What is Israel's future?

[Beastly Boy]

10. There was a reason why I didn't reply to the OP.

Last edited Mon Jan 31, 2022, 09:57 AM - Edit history (1)

I don't have the answer to the question raised in it. But I do have the answer to the issue you raised.

Israel has been subject to international condemnation of one sort or another, most consistently coming from the Arab states and Iran, for nearly its entire modern history, and this condemnation has been destructive rather than constructive for the prospects of a two-state solution as well as peace in the region generally. History repeatedly shows that condemnation alone is completely inadequate. On the other hand, Israel can not possibly be left to its own devices: it is self-evident that two parties are required to achieve a two state solution. If there were a second party willing to accept a two-state solution, we would have had two states in 1948. Or 1980. Instead, the Palestinians did not recognize Israel as a legitimate negotiating party until 1988, and the world (as represented by United Nations) didn't endorse a two state solution until 2000. Today, over 60% of the Palestinians in the West bank and Gaza still reject a two-state solution, and I am not even talking about Hamas, whose charter explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel.

if international condemnation is to take place, it would have to be directed at ALL the parties that resist a two state solution without discrimination, commensurate to the degree of resistance exhibited by those parties. This will require the end of singling Israel out for condemnation. Otherwise it will once again be a disingenuous proposition lacking any merit. But this is not nearly enough. In South Africa, it took the transformative determination of both DeKlerk and Mandella to end apartheid. While I can easily see Israel produce a DeKlerk figure (we've had Rabin, Barak and even Sharon as examples), I cannot conceive of the Palestinian leadership producing a Mandella figure to match, as long as they remain a pawn in the hands of the competing Shiah/Sunni regional powers using the Palestinians for their own gains without regard to the Paletinian people themselves.