Tom Friedman: Now's the time for Israel to give the 'Palestinians' whatever they want
Of course. The new Egyptian government is likely to hate us and may abrogate what's left of our treaty with them. Jordanian King Abdullah may yet be on his way out, and whoever takes his place is likely to hate us and may abrogate what's left of our treaty with them. And Tom Friedman's solution? Give the 'Palestinians' whatever they want so that they will be our friends (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). But Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel is in danger of becoming the Mubarak of the peace process. Israel has never had more leverage vis-à-vis the Palestinians and never had more responsible Palestinian partners. But Netanyahu has found every excuse for not putting a peace plan on the table. The Americans know it. And thanks to the nasty job that Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV just did in releasing out of context all the Palestinian concessions — to embarrass the Palestinian leadership — it’s now obvious to all how far the Palestinians have come.As usual, Friedman has it all wrong.
No, I do not know if this Palestinian leadership has the fortitude to close a deal. But I do know this: Israel has an overwhelming interest in going the extra mile to test them.
Why? With the leaders of both Egypt and Jordan scrambling to shuffle their governments in an effort to stay ahead of the street, two things can be said for sure: Whatever happens in the only two Arab states that have peace treaties with Israel, the moderate secularists who had a monopoly of power will be weaker and the previously confined Muslim Brotherhood will be stronger. How much remains to be seen.
As such, it is virtually certain that the next Egyptian government will not have the patience or room that Mubarak did to maneuver with Israel. Same with the new Jordanian cabinet. Make no mistake: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has nothing to do with sparking the demonstrations in Egypt and Jordan, but Israeli-Palestinian relations will be impacted by the events in both countries.
If Israel does not make a concerted effort to strike a deal with the Palestinians, the next Egyptian government will “have to distance itself from Israel because it will not have the stake in maintaining the close relationship that Mubarak had,” said Khalil Shikaki, a Palestinian pollster. With the big political changes in the region, “if Israel remains paranoid and messianic and greedy it will lose all its Arab friends.”
To put it bluntly, if Israelis tell themselves that Egypt’s unrest proves why Israel cannot make peace with the Palestinian Authority, then they will be talking themselves into becoming an apartheid state — they will be talking themselves into permanently absorbing the West Bank and thereby laying the seeds for an Arab majority ruled by a Jewish minority between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
If we make 'peace' with the 'Palestinian leadership' and they are thrown out as is now happening to Mubarak, there will be no Sinai Peninsula to act as a buffer between us.
Egypt and Jordan may well attack us, but if they do, it won't be because they want to create a 'Palestinian state' or because they cannot stand the 'injustice' being perpetrated on the 'Palestinians.' It will be because they wish to terminate the existence of the Jewish state (God forbid) just like the 'Palestinians' wish to do.
And there is no demographic time bomb and there will not be a majority of 'Palestinians' 'from the River to the Sea' in your lifetime or mine, Tom, so long as we don't give all those 'Palestinians' in 'refugee camps' in Jordan and Syria and Lebanon and Iraq a 'right' to 'return' to Israel. The 'Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics' is about as reliable as anything else in the Arab world - that is to say not at all.
Time to retire Tom. Please. Do us all a favor.
Labels: Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Hosni Mubarak, Jordanian King Abdullah, Middle East peace process, Politics, Tom Friedman, World Politics
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:01 PM
10 Comments:
The Palestinians themselves, judging from their support of Mubarak, are more worried about MB-Hamas upswing in power than they are about leveraging the rise of people they fear and distrust into scoring debater's points off of Israel. But then they are free to bring up Tom's geopolitical strategery at the negotiating table. Oh wait, they don't want to negotiate. Well, Tom, I think you should take out the trash more and play more of a role around the house instead of galavanting from publicity appearance to meaningless progressive meet and greet. Oh, and your wife is sick and tired of you going on and on and on and on about the Chinese. We await your columns on the Messianic and greedy Chinese assimilation of Tibet.
Oh, sure, all of the Jews in Israel should board El Al planes and disappear? Hashem won't let that happen.
PS
Going Home to Yerushalayim
lettersfromyerushalayim
I think the real reason the peace with Egypt is falling apart is because the passage of time leads to people forgetting what motivated them in the past. Egypt made peace in the late 70s because Israel dominated them militarily. Now they're not so sure that's the case. So if we want peace, do we "make friends" or do we try what worked earlier?
Tom Friedman like his friends on the Israeli Left has it wrong. There is NO Palestinian peace partner. We'd have to wait for the Palestinians to grow up into adults but that won't happen in our lifetime. Its beyond suicidal for Israel to even contemplate giving them a state in the world we're in now.
He should do us all a favor and shut up and go home!
If the Hashemite monarchy goes down, Palestine will emerge next door as it always was. The demographic problem Friedman abhors can be solved by moving most of them to Jordan.
That would take the steam out of the Palestinian drive to destroy Israel and most of the Palestinians abroad would have a huge empty country to return to.
Here's the flip side Carl, of the Arab revolutions that may ultimately be an unintended benefit to Israel: it gets rid of Arab dictators who have used the "Palestine" issue for decades to distract their people's attention from what is going at home to maintain their hold on power.
Something tells me (I hope I'm right) the Arabs will turn their attention inward rather than deflect all the blame on the Israel and US bogeymen as they have done for decades. That would be good news and the real losers would be the likes of Friedman and the Israeli Left that have sought to blame the paralysis and stagnation in the Arab World for decades on Israel.
Those days are gone - and while Israel should be prepared for the worst, time has a way of calming down a volatile situation. In the end, these revolutions would have eventually happened even if Israel had never existed and no - the Palestinian issue never was central to what's been going on in the Arab World.
Can someone tell me...what drugs is Friedman smoking?
Dear Tom,
If you read this I have one thing to say to you. GET OVER YOURSELF. You are not that smart. Face the truth Tom, the fake nationalistic people self ID'd as "palestinians" have walked, no RUN away from 8 different opportunities for a State.
Making peace with a figurehead dictator such as Abbas is like peeing in the snow, only that peace lasts much less than the urine...
Israel should be proactive.
Israel should set the Gaza Strip Free, completely at once. It should allow any and all weapons into the strip at once, lifting any and all sea blockades.....
It also should: cut off all supplies, medicine, food, electricity and water.
It also should respond to ANY mortars, shells, ied's shootings and even farts with overwhelming violence.
I would even advocate that Israel should allow private citizens to use Gaza City (or anywhere in gaza) as a target range.
Gaza must be freed, in order to drive out all living people into the sinai. Once that is accomplished?
Gaza needs to be leveled and salted.
The Palestinians can be refugees in the Sinai, I heard the UN has tents, Ready to eat meals and Water trucks.
And ANY Arab living in either the West Bank or Israel that is CONVICTED of terror, violence or destruction? Deported to Jordan..
NormanF, the people in the street already seem to be blaming Israel and the U.S. and we know the MB's feelings. I can't see how the islamowhackjobs taking over will improve the situation, it will certainly lead to war. I have already read that the MB are telling Egyptians to prepare for war with Israel.
free, you're correct about it but as Carl noted if Egypt goes to war against Israel it won't be for the Palestinians. Nor would Jordan attack Israel because Israel didn't give the Palestinians a reichlet.
Israel may well return to the days before peace was made with Egypt and Jordan and Israel will figure out how to survive without it. As long as there's no shooting, a cold peace is better than an empty one.
Has this Friedman fellow even finished grade school? It is stymieing how someone so completely devoid of a basic participation in reality is allowed to address the public via the media. -- He gets paid for his "work"? Oy vey.
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