to be a Jewish majority country and it will stop being a democracy.
This is a reasonable argument but at least in Israel there is a peace camp of sorts and a very solid percentage of people who want a two state solution with one state majority Jewish and the other majority Palestinian.
On the Palestinian side there is no peace camp.
Even the most "moderate" Palestinian still envisions a two state solution in which one state is 100% Palestinian and the other state is majority Palestinian (presumably with a rapidly shrinking Jewish population due to emigration).
Back in 2000 after the collapse of the I/P peace negotiations Clinton warned Arafat that he rejected the best deal the Palestinians will likely ever get and that Israelis will harden and shift right due to his rejectionism.
Clinton's prediction was 100% correct.
At this point the US should focus less on securing a peace deal but rather managing this conflict so war doesn't erupt.
12
I agree with Friedman. I support an Israeli state but have been increasingly bothered by Netanyahu's rhetoric and the takeover of territories once occupied by Palestinians. I am not sure why Trump holds the views he has about Israel but they are toxic to the way Israel is viewed by people worldwide. Do I think Palestinians are blameless? No, I don't but I also don't hold Israel blameless. I don't agree with Congresswoman Omar's statements but the idea behind them is an important one to consider. Why is our country giving Israel a pass? I'd say a lot of that is because of the lobbying efforts of AIPAC.
16
This reminds me of the problem faced when incarcerating an individual for life without any hope of release. Tell him that he will never be free but will die in jail. Such prisoners become incorrigible --a source of serious and permanent problems for their jailers. Without hope, what sense does good behavior make? And now we take away hope from the West Bank Arabs--we no longer are negotiating with them for their own state , their own national state as was done with their neighbors. Full citizenship is also impossible for demographic reasons. So where are we--hope gone is rage released.
4
Contrary to Friedman's assertion Israel has pursued a strategy of annexation for years. The entire settler program, now numbering some 700,000 people was always a form of gradual annexation.
There have been no serious "final status" negotiations to fulfill the Oslo pledges because Israel knew that by dragging the negotiations out over years they could "change the facts on the ground."
To be sure there is fault on the Palestinian side. But Israel and the Palestinians were never equal bargaining partners any more than a prisoner has equal power with the warden of his jail. And the US was never an 'honest broker.'
Netanyahu knows that once official recognition of the Golan is in place congress will be too cowardly to even protest, much less reverse that course. AIPAC will see to that.
Netanyahu's plans have been openly discussed in the Israeli media. It's only the American media that shuts down debate and now pretends to be surprised.
The US has acquiesced to the plan since its inception. The two state solution has been on life support for years yet we continued a policy of supporting a non-existent peace process.
Meanwhile Bibi was building more settlements, more Jewish only roads and doing so with funds that he could divert from defense because the US was giving him 3.5 billion a year. Now annexation has become gradual ethnic cleansing.
With Trump's latest move the obvious is now really obvious. The question is what will America's position be?
43
Because Israel has prospered under Netanyahu while keeping a tight lid on the West Bank and reacting to Hamas provocations with flattening buildings in Gaza the general feeling of Israelis is that things can continue this way indefinitely. The future with a one or two state solutions may not be reached in their lifetime, after all the present situation was almost set in stone since the end of the 1967 war, 52 years ago, so after me the deluge. Well, the communist regimes of the USSR and Eastern Europe were also thought to last forever until they didn't. A single Jewish state that combines Israel today with the West Bank is only a recipe for continual strife and can only result with Israel ceasing to be a Jewish state or ethnic cleansing of the West Bank. The first will be unacceptable to Israelis the second guarantees bloody wars with future Arab regimes without support from the US (assuming the US by then will have recovered from Trumpism).
7
The United States is the only country that can pressure Israel to live up to it's Jewish principles as enshrined in the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel. 1) to "ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all it's inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex, 2) to "guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education, and culture, and 3) to "be faithful to the principles of the charter of the United Nations." What makes Israel so special to many of us American Christians isn't that Israel is simply a Democracy. But rather, Israel is a Democracy guided by a set of similar founding documents that seek to guarantee freedom, justice, and peace for all it's inhabitants - not just a select few. So the question becomes, are the people of Israel serious about these Jewish values of liberty, justice, and equality under the law? Or do security "concerns" make these principles luxuries that cannot be seriously pursued?
2
Of course, behind Trump, are the American Evangelicals who are enamored with the idea that they're doing God's work, in blindly supporting Israel. Clearly, the Palestinians are closer to being the 'mugged traveler' than the Israelis. A Good Samaritan should be interested in helping them more than the very comfortable state of Israel.
9
To put it more bluntly. Netanyahu is losing a PR war with known terrorist organizations because of his actions against Palestinians as his government becomes more extreme. Also looming out there is Netanyahu's plan to sucker Trump into starting a war with Iran. If you think this country is polarized now wait until you see what a war with Iran would do. The best hope for stopping Israel's slide to becoming a pariah apartheid state and for at least some stability in the middle east is for Netanyahu to lose the election despite Trump's help.
21
I think that Mr. Friedman is right on in his analysis. Let's hope and pray that Bibi winds up in jail very soon.
3
Precisely the correct headline: loved to death. I have no way of knowing if the details would play out, but the examples of American Mideast affection are fact: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, and actually let’s include a wider radius. Our version of affection result in hundreds of thousands of deaths, maybe a million in Iraq alone, cities blown to dust, desperate new dispossessed hordes creating brand new ideologies like ISIS. We posture that American democracy is a cure, especially when it is dispensed in evangelical Christian doses. We gift our new loves with endless supplies of high explosive and means of delivery so that they can share our largesse in the neighborhood. We train new friends like Osama Bin Laden. We cheerfully install our buddies, like the Shah in places that are somehow lacking lackey despots. We turn modest lands like Syria and Jordan into excellent weapons testing grounds.
