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U.S. Insistence on Holding the Palestinians Accountable for Decades of Intransigence Was a Nod to Reality

(New York Times) Martin Peretz - A New York Times report on Nov. 22 evinces a nostalgia for the old U.S. foreign policy consensus on Israel and the Palestinians that is startling for those of us who watched the ineffectiveness of that consensus in real time. What the Times characterizes as President Trump's "lavish" treatment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a break from 40 years of U.S. policy that had tried to bring the Palestinian leadership to the negotiating table and keep it there productively. A result of these efforts was four peace offers the Palestinians rejected, as well as a revivified Hamas in Gaza, attacks in southern Lebanon, two intifadas and unending Palestinian insistence on the right of refugees' descendants to return to Israel, a policy that would use demographics to destroy the Jewish state. In the face of this history, President Trump's insistence on holding the Palestinians to account for decades of intransigence and on looking beyond the Palestinian issue to the region writ large was not a "present" for Mr. Netanyahu. It was a nod to reality, a necessary booster shot for the economies of Israel, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan, and a signal that Palestinian intransigence cannot set the terms for an entire region. The writer was the editor in chief of The New Republic for 38 years.
2020-11-26 00:00:00
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