By Yoram Ettinger
Submitted by Ira L. Jacobson
Governor Romney's September 18, 2012 assessments of the Palestinian issue opposing the "two state solution” - highlight the battle between data-driven realism and desire-driven wishful-thinking.
Data-driven realists are cognizant of the linkage between the increasingly anti-American seismic "Arab Street' on the one hand, and the nature of the proposed Palestinian state on the other hand. The more radicalized, unpredictable, violent, terrorist-ridden and anti-U.S. the "Arab Street,” the more terror-oriented the proposed Palestinian state. The latter would be led by Palestinian organizations, which have been the role model of international terrorism since the 1960s. They were supporters of Bin Laden (whose mentor was a Palestinian Abdullah Naji from Jenin), staunch allies of Saddam Hussein, Khomeini, the Soviet Union and the ruthless East European regimes. Their predecessors e.g., Haj Amin Al Husseini - were Nazi Germany collaborators.
Track record-driven realists recognize the devastating impact of the proposed Palestinian state upon vital US economic and military interests. For instance, a Palestinian state would produce a tailwind for internal terrorism in Iraq, the Gulf and Jordan, providing training and indoctrination bases for international terrorists. It would add a feather to the cap of the Moslem Brotherhood (Mahmoud Abbas was expelled from Cairo in the 1950s due to his key role in the Palestinian cell of the Moslem Brotherhood). A Palestinian state would doom to oblivion the already shaky pro-US Hashemite regime in Jordan, creating an anti-US axis from Iran to Gaza. It would constitute a diplomatic, intelligence and operational military East Mediterranean anti-US beachhead for North Korea, China, Iran and Russia (Russian-speaking Mahmoud Abbas has had intimate ties with Moscow since his graduation from KGB courses and his role as Arafat's emissary to Communist capitals). A Palestinian state would add another anti-US vote at the UN, rewarding the Palestinian Authority, which has forced the flight of Christians from Bethlehem, Beit Jallah and Ramallah.
Experience-driven realists are aware of the linkage between the tectonic nature of the Middle East in general and Jordan in particular on the one hand, and the indispensability of the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria for Israel's survival on the other hand. The more unstable, unpredictable, inconsonant and savage the Middle East, the higher the threshold of Israel's security. The current predicament of the Hashemite regime could rapidly transform Jordan into an anti-US radical arena, further intensifying the critical role of Judea and Samaria for Israel's defense. The realists are aware of the demographic bogey, that Jewish demography surges, that Arab demography has been Westernized, and that the Jewish majority in the combined area of Judea, Samaria and pre-1967 Israel is solid with the power to expand.
Evidence-driven realists assess the prospects of Israeli-Arab/Palestinian peace against the backdrop of 1,400 year of no intra-Arab comprehensive peace, non-compliance with most intra-Arab agreements, non-ratification of all intra-Arab borders and not a single Arab democracy. They have studied the litany of Jewish territorial concessions since the 1920s, and the recent Palestinian rejection of unprecedented concessions by Israeli Prime Ministers Olmert, Barak, Peres and Rabin. Realists conclude that the Palestinians are not concerned about the size but the existence of the Jewish State.
Documentation-driven realists are mindful of the meltdown of the Oslo Process and its derivatives (e.g., the Two State delusion), which have dramatically intensified Palestinian hate-education, terrorism and non-compliance. They are aware of the immorality of the Land-for-Peace formula, which penalizes the intended victim (Israel), rewards Arab belligerence, whetting its appetite, thus bringing the region close to war and farther from peace.
Fact-driven realists are alert to the non-centrality of the Palestinian issue, as reaffirmed during the last two years of the stormy "Arab Winter.” It is not the core of regional turbulence, not the cause of anti-Western Islamic terrorism, not the crown-jewel of Arab policy-making and not the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Detail-driven realists comprehend that the US is the top target for Iran, and that Iran is developing nuclear capabilities in order to intimidate the US and dominate the Persian Gulf. A nuclear Iran would devastate the supply and the price of oil; would subordinate Iraq; would trigger a meltdown of pro-US regimes in the Gulf and Jordan; would accelerate nuclear proliferation; would bolster Iran's military presence in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and possibly Mexico; would provide a tailwind to global terrorism, including sleeper cells in the US; and would severely constrain US military, economic and diplomatic maneuverability. Realists know that Saudi Arabia and most Arab states yearn for a US preemption, which would spare them calamity. They also know that sanctions did not prevent the nuclearizaton of North Korea, that Russia, China, Japan and India do not cooperate with the sanctions policy and that sanctions provide Iran with additional time to obtain nuclear capabilities.
Wishful-thinking has dominated Western policy in the Middle East. It has been effectively leveraged by enemies and rivals of Western democracies. The national security of Western democracies would be well-served by enhanced realism and by dramatically-reduced wishful-thinking.
_____________________
Romney on the Palestinians
Source: The New York Sun
Submitted by Ira L. Jacobson
Wonders Mr. Beinart: “What kind of ‘somehow, something’ could Romney have in mind?” It is, he writes, “hard to believe it’s the two-state solution, since keeping alive that option for future years would require curbing the Israeli settlement growth that is rapidly foreclosing the possibility of a viable Palestinian state. And Romney has zero interest in doing that. More likely, Romney is alluding to ideas that have long surfaced on the Israeli right: that one day Egypt will take the Gaza Strip off Israel’s hands, and that Jordan, with its Palestinian majority, will eventually take responsibility for the Palestinians of the West Bank (while leaving Israel with most of the West Bank’s land). The most recent proponent of such a vision is rising Likud star Danny Danon, whose new book proposing a ‘three-state solution’ (Israel, Jordan, Egypt) enjoys blurbs from Mike Huckabee and Glenn Beck.”
We wouldn’t want to detract from the glory of Mr. Danon or Governor Huckabee or Messrs. Beck or Beinart or, for that matter, Governor Romney. Let us just note that the notion that there might be a strategy other than the two-state or one-state concepts was aired in an editorial called “The Three State Solution” that was issued in these columns in June of 2007. At the time, the editorial noted, there was a rush to marshal international support for a longtime aide to Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, whose “government," we reckoned then as now, “has no legitimacy.” Not, we noted, that the Hamas regime at Gaza had legitimacy either, being formed, as it was, by an Iranian backed terrorist organization.
A better strategy, we suggested, would be to “pursue — or at least explore — a three-state solution.” The idea we sketched would be that “at least parts of Gaza are turned over to Egypt” and the Palestinian Arab areas of the West Bank that are not necessary for Israel’s security or part of its religious patrimony could be turned over to Jordan. Both Jordan and Egypt, we noted, at least have peace treaties with Israel. That was more than five years ago, and the idea didn’t go anywhere. Since then, President Mubarak’s regime in Egypt has been overthrown, and a new, Islamist regime is consolidating its power. It’s one of those tricks that history so often has up her capacious sleeves. Meantime it’s nice to discover, in Governor Romney, at least one presidential candidate who, in private as well as public, is on roughly the same wavelength as the elected leadership in Jerusalem.
