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The Two-State Delusion

(Tablet) Elliott Abrams - In the West, the call for a "two-state solution" is a magical incantation. Diplomats and politicians are not seriously asking what kind of state "Palestine" would be. Instead, they simply imagine a peaceful, well-ordered place called "Palestine" and assure everyone that it is just around the corner. In January, Secretary of State Blinken said, "It's, I think, very important for the Palestinian people that they have governance that can...actually deliver what the Palestinian people want." But what if "what the Palestinian people want" is mostly to destroy Israel? Opinion polls suggest that very many Palestinians, and not just those in Hamas, consider the State of Israel illegitimate, want it eliminated, and favor "armed struggle." Then what is the nature of the Palestinian state that Western governments are demanding? A terrorist state? A state with a government that is half terrorist, based on admittance of Hamas into the PLO? A state that is an autocracy where "armed struggle" against Israel is widely popular? Creating that state is supposed to be the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Israelis are supposed to be reassured that a Palestinian state will be no threat to them? Whatever limitations on Palestinian sovereignty that are built into any "two-state solution" will be viewed by Palestinians the way most Germans viewed the limitations imposed by the Versailles Treaty. Those who seek to live with them will be called traitors, and those who demand abrogating or violating them will be "nationalists" and heroes. The day a Palestinian state is declared is the day Iran hypes up its efforts to turn the West Bank into what Gaza became in the last decade: a maze of arsenals, training centers, tunnels, launching sites, and bases for terrorist attacks. Only this time the geography will be different because the hills of Judea and Samaria overlook Ben-Gurion Airport, Jerusalem, and the coastal plain where most of Israel's economy, its largest port, and its largest city are located. Creating a Palestinian state will not end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because it will not end the Palestinian and Iranian dream of eliminating the State of Israel. On the contrary, it can be a launching pad for new attacks on Israel and will certainly be viewed that way by the Jewish state's most dedicated enemies. A peaceful Palestinian state that represents no threat to Israel is a mirage. The writer, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, served as U.S. deputy national security advisor, where he supervised Middle East policy for the White House.
2024-02-02 00:00:00
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