Once again, we read, the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are dead. So it is imperative that, at last, Americans and Israelis alike face some very hard truths about this impasse - including the fact that the current policies of Israel damage the national interests and moral stature of both countries.
To gain peace, Israelis must accept that - whatever the genesis and justification - the occupation of the West Bank and the expansion of settlements have engendered among Palestinians feelings of impotence and hatred. And yet the fanatics who believe that the West Bank is God's biblical grant to Jews exercise a disproportionate influence on Israeli policy.
As for Palestinians, they must accept that there will be no huge repatriation of Palestinian refugees and their descendants. And yet their leaders fear that saying so will alienate their people. But anyone who has studied this problem knows the basic framework for peace:
-- A border based on the 1967 lines, with land swaps compensating Palestine for the incorporation of major settlements into Israel.
-- Security guarantees for Israel, including an international force patrolling the borders.
-- A limited number of Palestinians allowed to return to what is now Israel, supplemented by compensation and relocation in other countries.
It is equally clear that peace is vital to the national security of America and Israel. As Gen. David Petraeus has said: "The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests. ... The conflict foments anti-American resentment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel. Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples ... and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world. Meanwhile, al Qaeda and other militarist groups exploit that anger to mobilize support."
The list of enemies strengthened by this conflict also includes Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and other radical jihadists in such danger spots as Pakistan, whose desire to destroy us will only be intensified by Osama bin Laden's death. And throughout the broader Islamic world, it is a leading source of hatred of America, feeding the belief that the United States is anti-Muslim. For Israel, only a just peace with the Palestinians holds the hope of wide-ranging security guarantees, international recognition of its permanent borders and an end to its isolation.
More delay could be fatal. Without a settlement in the near future, stability in the West Bank and Jerusalem might end. We are likely to lose Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad, the architect of civil institutions on the West Bank. In countries like Egypt and Jordan, the governments might well have a more prominent Islamic component. And in September, the U.N. General Assembly will recognize a Palestinian state that includes all the West Bank, Gaza and West Jerusalem, further isolating Israel while diminishing pressure for a genuine solution.
Faced with this ticking clock, the Israeli government seems poised to move backward. Its insistence that a peace include Israeli troops along the Jordanian borders seems designed to frustrate talks and implies that a NATO force that includes American troops cannot be relied on to protect Israel. And Israel's demand that the Palestine Liberation Organization recognize its right to exist as a precondition to talks - rather than an essential outcome - is clearly calculated to make the Palestinians refuse, allowing the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to blame them for the failure of any peace initiative. This only makes a bad situation worse. And it requires the United States to speak plainly about our mutual interests.
As a true friend of Israel, we recognize that it lives in existential peril. But we must distinguish between supporting Israel as a state and indulging a government that gives disproportionate power to the opponents of peace. Viewed in strictly military and strategic terms, the current Israeli government is far from a national security asset to the United States. It is past time for the United States to say that it stands with those American supporters of Israel - the great majority - who appreciate the moral and strategic necessity of a Palestinian state and the terrible cost to both countries of continued Israeli isolation.
Nor is this changed by the apparent reconciliation between Hamas, which currently governs Gaza, and Abbas' Fatah party. This has provided Netanyahu with an additional reason to shun negotiations, and puts more pressure on the United States to acquiesce - as illustrated by our resulting denunciation of Hamas. But however hateful its history, Hamas has notionally agreed to accept a peace agreement approved by a referendum of Palestinians. Inevitably, any such pact would require the recognition of Israel's right to exist. Thus Netanyahu's stated refusal to negotiate with a PLO that includes Hamas is beside the point. In any case, a nation makes peace with its enemies, not its friends, and a continuing stalemate strengthens the extremists on both sides.
Only one thing is guaranteed to weaken Hamas: a settlement that promises Palestinians a better life instead of more hatred and despair.
For Israel, and for us, the only long-term hope is a state where Palestinians can build a future better than their past. Anything else is doomed. And if that means that President Obama must put his own peace plan on the table and tell the parties that 44 years of this is enough, so be it. The Israeli and American right, including the most blinkered American supporters of Israel, cannot be allowed to define the limits of acceptable discussion on this subject or to circumscribe our ability to act in the long-term interests of the United States and Israel itself.
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