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Israelis Believe a Palestinian State Will Look Like Gaza

(New York Times) Bret Stephens - Since 2009, Israel's economy has grown by nearly 30% in constant dollars - nearly twice the growth rate of Germany or the U.S. Some 3.6 million tourists visited Israel in 2017, a record. Israel's relations with India, Japan, African countries, and the Arab world are the best they've been in decades. Reaction in Riyadh and Cairo to the Trump administration's decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem amounted to a shrug. Netanyahu's 2015 speech to Congress opposing the Iran deal turned out to be an inspiration for Israel's neighbors, and his arguments against the deal now prevail in the current White House. A Palestinian state is a terrific idea in principle - assuming that it resembles the United Arab Emirates. But Israelis have no reason to believe that it will look like anything except the way Gaza does today: militant, despotic, desperate and aggressive. Israel's foreign critics are demanding that it replicate on a large scale what has failed catastrophically on a smaller scale. Any successor to Netanyahu will have to pursue essentially identical policies.
2018-02-26 00:00:00
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