In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Telling Mideast Negotiators, ‘Have a Nice Life’," would-be Middle East expert Thomas Friedman concludes:
"But Israel is a really powerful country. It’s not a disarmed Costa Rica. No one expects it to give up everything. But fewer and fewer can understand why it puts so much energy into explaining why it can’t do anything, why the Palestinians are irredeemably awful and why nothing Israel could do would affect their behavior. I truly worry that Israel is slowly committing suicide, with all the best arguments."
Earlier in this same op-ed, Friedman suggests that the US remind Palestinian Authority President Abbas that he rejected Israeli Prime Minister Olmert's 2008 offer of an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 lines with agreed upon land swaps and Palestinian control of east Jerusalem. Question for Tom Terrific: If Abbas were to be made this same offer today by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, would Abbas now say yes? Answer: Not a snowball's chance in hell. Why? Because 60 percent of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank currently favor "reclaiming all of historic Palestine, from the river to the sea."
If Abbas were to accept such a peace deal with Netanyahu, Abbas would be committing suicide.
As I often tell my children, timing is everything in life. Perhaps the time will eventually come for a formal peace agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis, but that time is not now.
No comments:
Post a Comment