Yes, Israel is fully enveloped in the loving arms of the United States, and they are loving our arms. Of course, when the inevitable demographic turnover of fast-breeding factions pushes the Little Country that Could into chaos, none of the refugees will be welcome here. We’ve proved that one before.
18
The time is coming to end the unholy alliance between trump and Netanyahu (and their right wing, anti-peace supporters in the USA and Israel).
6
I think that Israel’s ultimate plan is a one state solution where they will lay claim to all Palestinian territory and then expel all the Palestinians to neighboring Arab countries. Problem solved.
7
@Mary
In geology it's called 'erosion'. To me it sounds like policy.
2
When both sides of a conflict are complicit in the destruction of peace, NEITHER side deserves our support. Yes, there is a third option: support neither Israel or the PA. Trump has told us that the military, police and some biker gangs are firmly on the side of the republicans. Now we learn Jews are also primarily republican. Good to know. Bibi is the mirror image of our own dictator. Why do conservatives love themselves a dictator?
5
@Paul Abeln Jews are in no way primarily Republican. Do your research.
2
From what I have been told by corresponding with Israelis online, the real goal of the Israel is to not just annex the entire West Bank, it is also to eventually expel all of the Palestinians from within the current borders of Israel including the occupied territories. Ethnic cleansing has been going on since the state of Israel was founded. That policy has not changed. U.S. policy has been woefully inadequate to stop this from happening.
11
Trump and Netanyahu share narcissism, anti-muslim racial demagoguery, an indelible taint of corruption, and a penchant for political thuggery. Trump's cynical attempt to boost Bibi's re-election prospects by supporting the Israeli annexation of the Golan Hts, and inviting him to the White House just prior to the Israeli election, clearly illustrate his bond with Netanyahu. The foreign policy ignorance of Trump and the toxic arrogance of Bibi Netanyahu are a lethal combination, which precludes any chance for a comprehensive solution to the existential Palestinian issue.
6
I agree with you about Trump and Bibi but it's naive to think they are preventing a solution to the tragic conflict in our region. The forces of extremism on both sides are too strong. The liberal Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak could not get a peace agreement at Camp David in 2000 and the chances of one anytime soon,or even in many years are slight
2
@Golda
I understood the failure to be Yassir Arafat's rejection of a compromise that would have given the Palestinians 92%of the West Bank, removal of most settlements, and a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. This angered Clinton, who felt that by rejecting the compromise, Arafat showed he wasn't really serious about a "deal".
1
What is the true interpretation of the word Quagmire? Used as a noun, it’s Israel & Palestine and their ongoing situation. Unfortunately, there really are no direct easy answers to end the calamity, but there are ways to start a process of co-existence. So what is that answer? Leadership, true leadership on both sides.
I’ve been to both Israel & Palestine. It’s truly Black & White! Israel is a country with a future, and that future was determined by it’s citizens and their goals to make it a land of “Milk & Honey!” It took pure dedication and pride on the part of every citizen to make it that way. They used empty plastic milk cartons filled with water to irrigate their crops. They had a plan from the very beginning to turn a barren land into paradise.
Fast forward to Palestine. Could they have done the same thing? The simple answer is NO. Jews not only were driven by a united goal, but they also had support from fellow Jews and supporters from all over the world.
So–What is the answer? While WE can’t make Palestine equal with Israel, we can help to level the playing field by assisting those who do want a better future for them and their children. How? Show and teach them by example!
1
The Palestinians have been ruled by kleptocracy terrorists since the time when the Palestinian Authority was still called the Palestinian Liberation Army, and its leader, Yasser Arafat, was secreting billions of dollars into foreign bank accounts, donated by NGOs, Arab League allies, and sympathetic Western governments and agencies. Mahmoud Abbas, with a net worth estimated at $100 million, has continued Arafat's tradition of absconding with monies that are earmarked by donors for the betterment of the Palestinian people.
A single state solution will never happen...because a Jewish homeland majority rule will not be surrendered by the Israeli government.
According to Wikipedia, "Since 2015, the Saudi Arabians paid $18 million to 145 registered lobbyists to influence the U.S. government". So, why is there so much focus on Aipac, which spent only $3.5 million lobbying Washington D.C. in 2018...while S. Korea spent $35 million, Japan spent $25 million, United Arab Emirates spent $14 million...and on and on.
11
A nice bit of analysis.
The only real solution is for Israel to become more like Minnesota. That is become a true democracy with no hint of a religious state. The Palestinians then, if the two state solution fails, will become regular human beings; the Jews in Israel too.
At some point an inflection point will be reached: the benefits of old religions being adhered to clumsily versus their abandonment for modernity and evolution of all humans concerned.
Just to put this into perspective: Greek and Egyptian (other) mythologies (paganism) were once potent in the lives of people – we can surmise. Now they are only read for entertainment purposes. At some point the Torah, Koran, and New Testament may all become curios from forgotten worlds too. Science and dedication to collective humanity worldwide will be the new creed; that is the biologically sound and necessary evolution necessary for solving our global problem of climate change.
The next great literature will show the way to the sucessful eradication of these ancient religions. These old religions are based are founded on instinctual systems of predatory animals fighting for land, resources. Dated! We can live without fangs (guns) and have more fun!
4
Likud has taken sides with American Republicans. They cannot have it both ways.
