Abbas' NATO Gambit Is a Nonstarter

(Commentary) Max Boot - It would be quite an irony if the Obama administration, while refusing to become heavily engaged in Syria or Libya, were to dispatch U.S. troops to guard a new Palestinian state in the West Bank, as proposed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas in an interview with the New York Times. Imagine such a force patrolling the West Bank and east Jerusalem. They might as well have a "kick me" sign on their backs - their very presence will make them an irresistible magnet for jihadists who want to score points against the Great Satan. More likely the presence of foreign troops would hinder and deter effective action by Israeli forces to defend their own homeland. Israel has had experience before with international peacekeepers and it well remembers how little such forces did to protect Israel when deployed to protect against attack from Egypt (before the 1967 Six-Day War) or from Hizbullah when deployed in Lebanon.


2014-02-04 00:00:00

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