Continue reading The Unbearable Lightness of Mainstream Thinking on Israel-Palestinian Issues
By Barry Rubin
Recently I appeared on a panel. I gave what I thought was a devastating and detailed analysis on why there wouldn’t be an Israel-Palestinian peace: the PA wasn’t ready Fatah was led by radicals; the Palestinian people hadn’t been prepared for peace (and had been prepared to see any compromise as treason); Hamas might take over or would use any PA compromises to attack and defeat its rival; there were too many problems with what would happen after a two-state solution was implemented.
Afterward, another participant was asked what he thought of my presentation. He said that, of course, peace wouldn’t be easy but it was really important to make peace, that time was against Israel, and that we should keep trying. Five things struck me about the response.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader
(seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East
(Wiley), and The Truth About Syria
(Palgrave-Macmillan). His latest book is Israel: An Introduction, to be published by Yale University Press later this year. You can read more of Barry Rubin's posts at Rubin Reports, and now on his new blog, Rubin Reports, on Pajamas MediaTechnorati Tag: Israel and Middle East.
Barry Rubin updated the post and pointed out Tom Friedman's column and his proposal is ridiculous. In short, explicit Arab and Muslim acceptance of Israel is never going to happen, no matter how many concessions Israel might make.
ReplyDeleteThe larger point is those who readily lie about the Middle East to make Israel look bad, as Friedman regularly does, do so because that is an article of faith with them. Don't look for their fantasy vision of the Middle East to ever be punctured by rigorous critiques.
Israel's empirical experience has shown how much that fantasy vision has nothing in common with what really goes on in the Middle East. It seems to be the only place in the world in which intelligent people suspend their normal critical faculties to chase a peace mirage that will never come true in the real world.
And Israel is not going to put its neck in the noose to find out if there is no noose to please the Tom Friedmans of the world and his fellow liars for peace acolytes in the Western mass media.