Israel Is Losing Its Greatest Asset: Acceptance

[applegrove]

OPINION
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Israel Is Losing Its Greatest Asset: Acceptance
Feb. 27, 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/27/opinion/israel-gaza-peace-thomas-friedman.html

"SNIP..........

Still so traumatized by Oct. 7, Israelis, in my view, are failing to see that at least making an effort to move slowly toward a Palestinian state led by a transformed Palestinian Authority and conditioned on demilitarization and hitting certain institutional governance goals is not a gift to Palestinians or a reward for Hamas.

..............

It is losing the global narrative that it is fighting a just war. It has no plan to ever get out of Gaza, so it will eventually sink into the sands there with a permanent occupation that will surely complicate relations with all its Arab allies and friends across the globe. And it is losing regionally to Iran and its anti-Israel proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, who are pressuring Israel’s northern, southern and eastern borders.

There is one fix that would help on all three fronts: an Israeli government prepared to begin the process of building two nation-states for two peoples, with a Palestinian Authority that is truly ready and willing to transform itself. That changes the narrative. It gives cover for Israel’s Arab allies to partner with Israel in rebuilding Gaza, and it provides the glue for the regional alliance Israel needs to confront Iran and its proxies.

In failing to see that, I believe Israel is imperiling decades of diplomacy to get the world to recognize the right of the Jewish people to national self-determination and self-defense in their historic homeland. It is also relieving Palestinians of the burden and depriving them of the opportunity of recognizing two nation-states for two people and building the necessary institutions and compromises to make that happen. And, I repeat, it is going to put the Biden administration in an increasingly untenable position.

And it is making Iran’s day.

........SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. And more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/27/opinion/israel-gaza-peace-thomas-friedman.html

"SNIP...........

Netanyahu refuses to even consider trying to nurture a new relationship with non-Hamas Palestinians, because to do so would risk his prime minister’s chair, which depends on backing by hard-right Jewish supremacist parties who will never cede an inch of the West Bank. Hard to believe, but Netanyahu is ready to sacrifice Israel’s hard-won international legitimacy for his personal political needs. He will not hesitate to take Biden down with him.

..........SNIP"

[tritsofme]

3. Voters will remove Netanyahu at their first opportunity, but will a "revitalized" PA have the ability to govern Gaza?

The appointment by the PA of a technocratic government is a good first step, but Hamas, the government of Gaza, and an incredibly popular political movement among Palestinians, is just not going to disappear into the ether.

[applegrove]

4. I don't think they were so popular. Their leaders had billions

in "income" from foreign aid. People were happy they policed the gangs. Some liked them and went so far as be willing to be martyrs to the cause by staying behind as the bombing started. I saw a little girl call her dead family martyrs. That was the relationship between hamas and Palestinians. A one way street.

[TheKentuckian]

6. I'd say willing martyrs will more than pass for popularity

A fair sized segment of that zeal is more valuable than an actual majority especially when might has sway over right.

Regardless of exact flavor, terrorists get at least a plurality about every time.

[DFW]

2. If Friedman thinks that Netanyahu's ego will take Joe Biden down

Methinks the man doth blow too hard.

[applegrove]

5. Oh I think it is a warning to Biden.

[DFW]

8. Biden has been at this game far longer than Friedman has been writing op-ed pieces

I'm sure he has his people keeping a pulse on who is supporting whom, who was dancing in the streets after what horrors were perpetrated, where and by whom, etc. He knows that neither Tlaib nor Netanyahu are his friends, and just where their support lies, and where it doesn't. I'm not involved with his campaign at all, but I was involved with Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, and guys like David Simas were keeping their eyes and ears on everything. He put it "we will be tearing our hair out, so that the rest of you don't have to." I'm quite sure Biden's staff is doing the same. Any "warnings" sent their way will probably only be repetitions of things they had heard long before.

[applegrove]

9. Great insight. I know Biden in very strategic as are

the people around him.

[Nanjeanne]

7. This right here...

So the whole Israel-Gaza operation is starting to look to more and more people like a human meat grinder whose only goal is to reduce the population so that Israel can control it more easily.