Linkage—the belief that the Israeli-Palestine conflict is the root of all Middle East instability—is not only factually wrong and deleterious to peace, it is fundamentally antisemitic.
Dream along; a two state solution. They had tbeir two states in 1947 and what did the Arabs do? They launched all out war. It a funny thing, prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, you never heard the word, “Palestinian”. Only after Israel held on to the spoils of that war did the whole con, the lie of a “Palestinian” people emerge.
The antisemites in the West like Obama, Kerry and the Democrats in general, buy into the deranged idea of a two-state solution. To support such an idea after October 7, is to support a subhuman group living on Israel’s doorstep.
That’s right. People who commit unspeakable atrocities: decapitation of babies, mutiation of female genitalia, openly rapingwomen, slicing a woman’s breast and playing with it in the street, burning babies, and dismemberment, not by accident but by intent is exactly that. Then there are the supporters of such atrocities—the so-called Palestinians— 70% who support the same atrocities.
Then there are the useful idiots in the West who have no idea that there never was a “Palestinian” people.
It is positively Orwellian that those that would be directly impacted by the implementation of a two state solution - the Israelis and the Palestinians - are the staunchest opponents of such a proposed 'solution'. How western governments can continue to propose that a Palestinian state headed by the Palestinian Authority - whose leadership continues to promote the murderers of Israelis by paying them and their families (including Hamas rivals) for their 'heroic' deeds, is truly indicative of an inability to accept reality and/ or establish an alternative creative solution to the quagmire. Can anyone believe that a 'Palestinian state' in Judea and Samaria would lead to anything different than what resulted from the opportunity for peace provided when Israelis left Gaza? As stated, to posit that the creation of the state of Israel is at the core of all mideast ongoing conflicts is so far removed from reality that it can only suggest antisemitism at its foundation.
While Pakistan and Iran are falling out, while Pakistan deports Afghans and returns them to the Taliban, while ISIS bombs a Shi'ite ceremony in Iran and Saudi Arabia apparently plans to proceed with the beheading of 2 teenagers, the Sound of Silence prevails amongst the Commentariat,now exclusively focussed on Israel's move into Rafah and the need for a 2 state solution.
According to the TOI, POTUS, now in an obvious decline into senility, apparently described Netanyahu as an 'asshole'; however, same POTUS confused Egypt's President al Sissi with Mexico's leader:
Scapegoats don't normally walk south a 1000 miles and over the course of a century continue to insist that just one more pile of dead Arabs will bring utopia
It's worth noting here that the worst conflicts in the middle east - the Syria, Yemen and Libyan civil wars, the Iran/Iraq war, etc - all had nothing to do with Israel.
Mr. Oren whenever I see you interviewed on TV ....and a counter point from an Arab academician or politician the rebuttal is that Israel violence against Arabs is unchallenged, unpunished and in fact rewarded. That any citing of "fanatic" Arab voice is matched by Ben Gvir and Smotrich. I don't see any willingness from the Arabs to fully acknowledge the atrocities of Oct. 7th let alone the rest of the history of rejection you outline. And that is double on college campuses where the young people of the sjp and their lackeys reject even talking to other American Jewish students unless they violently renounce Israel. In short....you are kind to ignore most of Mr. Friedman's Biden Doctrine which is a rehash of Oslo. And I don't know where we go in the aftermath of this war once hamas capacity to rule there is destroyed...eliminated....and not to return even if they rebase themselves in Tunis.
The linkage confirms what Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad and the Iranian mullahs have known all along: that the only way to rid the world of the Jewish state is to first rid the Jewish state of Jews.
So President Obama chose to ask God for a “two state solution” even before asking for a cure for cancer, global hunger, global warming, etc., Why?
Two theories
1. President Obama’s highest strategic priority — ahead of all other domestic or international considerations — was Middle East Peace and he mistakenly “linked” its achievements with a “two state solution”.
2. President Obama’s highest moral priority was to atone for his nation’s original sin — I.e., the complete displacement of its indigenous American Indian population (otherwise known as “Settler Colonialism”).
How would a two state solution in Palestine atone for the displacement of indigenous American Indians two centuries earlier?
Because America repeated this sin in 1948, by supporting the displacement of another indigenous population— this time the indigenous Arabs from is homeland in Palestine
Why not atone for our original sin (Settler Colonialism in North America) by faithfully relinquishing our more recent one (supporting Settle Colonialism in Palestine) ? So what if the Jews are unhappy, we shouldn’t have helped them in the first place!!!
Given Obama’s credentials— as a member in good standing among the liberal elite - I find the second theory more persuasive.
If so, nothing should worry us more than a Michele Obama Presidential nomination at the Democratic Convention (even aside from payback for Netanyahu’s fatally shortsighted address to Congress in opposition to President Obama’s Iran initiative).