4
There's a book, by former Republican strategist Rick Wilson, with a more than appropriate title summing up the likely denoument of the many dilemmas and choices presented in Tom Friedman's excellent article: "Everything That Trump Touches Dies."
I guess that includes Israel.
6
The mention of Sheldon Adelson, who is reported be quite ill,is gratuitous.
3
Adelson is not the only concern for Trump. He also has significant support from conservative Evangelicals, who are also loving Israel/Jews to death. In the Evangelical theology, Jews have to occupy the ancient land of Israel (a much larger piece of the Middle East than current day Israel) before Jesus can return and the end time begin. These Christian Zionists literally love Jews to death for their theology is not that Jews will be "saved," but rather that Jews will become Christians in the end time. In other words, they do not love Jews AS Jews, but rather as a means to an end. They have ZERO belief that there are Jews in "heaven."
33
What would really be so tragic if Israel became a country for all its citizens, just as the leading democracies of the world are? Already, it's anomalous that the non Jewish minority is never able to take part in a governing parliamentary coalition while much more extremist Jewish parties are.
The special vocation of Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people can be protected by the laws of a multi-ethnic democratic and liberal state.
4
If Israel’s existential security depends on America constantly saving it from itself as Mr. Friedman suggests, then Israel is more to blame for its predicament than America is.
1
Ahhhmmmmm .... remind me when there was a viable 2 state solution on the table??
88
@Asif There were 4 times when there was a viable Israeli 2-state solution but there was a small problem. One of the conditions was that Palestine recognize the that Israel had the right to exist. But I agree in part with what you say.
20
@Asif. When Arafat turned down the deal Clinton brokered with Israel. Wasn't perfect but compromise never is. So now we've got a winner take all scenario.
29
@Asif -- never in Israel's mind... But Mr. Friedman makes a valid point -- if not a two-state solution -- what? This isn't a Trump/Kushner Reality Show -- this is REALITY -- what happens to your 2.5 million neighbors when you take over fully? Do you not have to govern them as well? The Trumps of the world want what they want at this moment and they have no thoughts of the future world -- name a topic -- from climate to financial security -- it's all about the weekly Reality Show, not Reality or History. Sad for America and sad for Israel.
34
The solution will come only when Bibi is out of power and his replacement steers clear of right wing authoritarians, especially our president. Trump has no interest in Israel itself, only votes from American Jews.
3
The solution won't come any time soon, not for years, maybe generations even if Bibi and Trump are replaced by more liberal governments
1
Wake up Tom Friedman. The threat to Israel does not come from Pres. Trump and PM Bibi. Think about what happens if Israel withdraws from the West Bank. All you need to do is look South to Gaza. Hamas and Islamic Jihad rule Gaza. Rest assured that the West Bank ends up in a similar situation. Today we awoke to news of a rocket launched from Gaza that landed in central Israel. The problem is not Trump and Bibi; the problem is Palestinian refusal to recognize the right of Israel to exist as Jewish state.
7
Oh my God! The thought that Palestinians might actually have some sort of citizenship or sovereignty is truly frightening. If something like that happened, we might even be forced to start thinking of them as human beings.
30
And you never know when some other country will engage in a land grab, something the United Nations was set-up to prevent, as it was largely the reason for 2 World Wars. What other Arab territory can Israel seize? Kuwait? Jordan? Northern Saudi Arabia? Beirut?
And Israel’s seizure of the Syrian Golan Heights will be a pretext for other regional powers to seize territory or conquer failed states, in the Balkans, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Pacific Island nations. Central American countries run by criminals driving up mass immigration to the States are ripe for American occupation and colonization. Likewise, Taiwan by China, Vanatu by Australia, Kashmir and Jammu by India, And the one international authority set-up to achieve peaceful boundary adjustments and prevent illegal seizures as Israel’s will completely collapse. Sad for our future generations, set up to fight WW III when the violent resistance in the seized countries begin.
5
Based on the vehemence of the responses, he is mostly correct. There is no PA strong enough to run a country and strong enough to resist being a proxy for weak Arab and Irani terrorists to use PA or GS territory to attack Israel in never-ending low level conflict, which is lucrative for the perpetrators.
Israel’s real choice is one state that actually achieves peace, or the current “unsustainable situation” that has endured over 50 years, and shows every indication of going another 50.
So go ahead, dream of a two-state solution for 50 more years. The only place it will ever exist is in your head.
1
While there is much to admire about Israel, the fact remains that it is in illegal occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights - the PA notwithstanding.
Few countries want to deal with Israel and any dealings are at best transactional.
There was a time when Israel was considered a true democracy. Now the Israeli PM says Israel is a state for Jews alone.
There isn't much of a difference between Netanyahu, Erdogan, Viktor Orban and Heinz-Christian Strache. They indulge in demagoguery and a blatant hatred of the "other", simply to win elections. But the long term negative impact of their actions will be felt in the region and across the world.
366
@jarg The Israelis gave back Gaza, which the Egyptian government could have claimed, but it was diplomatically ceded to the Palestinians, who immediately placed Hamas in power. The Golan Heights, and the land grabbed in the West Bank are the spoils of the 1967 war...a changing of borders on land that was once Syrian and Jordanian, respectively. Spoils of war, and adjusted borders due to military conflict, are the way of world, since maps were invented.
The Palestinians are displaced Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian citizens who chose to stay in Israeli controlled territories rather than being absorbed by their native countries.
22
@jarg Do you want to give Cashmir to Paskistan?
