Is a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine co-existing in peace and harmony, desirable?
Yes, of course it is. It always has been. And Israelis – certainly according to the polls I have read over many years – very much want it to be a reality.
But is there any realistic, or even long-shot chance of this happening in the foreseeable future? No, not a chance.
In his latest piece for nationalreview.com, David Harsanyi explains why in stark, blunt, hard-to-dispute terms, Read these excerpts and see for yourself (then do yourself a favor an use the link to read the rest):
Afterthe murder of five Israelis (three of them American citizens and oneof them a Druze) this week, people fired celebratory gunshots in theair, “and praise for God and the attackers poured from mosqueloudspeakers soon after the synagogue attack,” reported the NewYork Times.Fatah officials in Lebanon chimed in to let us know that “Jerusalemneeds blood in order to purify itself of Jews.” There werecongratulatory messages on Fatah\’s official Facebook page andfestive post-murder-spree sweets for the kids. This celebration ofdeath – whether dead babies or dead rabbis, it matters not – notonly illustrates the colossal moral gulf that exists between thesesocieties but also reminds us that any Palestinian governmentinclined to entertain a viable agreement with Jews wouldn\’t lastlong anyway.
Fatah,the thin thread that any workable agreement hangs on, is in poweronly because it refuses to hold elections.
BarackObama wants peace. But as always, after a round of failed talks,there is terrorism. The tensions in Jerusalem today – and by”tensions,” I mean the indiscriminate killing of Jews over thepast few weeks – are driven, in part, by a conspiracy theory thatposits that Israelis are about to occupy the Temple Mount. Fatah\’sMahmoud Abbas has used the tension to agitate his people, reportedlyurging Palestinians to prevent Jewish settlers (and by “settlers,”he means any Jews) from entering the Temple Mount and to otherwiseconfront the “fierce onslaught on Al-Aksa Mosque, Jerusalem and theHoly Sepulchre Church.”
Abbas,like Yasser Arafat before him, seems to believe that inciting just alittle bit of violence will make the situation untenable for theIsraeli government. This reflects a deep misunderstanding of thedynamics of Israeli society and politics. With its technological,military, and economic power growing, Israel has become far lessinclined to sacrifice security for “peace” today than it has beenin the past. There is little internal political pressure to create anantagonistic anti-Semitic state next door – even from the leftwing.
It doesn\’t get much clearer than that.
As I have said for years and years, the heart of the problem can be shown in just seven words: Israel wants peace, Palestinian Arabs want Israel.
If you keep that in mind, the events taking place in Israel become far more understandable.
If, however, you delude yourself into believing that Palestinian Arabs are sincerely interested in a two-state solution, I doubt that you will be able to understand a thing.
