For whatever reason diplomats today feel the need to deny reality. One reality is in the mideast is hat the PA has failed totally. A second connected reality is that PA rule in Gaza was an even greater failure than its rule on the West Bank. And yet - in order to maintain a fallacy, that is what Blinken seems to think is the solution to the problem.
I'm reminded of Bismarck's remark: "When you say you agree to a thing in principle you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice." That, perhaps, encapsulates the history of the two-state solution.
I don’t know if you saw what I replied to Claire, joining the thread upon which you two embarked. Claire asked me what I think Blinken should say. I said he should support explicitly Israel’s “total victory” in Gaza to defeat an “existential foe.” I don’t see why Blinken can’t say that, except arguably it’s a rather pro-Jewish thing to say. And that’s not the fashion.
Or Blinken could say, “Trump and his son-in-law” developed a peace plan which Netanyahu said he would consider and the PA and Hamas rejected out of hand. The Palestinians should feel free to call when they’re prepared to be more reasonable. They have our phone number. Until then, sadly the bullets will keep flying.”
That’s one thing that makes me livid when people on the left try to say Oct 7th, was the consequence of Netanyahu’s policies towards the Palestinians, and that the Saudi-Israeli normalization critically overlooked their grievances. That’s bunk as soon as one realizes how the Saudi-Israel deal was going to benefit the Palestinians!
Jared Kushner was very close with MBS, the titular ruler of Saudi Arabia. The Kushner peace plan was fully vetted with both the Saudis and the Egyptians; they were on board. Netanyahu didn’t love the plan but out of deference to Trump he acquiesced to considering it. Not only did Hamas reject it out of hand, but so did the supposedly more reasonable Palestinian Authority/Fatah.
The incoming Biden Administration was as hostile to the Kushner Plan as the Palestinians were. The Biden Administration hated the plan for exactly one reason; it was authored by Trump, a man who they detested.
For the same reason, Biden’s advisors detested the Abraham Accords. Their hostility to the Accords was so intense that they actually refused for over 18 months to refer to the agreements by the name that both the Israelis and the Arabs agreed to.
Only within the past several months did the Biden Administration decide to try and extend the Abraham Accords to Saudi Arabia.
What motivated the Biden folks to change their tune? They realized that the War in Ukraine was going poorly. They understood that a failure in Ukraine after the disastrous exit from Afghanistan would be a political calamity. They hoped a reconciliation between Israel and Saudi Arabia would provide a political antidote to Biden’s failures in Ukraine and Afghanistan.
Ironically, the potential peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia so unnerved Hamas and their Iranian sponsors that it became the proximate cause of the Hamas attacks of October 7th.
Just as the Israelis were shocked that after inviting thousands of Gazans to work in Israel their good intentions were not reciprocated, the Biden Administration was shocked that their endless attempts to appease Iran didn’t bear fruit.
Now Biden finds himself in a terrible political predicament. Half of his voters want Hamas destroyed while the substantial Jew-hating cadre of Democratic voters think he’s facilitating genocide.
Had Trump been President, the Russian attack on Ukraine would probably never have occurred and the Hamas attack on Israel might not have happened.
Biden has the reverse Midas Touch. Everything he touches turns into you know what.
That's the trouble with the two-state solution: Nobody has bothered to ask the Palestinians if that's what they really want. But the answer appears to be—no, they don't want it. What they want stretches from the river to the sea.
For whatever reason diplomats today feel the need to deny reality. One reality is in the mideast is hat the PA has failed totally. A second connected reality is that PA rule in Gaza was an even greater failure than its rule on the West Bank. And yet - in order to maintain a fallacy, that is what Blinken seems to think is the solution to the problem.
I'm reminded of Bismarck's remark: "When you say you agree to a thing in principle you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice." That, perhaps, encapsulates the history of the two-state solution.
I don’t know if you saw what I replied to Claire, joining the thread upon which you two embarked. Claire asked me what I think Blinken should say. I said he should support explicitly Israel’s “total victory” in Gaza to defeat an “existential foe.” I don’t see why Blinken can’t say that, except arguably it’s a rather pro-Jewish thing to say. And that’s not the fashion.
There are legitimate solutions to the problem that are not the two state solution. Writing about that soon. .
Or Blinken could say, “Trump and his son-in-law” developed a peace plan which Netanyahu said he would consider and the PA and Hamas rejected out of hand. The Palestinians should feel free to call when they’re prepared to be more reasonable. They have our phone number. Until then, sadly the bullets will keep flying.”
That’s one thing that makes me livid when people on the left try to say Oct 7th, was the consequence of Netanyahu’s policies towards the Palestinians, and that the Saudi-Israeli normalization critically overlooked their grievances. That’s bunk as soon as one realizes how the Saudi-Israel deal was going to benefit the Palestinians!
Jared Kushner was very close with MBS, the titular ruler of Saudi Arabia. The Kushner peace plan was fully vetted with both the Saudis and the Egyptians; they were on board. Netanyahu didn’t love the plan but out of deference to Trump he acquiesced to considering it. Not only did Hamas reject it out of hand, but so did the supposedly more reasonable Palestinian Authority/Fatah.
The incoming Biden Administration was as hostile to the Kushner Plan as the Palestinians were. The Biden Administration hated the plan for exactly one reason; it was authored by Trump, a man who they detested.
For the same reason, Biden’s advisors detested the Abraham Accords. Their hostility to the Accords was so intense that they actually refused for over 18 months to refer to the agreements by the name that both the Israelis and the Arabs agreed to.
Only within the past several months did the Biden Administration decide to try and extend the Abraham Accords to Saudi Arabia.
What motivated the Biden folks to change their tune? They realized that the War in Ukraine was going poorly. They understood that a failure in Ukraine after the disastrous exit from Afghanistan would be a political calamity. They hoped a reconciliation between Israel and Saudi Arabia would provide a political antidote to Biden’s failures in Ukraine and Afghanistan.
Ironically, the potential peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia so unnerved Hamas and their Iranian sponsors that it became the proximate cause of the Hamas attacks of October 7th.
Just as the Israelis were shocked that after inviting thousands of Gazans to work in Israel their good intentions were not reciprocated, the Biden Administration was shocked that their endless attempts to appease Iran didn’t bear fruit.
Now Biden finds himself in a terrible political predicament. Half of his voters want Hamas destroyed while the substantial Jew-hating cadre of Democratic voters think he’s facilitating genocide.
Had Trump been President, the Russian attack on Ukraine would probably never have occurred and the Hamas attack on Israel might not have happened.
Biden has the reverse Midas Touch. Everything he touches turns into you know what.
That's the trouble with the two-state solution: Nobody has bothered to ask the Palestinians if that's what they really want. But the answer appears to be—no, they don't want it. What they want stretches from the river to the sea.
Yeah I agree with all of that.
Yeah, but that he’d never say, would he…?