11
@jarg
These territories are illegal by the verdict of the UN . The only time the UN voted in favor of the Jews was when they partitioned Palestine into the States of Israel & Palestine. The Arabs did whatever they could to eliminate the state of Israel in three wars, which they lost, and in the process lost the areas that the UN calls illegal. The only thing illegal is the UN, and anti semites that insist on Jews having a double standard.
Wake up world jews no longer can be pushed around, thanks to Israel we fight back, & by God we win.
20
I agree with Friedman. But there is one very scarey thought. If the PA implodes and Israel annexes the West Bank, there is no way that Israel will allow Israeli citizenship for the Palestinians. It will be Israeli apartheid. And we all know how well that worked in South Africa.
5
I actually live in this region. The PA is not going to implode any time soon. When Abbas is gone, another dictator will be happy to take his place and enjoy power and riches.
4
Dear Thomas,
Someone once said that someone who keeps turning a doorknob that doesnt work is not a realist.
Most of the peace suggestions in Israel are people debating with themselves. It is easy to dream of peaceful solutions; what's missing is the basic starting point. Today a fairly large missile was fired fron Gaza and landed directly and destroyed a home in the Sharon area (a part of central Israel; not occupied and never attacked in the past.)
The minimalistic starting point is both sides are willing to say to the other side "I dont want to kill you; and I acknowledge that you exist." Israelis believe that this basic starting point is further and further away from the Palestinian mind set; the underlying idea of the two state solution is that the peoples cant live together. If so, they also cant in two states that TOGETHER are the size of New Jersey with the major population groups separated as far as Queens and Manhattan are.
Of course there must be lots of Palestinians who are willing to set aside their hate; but as long as they cant get past it, things will get worse and worse for them AND they will find less and less compassion on the Israeli side.
If you shoot rockets at the Israeli civilian population or treat as heros people who knife, shoot and murder innocent bystanders dont expect much. (Even the leftist, peace camp in Israel is today demanding military attacks in Israel and is accusing Netanyahu of having been too soft on Gaza!)
78
@L Manevitz
You are illustrating the problem on the Israeli side--you simply take for granted that you can impose settlements and blockades and shoot demonstrators and you haven't done anything wrong. It's just "hate" from the other side.
But Israel has gotten away with this for decades, and people don't change behavior which they think is working for them.
42
@L Manevitz
And you seriously don't think that Palestinians can legitimately make a similar list of grievances? Really?
45
@L Manevitz The United Nations issued a report recently into Israel’s killing of 189 Palestinians — some of whom were journalists and health workers, disabled and 35 of whom were children — and injuring of more than 9,000 during protests last year in the Gaza Strip.
Report says “Israeli security forces killed and maimed Palestinian demonstrators who did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot.”
It suggested that the killings may constitute a crime against humanity. This has been going on for decades.
33
Certainly agree that the Trump administration has no strategy in the Middle East or anywhere for that matter.
They have systematically stripped away any basis for a two state solution. There is no land for peace negotiation left to be taken. They have ceded all the land to Israel.
We may never see the vaunted Kushner peace plan because there are no options left to exercise. There is nothing left to negotiate.
I believe that the Trump conception of peace in the middle east is nothing more than a completely subjugated and effectively imprisoned Arab population under the thumb of a militarized ( at US expense) and exclusively Jewish Israel. We are almost there.
Trump's only interest in Israel is the reaping of Jewish money and votes in 2020. Real Peace and Justice are not part of the plan and that represents a real existential threat to Israel.
17
Trump's interest in Israel has more to do with the reaping of Evangelical Christian votes than Jewish ones-Jews are 2 percent of the American population and about 80 percent of these vote Democratic.
1
Great article. Absolutely true. Thank you.
2
All you're advecating for are optics - the US should appear more even handed. That's not Trump's m.o., he operates on his own ethics, right or wrong and right now there is no partner with which to make peace (Hamas or Fatah are a joke). Trump's actions are just acknowledging the reality on the ground. Besides, the Golan Hights have nothing to do with the Palestinians.
I remember the Liberty. Israel is our friend until it’s not.
Our interests are heading in two different directions.
Israel has become what it was fighting against, an oppressor, we need to keep religion at home and not in politics.
6
@John
The USS Liberty was an unmarked ship in a war zone that refused to answer when called. Israel profusely apologized and paid heavy reparations.
Stop beating a dead horse.
2
I don't like it. I'm Jewish and almost 80 years old, but I think all Jews have an ancestral memory of our thousands of years of existence. That's why, whenever the focus turns to us, we perceive danger signals. Instead of being part of society, we're being singled out, separated because we are Jews. Some favor us, but of course that brings on a lot of opposition. It's not comfortable and could be dangerous.
5
Friedman writes: "As long as there was a credible two-state solution on the table, that debate was muted."
How long can a two-state solution remain "on the table" before it ceases to be credible? At what point is it just a ploy to continue oppressing the Palestinians, hoping for an eventual ethnic cleansing?
In fact, there never was a credible two state solution on the table. The "security" demands of the Israelis determined that the hypothetical Palestinian state would have no control over it's borders or airspace. It would not be allowed to have an Army or a foreign policy. It would be totally surrounded by Israel or Israeli-controlled/influenced "security forces" It would have Israeli "listening posts" within its fragmented territory. Israeli-controlled roads would run through it. The Israeli Army would retain rights to enter it in times of "emergency", etc.
By the time Israel's "security" demands were met, the Palestinians would have a country in name only -- in fact it would be merely another form of occupation.
Israel never seriously entertained allowing the Palestinian state that was mandated by the United Nations. The two state solution is not just dead; it never existed. And that is why we are now facing the one, democratic state battle that will, it is true, rip apart the American Jewish community. But that's just a side-show. The human rights of the Palestinians is the issue, and it's not going away.