Just as the cost for our African American atonement continues to escalate — from “equality” to “equity” to “reparations” — so too will Israel’s cost of atonement inevitably escalate from “two equal states” to “from river to sea”.
For near twenty years, Netanyahu tried to promulgate the notion that the conflict with the Palestinians can be circumvented and Israel can enjoy "start-up nation" and normalization with Arab states. That approach yielded Oct 7. Cut it any way you want, new thinking is needed. Until a just solution is found for two peoples to have national expression on the same piece of real estate, there will not be peace between the river and the sea.
Agreed wholeheartedly. What can/should be done, in real politics, to move away from this linkage and bring some resolution? Micha Goodman in his book, Catch 67, provides one answer. What would yours be (realistic, actionable, attainable within 10 years)?
If two state solution is dead, what comes next? Expel Arabs from River to Sea? One State from River to Sea with equal rights for all inhabitants? Status quo — pretend and extend “peace process” - with no he Axis of Resistance repeatedly launching October 7th attacks from ever more powerful proxies?
And what happens when the progressive left eventually returns to power in Washington? Will there be a new form of “linkage” — foreign aid to Israel linked to a two state solution (or even worse, one state from river to sea with equal rights and voting power to all)? Is Israel the next Ukraine — begging for military aid while being bled to death?
The eternal truth of anti-semitism was already revealed in the very first Rashi in the Torah. The eternal truth that the Arabs would never accept a Jewish State in Palestine was already revealed by Jabotinsky in 1920. That’s why the May 12, 1948 vote to declare the Jewish State passed by only one vote.
I don’t think God wants us to complain about these eternal truths. Instead He expects us to make difficult choices in light of these eternal truths.
Dream along; a two state solution. They had tbeir two states in 1947 and what did the Arabs do? They launched all out war. It a funny thing, prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, you never heard the word, “Palestinian”. Only after Israel held on to the spoils of that war did the whole con, the lie of a “Palestinian” people emerge.
The antisemites in the West like Obama, Kerry and the Democrats in general, buy into the deranged idea of a two-state solution. To support such an idea after October 7, is to support a subhuman group living on Israel’s doorstep.
That’s right. People who commit unspeakable atrocities: decapitation of babies, mutiation of female genitalia, openly rapingwomen, slicing a woman’s breast and playing with it in the street, burning babies, and dismemberment, not by accident but by intent is exactly that. Then there are the supporters of such atrocities—the so-called Palestinians— 70% who support the same atrocities.
Then there are the useful idiots in the West who have no idea that there never was a “Palestinian” people.
What do you call people who livestream themselves torturing people to death?
It's okay the IDF is also a deepfake everything is a deepfake.
Preventing Hamass from repeating its mass is a just war. As far as the goy thing, we love you brother.
It is positively Orwellian that those that would be directly impacted by the implementation of a two state solution - the Israelis and the Palestinians - are the staunchest opponents of such a proposed 'solution'. How western governments can continue to propose that a Palestinian state headed by the Palestinian Authority - whose leadership continues to promote the murderers of Israelis by paying them and their families (including Hamas rivals) for their 'heroic' deeds, is truly indicative of an inability to accept reality and/ or establish an alternative creative solution to the quagmire. Can anyone believe that a 'Palestinian state' in Judea and Samaria would lead to anything different than what resulted from the opportunity for peace provided when Israelis left Gaza? As stated, to posit that the creation of the state of Israel is at the core of all mideast ongoing conflicts is so far removed from reality that it can only suggest antisemitism at its foundation.
They should call the sequel, Gaza 2.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/12/israel-hamas-war-latest-news-two-israeli-hostages-rescued/
Call me Dave, our unelected Foreign Secretary has issued another warning to Israel, while a selection of western leaders expresses concern.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/02/11/west-appeasement-anti-israel-threatens-hand-victory-hamas/
While Pakistan and Iran are falling out, while Pakistan deports Afghans and returns them to the Taliban, while ISIS bombs a Shi'ite ceremony in Iran and Saudi Arabia apparently plans to proceed with the beheading of 2 teenagers, the Sound of Silence prevails amongst the Commentariat,now exclusively focussed on Israel's move into Rafah and the need for a 2 state solution.
According to the TOI, POTUS, now in an obvious decline into senility, apparently described Netanyahu as an 'asshole'; however, same POTUS confused Egypt's President al Sissi with Mexico's leader:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68257586
https://babylonbee.com/news/man-ruled-too-senile-to-stand-trial-still-fine-to-run-country
Well stated Mr Oren. Unfortunately, Jews as scapegoats is something that seems impossible to fix
Scapegoats don't normally walk south a 1000 miles and over the course of a century continue to insist that just one more pile of dead Arabs will bring utopia
It is in the human DNA.
It's worth noting here that the worst conflicts in the middle east - the Syria, Yemen and Libyan civil wars, the Iran/Iraq war, etc - all had nothing to do with Israel.
