The title of this blog is not mine. It is from David Strom’s latest commentary with that title. And the commentary itself – its completeness and its clarity – makes it a must-read.
Here is how Strom begins:
Back when I was young and naive, studying international politics in college, I took a class on the Middle East conflicts, focused almost entirely on the Israel/Palestinian conflict.
By the end of the class, we all agreed: the only solution to the eternal-seeming conflict was two separate states, with Israel giving up some territory (which it has since done) and the Palestinians creating a state alongside Israel.
It’s the answer that everyone has come up with, in the abstract. It seems so rational and relatively simple. After all, “Palestinians” are already concentrated in those areas, and Jews (and a good chunk of Israeli-citizen Arabs) are already in Israel and a fully functioning state.
Most Democratic critics of Israeli policies trot out the two-state solution whenever they want to appear reasonable in their criticisms, and the appeal has to many in the public been the same as it was to me and my classmates. It’s just common sense.
Of course, you have the same problem now as you did back in the late 1990s, the 1980s, the 1970s, and going all the way back to the days before Israel was even founded: there’s nobody on the other side willing to negotiate. They don’t want an end to the conflict; they want to drive the Jews out, and with any luck, do so by killing them.
I am not posting any more excerpts. I am asking – begging – that you use the link I’ve provided (here it is again). Please click on the link, read every word, watch every video, and then pass it along to others.
Anyone who believes in the possibility of a “two-state solution” with these people is living in a dream world.