20
Putting the word “security” in quotes when discussing Israel shows a complete ignorance of history.
4
"Up until Trump, both Democratic and Republican presidents have played the role of “reality enforcer” for both Israeli and Arab leaders."
Not true.
A short list of examples......Israel has given up the entire Sinai to Egypt, authority over the Occupied Territories to Hamas and Pali Authority, broken up Amit at the American Gov't request. And yet still the rockets fly, in one direction. Buses with civilians explode, and the Palestinians still hand out candy.
What have the Arab nations EVER given up to Israel at the US request? A promise of recognition? 51 years and still other than Egypt and Jordan (and that on paper only), nada.
No wonder most Israeli's shrug at the concept of another round of talks.
8
If anything, the history of the last 71 years, filled with indiscriminate bloodshed on both sides proves that to allow the creation of a racially (religiously) based state (or two states) on the former British mandate of Palestine was a mistake.
2
It is obvious Trump has no interest or knowledge in any decisions made within his office. Substitute Kushner for every time the Trump name was used.
3
Just in time Mitch is pushing two bills for more Congressional support for the State of Israel not necessarily for the betterment of Israel but to fracture the Democratic Party Jewish votes!
It is not Trump who is responsible for killing the Two State solution, successive Israeli governments are responsible for making sure that Palestinians do not get a viable independent State. There are many problems created by the Trump Administration and the only folly they are committing now is that they are using an inexperienced person and a Israeli Lobbyist as their point men for solving the Palestinian issue- Jared and Friedman.
Thanks to the Trumpian Republicans they are supporting Bibi's re-election bid in spite of his association with extremists like Ayelet.
Friends need to let friends know when they are doing something immoral- Our politicians have failed to do so.
Israel is now destined to be a bi-National State, it is difficult for it to continue as a Jewish Democracy with equal rights for all and it appears it will turn into an Apartheid State which will have both people living under one constitution with two uneven set of rules for its citizenry; and so would this experiment end.
5
Trump’s motivation has nothing to do with the Jewish vote or money from Adelson. It has everything to do with his Christian Fundamental base and their end times belief which states that in order for Christ to return Israel must be reunited. It doesn’t matter to Trump whether their understanding of the second coming is right or not. What matters to Trump is that Christian Fundalmentalists are the base of his base which means votes and they also believe he was chosen by God which feeds his grandiose ego.
6
Israel will come up with some language to say they own the West Bank and will build settlements there, but it's not really part of Israel proper. More like a colony. This will not work out very well.
2
"This only hastens the day when Palestinians will say to Bibi and Trump: “O.K., you guys won. We lost. The two-state solution is gone, so let us become Israeli citizens and give us the vote.”
Mr. Friedman, that will never happen and your suggestion simply shows your lack of understanding of the region, especially of the Arabs: "you won". The Palestinians can never ever admit to that or to "we lost". Had they done so numerous deals would have been worked out.
However, Mr. Friedman, it is not really about 1967. It is still about 1948 and the Arabs see it in terms of "justice" not in terms of wining and losing. "We lost". No that will not happen.
"So let us become Israeli citizens". Nope. That will not happen either. That will not happen because they cannot admit to "you won" and "we lost". The ones who did, the Israeli Arab-Palestinians citizens of Israel made peace with 1948 in terms of a modus vivendi. And most are in their homes.
So the Palestinians will not take Israeli citizenship and will not vote in Israeli elections.
Is the two state solution viable? Suggest the way Mr. Friedman. Something everybody will agree to. That has not been the case when numerous deals were on the table.
The best under the present circumstances would be the Begin offer of autonomy, of course minus violence and terror. Did you forget Hamas Mr. Friedman.
If the Middle East scenario you postulate is fantasy, the resulting upheavals in American are the same.
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Mr. Schwartz, you "hit the nail on the head" by recalling 1948 - that was the golden opportunity for the Palestinians to have a state, but their leaders preferred to attempt to destroy Israel.
Gaza has always been a problematic area, so Egypt refused to accept the headache to dealing with it when Israel agreed to return the Sinai.
Now Gaza has become an even greater headache to Israel thah when she occupied it.
Israel fears that the same thing would happen if she leaves the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
In my opinion, one of the greatest obstacles of communication over here is that Arabic is not a required subject in the Israel education system.
@Joshua Schwartz
8
@Joshua Schwartz Your logic is an echo of the "Separate but Equal" conundrum solved for all time in the U.S. by the Brown-v-Board decision. Israel cannot have it both ways ... they cannot claim to be the "only democracy" in the middle east while denying equal rights to non-Jews. Separate is not equal ... never has been and never will be. It is time for Israel to absorb its Jewish and non-Jewish subjects into a real democracy that ensures equal rights and equal citizenship for all.
28
@Joshua Schwartz
There are numerous Palestinians living in Israel and that number will expand under the annexing of the Territories. That would lead to the question, are they voting citizens or controlled by Apartheid? Either answer is wrong, everyone loses but mostly Israel.
The Jewish population have been ousted, ostracized and murdered since time and memorial, we should know better.
I am an America Jew, do not support AIPAC nor the Republican Party.
9
There is no question that Friedman is more knowledgeable and visionary than Trump when it comes to what is best for the future of Israel. But as Trump constantly reminds the media he is President and they are not. And Bibi would agree. For the sake of Israel I hope that the actions of the two elected leaders speak more loudly than the words of Friedman.
1
Thank you for this very interesting article.