After 76 years as a nation Israel remains Putin-dependent for its existence in the M East. That's a liability for the usa
Mr. Oren whenever I see you interviewed on TV ....and a counter point from an Arab academician or politician the rebuttal is that Israel violence against Arabs is unchallenged, unpunished and in fact rewarded. That any citing of "fanatic" Arab voice is matched by Ben Gvir and Smotrich. I don't see any willingness from the Arabs to fully acknowledge the atrocities of Oct. 7th let alone the rest of the history of rejection you outline. And that is double on college campuses where the young people of the sjp and their lackeys reject even talking to other American Jewish students unless they violently renounce Israel. In short....you are kind to ignore most of Mr. Friedman's Biden Doctrine which is a rehash of Oslo. And I don't know where we go in the aftermath of this war once hamas capacity to rule there is destroyed...eliminated....and not to return even if they rebase themselves in Tunis.
A Jewish state, not really. No non-Israeli Jew is to be pressured into Zionism.
No Jew outside Palestine will have any political tie with, or obligation to a Jewish Palestine was the promise, 1919.
Why does no one ever address the original two-state solution, the only one that has ever worked and that is still working: namely, JORDAN?
More idiotic loop tape
A despicable person by the name of "Zog" has infiltrated your respectable blog Michael. A Nazi I would say by his comments.
I think the real linkage is Islam.
The linkage confirms what Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad and the Iranian mullahs have known all along: that the only way to rid the world of the Jewish state is to first rid the Jewish state of Jews.
Two state solution is now a purely political talking point. Nothing more. Great piece.
So President Obama chose to ask God for a “two state solution” even before asking for a cure for cancer, global hunger, global warming, etc., Why?
Two theories
1. President Obama’s highest strategic priority — ahead of all other domestic or international considerations — was Middle East Peace and he mistakenly “linked” its achievements with a “two state solution”.
2. President Obama’s highest moral priority was to atone for his nation’s original sin — I.e., the complete displacement of its indigenous American Indian population (otherwise known as “Settler Colonialism”).
How would a two state solution in Palestine atone for the displacement of indigenous American Indians two centuries earlier?
Because America repeated this sin in 1948, by supporting the displacement of another indigenous population— this time the indigenous Arabs from is homeland in Palestine
Why not atone for our original sin (Settler Colonialism in North America) by faithfully relinquishing our more recent one (supporting Settle Colonialism in Palestine) ? So what if the Jews are unhappy, we shouldn’t have helped them in the first place!!!
Given Obama’s credentials— as a member in good standing among the liberal elite - I find the second theory more persuasive.
If so, nothing should worry us more than a Michele Obama Presidential nomination at the Democratic Convention (even aside from payback for Netanyahu’s fatally shortsighted address to Congress in opposition to President Obama’s Iran initiative).
Just as the cost for our African American atonement continues to escalate — from “equality” to “equity” to “reparations” — so too will Israel’s cost of atonement inevitably escalate from “two equal states” to “from river to sea”.
https://johnhardman.substack.com/p/atonement
For near twenty years, Netanyahu tried to promulgate the notion that the conflict with the Palestinians can be circumvented and Israel can enjoy "start-up nation" and normalization with Arab states. That approach yielded Oct 7. Cut it any way you want, new thinking is needed. Until a just solution is found for two peoples to have national expression on the same piece of real estate, there will not be peace between the river and the sea.
Agreed wholeheartedly. What can/should be done, in real politics, to move away from this linkage and bring some resolution? Micha Goodman in his book, Catch 67, provides one answer. What would yours be (realistic, actionable, attainable within 10 years)?
You just cannot at the same time commit genocide and claim you are the victim. Nope
By 1900ad %90 of the world's Jews were native to Europe.
Excellent piece - I wish the world would look at simple facts and actually absorb what is so clear - the two state solution is dead.
If two state solution is dead, what comes next? Expel Arabs from River to Sea? One State from River to Sea with equal rights for all inhabitants? Status quo — pretend and extend “peace process” - with no he Axis of Resistance repeatedly launching October 7th attacks from ever more powerful proxies?
And what happens when the progressive left eventually returns to power in Washington? Will there be a new form of “linkage” — foreign aid to Israel linked to a two state solution (or even worse, one state from river to sea with equal rights and voting power to all)? Is Israel the next Ukraine — begging for military aid while being bled to death?
The eternal truth of anti-semitism was already revealed in the very first Rashi in the Torah. The eternal truth that the Arabs would never accept a Jewish State in Palestine was already revealed by Jabotinsky in 1920. That’s why the May 12, 1948 vote to declare the Jewish State passed by only one vote.
I don’t think God wants us to complain about these eternal truths. Instead He expects us to make difficult choices in light of these eternal truths.