Why should Israel trust the Arabs to make peace if they are given the West Bank after what happened when Israel returned Gaza? Why create yet another dictatorial terror state next door that will end in even more warfare (not to mention a worse off situation for the Arabs living there). Not worth the risk.
7
Why should this administration be any different than those of the past 50 yrs.
1
People like Trump and Netanyahu care about wielding power, not about how cruelly and irresponsibly they use it.
2
Bibi did not say, as Thomas Friedman suggests, that “Arabs are not real citizens of Israel.”
He said that Israel is the nation-state of the Jews, and not the Arabs. He mentioned that Arabs have as many as 20 other states to call the Muslim or Arab nation-state, but that Israel is and would remain an outwardly Jewish state. That does not detract from the respect that Jewish-Israelis should treat Israel’s Arab citizens nor the loyalty that Arabs should (and often do) feel toward the state.
Yes, the public-perception of the principle of equality within Israel proper has been weakened over the last few years, but equality was established and is still enforced by both the Declaration of Independence and the strong judiciary that exists in Israel.
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@Seth Kadish
Pls stop embarrassing yourself These excuses for Netnyahus behaviors are old and tired They are hackneyed cliches
It is time for new leadership in
Israel
The US
The American Jewish community
But unfortunately i am not holding my breath
38
@Seth Kadish
But the reality on the ground is that Israel IS a nation of Jews and Arabs unless you push the rest of the Palestinians into "as many as 20 other ( Muslim or Arab) states..."
Is that how you achieve/enforce equality and say the problem is only "public perception"?
70
@Seth Kadish There is no equality in Israel between Jew and non-Jew. Never was.
This is what Netanyahu said.
“Israel is not a state of all its citizens,” Netanyahu said on Facebook after a local celebrity criticized his assertion that Arab parties don’t belong in any government formed after the April 9 vote. “Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people—and it alone.”
There is not a white Christian national political leader anywhere in the US, Canada, Western Europe or NZ/AUS who would say that his/her country is a nation founded by white Christians and that Jews have no place in government because this state is not for them.
This is ugly racist ethnocentric stuff that were it aimed at Jews you would call anti-semitic. It's time to stop letting Israel and its right wing enablers of various backgrounds get away with justifying this sort of hatred.
157
A very good column, in my opinion.
As an historian once wrote (apologies for not recalling which one),
"The Israelis can never achieve enough security and the Palestinians can never achieve enough honor." That may always be the sticking point in attempts to find a peaceful solution.
3
Still waiting for the day that Palestinians will accept Israel's right to exist and are ready to negotiate a meaningful peace agreement. In the meantime parties on all sides, Hamas to extreme right wing Israeli elements, take advantage of the stalemate to dig in making life precarious for both sides. Ultimately both people want to live in peace.
98
Why does Palestine have no right to exist then? Why must “self determination” mean another nation must be wiped off the face of the earth?
40
Still waiting for Is real to negotiate a right to return for Palestinians so that both sides can live in peace.
27
@Laume Hamas has stated continuously that the State of Israel has no right to exist, and that their group is determined to push the Israeli people into the Mediterranean. The Palestinians undermine their own cause by standing with the internationally recognized terrorist organizations, Hamas, and the renamed Palestinian Authority, which was formerly Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Army.
26
Under no circumstances Israel should or would absorb 2.5 million Palestinians. Israelis much smarter than that!
I believe that the Palestinian people actually would love to be part of Israeli regime than their own dictatorship who terrorize them.
Here is a radical solution, convert the West Bank to a “kibbutz” concept.
Let the UN step in with the help of international leaders and of course Israeli expertise in converting the west bank into a “kibbutz” concept. The kibbutz governed by an international leaders for several of years and grooming their own leadership to take over eventually.
Securuty is run by Israel, no weapons to their people, economy is self contained, education westernized...
The concept is convert West Bank to a “Kibbutz.”
1
Well written, the results will come out when and if the next war between the Israelis and Arabs.
Israel has lost the moral ground it has earned before Trump and Neh.
Look for an after Trump America, western world to be less sympathetic to Israel.
5
Interesting that two corrupt leaders seek to reinforce each other for re-election by promoting efforts to limit the reach of democratic processes to their reliable supporters. Will both states share a drift toward a quasi-apartheid status maintained and manipulated by sham democracies or in the end will democratic expectations and values encourage full participation, even though doing so leads to significant political restructuring?
One of the more interesting and potentially disconcerting aspects of how this question is answered has to do with the extent to which American financial and political support for Israel appears to embrace an increasingly-discriminatory and apartheid state. Friedman largely skirts this issue but we can ask whether an American belief in the separation of religion and politics will collapse in the face of Christian fundamentalist embrace of Israel as Jewish no matter what the cost to other religions, i.e., can Americans accept their resources support systematic religious discrimination, or will the insistence on formal Jewish primacy in Israel lead to a reduction in American support? Do we have enough confidence in our own model of governance to assert that once Israeli policy foreclosed the prospect of a two-state solution the only option acceptable to America is a fully democratic Israel with a commitment to religious tolerance? We have not reached that ideal ourselves but must America abandon democracy to save faith-based Israeli apartheid?
1
Perhaps the fundamental idea of a Jewish theocratic state, albeit with democratic trappings, being along a "separate but equal" Palestinian state is a dream too nebulous. The establishment of Israel kicked the Palestinians out of their homes and into refugee camps. Granted the hard-line positions over the years on both sides have done nobody any favors, except perhaps the arms industry. Since the two-state solution has been so fiercely resisted, Mr. Friedman's projection of a "Greater Israel," Palestinians and all, is a probable future. The challenge is how does Israel deal with the consequences of what they've been wishing for? And what of the Palestinians? Has anyone bothered to ask them what they might want or think?
15
Mr Friedman, thank you for this informative column that explicates the issues that have been exacerbated by the Trump administration. I’m afraid that honest and productive conversation was doomed from the beginning because anyone who disagrees in the slightest with Israel and AIPAC’s positions is immediately slurred with the charge of antisemitism and all conversation ceases. Just for knowledge sake, the Arabs are semites, too, so the slur makes no sense at all. I support the country of Israel, but supporting the actions of its erratic politicians and American supporters is an almost impossibly heavy lift.
113
@MDR
Exactly
4
Even if the Palestinians and the Israelis both wanted a two state solution it would never have worked. The Palestinian state would have been a state in name only.
But neither party really wanted a two state solution. The idea was imposed on them from abroad by a series of US presidents who really just hoped the problem would be have to really be dealt with by the next president.
But Friedman fails to mention another threat to the internal security of Israel and that is the increasing population and political influence of the Ultra Orthodox.
Israel is slowly becoming a theocracy which will cause significant push back by a now minority of secular Jews. Among them are the most productive members of Israeli society who can live anywhere.
67
@Edward B. Blau Only 20% of Israelis are Orthodox
1
@Edward B. Blau: I suggest you look up the definition of "theocracy".
Some Muslim nations ARE genuine theocracies -- Iran, for example -- but Israel is a CONSTITUTIONAL democracy with regular elections.
Theocracies have religious clergy in the highest public offices, such as imams and ayatollahs.
Netanyahu may be someone you hate, but he is definitely NOT a rabbi.
4
One non-sectarian democratic state with equal rights and responsibilities for ALL its citizens is the only answer to this problem. This is because the truth of the matter is that they all want all of the land from the river to the sea. Netanyahu wrote years ago that Jordan is the Palestinian state, and his actions show an approval of a gradual take over of the West Bank.
Israel/Palestine ought to be one homeland for two peoples. This means Arabs and Jews will have to make a positive peace, the peace that is more than an end to violence, but he peace that is based on friendship, where everyone sits under their own vine and fig tree and studies war no more.
21
@Valerie Elverton Dixon One country? "A peace based on friendship," whereby everyone sits under their own fig tree? The Arab Middle East isn't noted for tolerance to practitioners of other religions in its midst. If you think Fox News riles up large swaths of the US population, imagine its equivalent in the West Bank. If you want proof, search for an organization documenting anti-Semitic incitement in Arabic News called MEMRI.
4
@Valerie Elverton Dixon
Remember the "I have a Dream"?
..."Under the Fig trees", Please.
Seems to me you misread the politics in Israel. When the Trump 2 state solution proposal is announced sometime after the Israeli election Prime Minister Netanyahu, who always prefers to have center left members as part of his coalitions( Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni,Yair Lapid and others are former examples) will be waiting on the sidelines. They will at a price of course join should his right wing coalition team not support the peace plan. If as seems likely Netanyahu's legal troubles force a resignation there will be new elections, and the Blue and White party would then be in a stronger position than at present ,as there is no Likud heir to Netanyahu. The mystery to me is how Trump can persuade whatever passes for Palestinian leadership to accept his 2 State solution. That would be worthy of the Nobel prize.Time well tell.
3
Let's not forget that the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 by far right extremists prevented adoption of the Oslo Accords which may have actualized a two-state solution. You see, when your politics cannot win the day the extremists resort to the gun or the bomb to get their way. But, extremists are not born...they are made.
128
2.5 million people are not suddenly going to disappear. The slow annexation of the W. Bank is measured in decades, if not centuries, far after the world has forgotten about Donald Trump. It has been this way for thousands of years. "Next year in Jerusalem" is a figurative, not literal, declaration. Netanyahu is in a hurry to win election, but no hurry to annex the W. Bank. Just keep moving the fences, building the settlements, reinforcing the troops. Taking its slow, steady time.
America is not quite a spectator in this, but not an active participant either. In short, Israel is going to do what it wants to do until it is stopped. America notwithstanding. Israel is older than America by millenia. It will survive after America is gone, in one form or another.
1
@GP "Israel is older than America by millenia?" Last time I checked, Israel became a country in 1948.
18
@GP
The US is the main reason why Israel still exists today. If China becomes the main power on earth in the second half of the 21st. century, as it probably will, things may not go that well for Israel.
Your last sentence is very much a maybe!
Also I believe that Israel was founded in 1948.
6
@GP. And Native America is older than the United States by at least ten millennia; see how that one plays in Congress. The country we call Israel is a device, invented in the hasty division of spoils after a world war, mostly as a convenience by victors who had no interest in absorbing one particular religious minority that had nearly been exterminated. But for the seemingly suitable historical connections, European Jews might have been stuffed into Africa, where, in fact, a continuum of their faith was more provable than the Mideast. Or, given the British ability to excrete strife in their colonies, Ireland.
3
Israel has tried for years to end the conflict on terms desirable to the “world.” Much blood and treasure has been lost.
Israel has a right to move on. It should set its own terms to end the conflict. Annexing area C and withdrawing from the balance of the West Bank come to mind.
In any case, Israelis are not children. The paternalistic attitude of the article is insulting and wrong. The world has been fueling this conflict with its intervention, not bringing it to a conclusion.
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@SG
If the Israelis are not children then America is a helicopter parent who needs to move on and accept the empty nest. No more $5b per year trust fund, no more automatic vetos in the UN Security Council.
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Israel is threatened by hubris. While they bask in it under Trump and Bibi, they will suffer the consequences of abandoning reason for a viscous mob.
2
The strategy continues to be one of conflict management not conflict resolution. It is a three dimensional game of chess. Trump only knows how to play checkers.
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Thomas Friedman has been consistently wrong on so many issues I wonder whether we should listen to what he has to say at all. He does not look at the alternatives: in Israel the "peace camp" no longer exists, in the Palestinian Territories the political leaders demand the impossible (either the total destruction of Israel in the case of Hamas, or the practical destruction in the case of the PA via right of return for descendants of refugees) and are either religious extremists or just corrupt.
If there as an alternative then the Israeli public would not be voting for Netanyahu. So far there is no readily observable alternative to the creeping annexation of most of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza. Mr Friedman's discussion about this being a strategic problem for Israel is only a fig lead for his inability to articulate a strategy that works.
It won't stop him from writing more articles and books that history will show are based on faulty logic.
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@Faust
While I might agree that Friedman's accuracy rate on prognostication is not very high--he's correct here in noting that there are no good guys in this situation; each party has a terribly selfish agenda that will only make the situation worse over time.
And, eventually, demographically, something will have to give. And it won't be pretty.
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@Faust
Correct logic teaches there will either be two states ore one state with an overwhelming Arab population. If the latter, said state will either be a democracy with majority Arab rule, or an arparheid state ruled by the Jews.
Freidman’s argument is formulated around this logic.
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@Faust I would guess Friedman's column was submitted before last night's rocket attack on Tel Aviv....
3
"Israel will then find itself ruling over 2.5 million Palestinians with the choice of either sharing power with them on the basis of equality or systematically denying it to them."
That understates the problem.
The refugees and working diaspora were to return to the independent Palestinian state. Gaza was supposed to unite with it.
The refugees can't remain in camps in any "solution." The diaspora cannot forever stay abroad, with nowhere to go home to even though they send money. Gaza cannot remain like it is now as a permanent thing.
There are already a third as many Palestinians inside as Israeli citizens as there are Jews in Israel.
Taken all together, there are something like twice as many Palestinians as there are Jews in Israel.
Jews in one state would become a very decided minority, even if they kept out quite a few of those Palestinians by some legerdemain.
That is the real risk, not 2.5 million Palestinians, but twice as many as there are Jews in Israel.
That is why a separate independent Palestinian state was originally an Israeli idea, that was pushed on a reluctant Arafat.
Now Netanyahu takes it back, but has absolutely no alternative to resolve the original problem. It seems he intends never to resolve it. That isn't likely to work, long term.
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@Mark Thomason
Bibi did right by Israel. He protected the safety of Israel.
The problem with middle eastern dictatorship regimes they understand one technique only “brute force.”
That’s why Bibi is admired. He knows how to deal with dictators. He speaks their brute language.
We in the westernized world want to negotiate with dictators in a rationale democratic manner. No, it does not work.
With dictators you must speak their language, so they are contained.
We must separate the dictatorship regime from the people. Palestinian people have no power, they are helpless and oppressed.
Therefore, we must start thinking to build a “model” pilot like a “kibbutz” for oppressed countries and communities.
No country in the Middle East is good to its people except Israel. The international community must work with leaders like Bibi who run a democratic westernized country with a middle eastern mindset dealing with terrorism constantly.
There are many good solutions, however, politics and power are preventing from achieving that goal.
And the power should remain with Israel.
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@Mark Thomason - Nothing more to say, you have said it all, so I need not write an extra word. Thanks.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
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@ Mark Thomason
"Taken all together, there are something like twice as many Palestinians as there are Jews in Israel".
Now that is made up math, Thomas, unless you consider the occupied territories of Judea and Samaria already as Israel proper.
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Mr. Friedman was completely wrong about the Arab Spring, he was a champion of "democracy" in Egypt. What happened was an Islamist government, chaos, economic collapse, and war on its border. He is completely wrong again.
In the past decade Israel has achieved remarkable success in every arena. It's economy has grown by 4% a year, its unemployment rate is less than 5% (in a region where unemployment is routinely 20%), it has produced startups like Waze and sent a rocket to the moon, it has security, and international relations with more Muslim countries than ever. It won Eurovision, 5 Nobel Prizes, and an Oscar.
It accomplished this not by negotiating with the Palestinians but by NOT negotiating with the Palestinians. Negotiations brought terror and economic malaise. 19 years ago there was a democratically elected leader with whom to negotiate, today there is no leader representing the Palestinians, there is no way to negotiate. World's changed.
The demographic threat is exaggerated but there is a need to maintain a Jewish democracy. But that doesn't necessarily mean a 2 state solution or Israel should stop pursuing what its democratically elected leadership feels is in its national interest. Jerusalem is its capital, the Golan is Israeli.
Strength means security, negotiations means chaos. There are many democratic solutions proposed that don't compromise Israeli security. Google them. Refusal to acknowledge them does not mean a 2 state solution is the only answer.
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@jkemp For sure, good for Israël. There is also a wide international perception that Israël is oppressing Palestinians, and so is achieving some of this prosperity at the expense of other peoples' rights. This might be justified from your point of view, but the point of this article is that it will eventually destroy Israël from within.
Before any angry reply, note that I'd be the first to say that Palestinian leaders are far worse. I think the article is right in saying that the current situation cannot go on forever.
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Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Palestinian Yassir Arafat, for negotiating the Oslo Accords.
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Perception is NOT reality. Palestinians are oppressing themselves by fostering the fantasy that Israel will be going away sometime soon. It aint gonna happen! Once they accept this and negotiate without threats of murderous violence there will be no changes made
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