Pressure is building for recognition of a Palestinian state

[moniss]

11. That is precisely why they are needed

is because it is not "taking sides". That buffer has worked very well in the Sinai for a long time now. The UN is never going to get Russia to back off the veto in the Security Council for their attack of Ukraine. I think that the SC will look at the Israel/West Bank issue differently enough to make it possible. It serves none of the major powers for the Middle East to explode over the West Bank. The alliances and repercussions could escalate very quickly beyond any ability to easily pull back by various parties. The limiting of effectiveness/withdrawal of factions hostile to each other in the West Bank is imperative. It is a rapidly building powder keg right now. The "international force/presence" concurrent with actions of recognition may be our best hope to get to meaningful elections/governance in the West Bank. It may fail but the alternatives are worse.

So if we go as we have been with more and more settlements, more and more hostility between parties and more and more ineffective leadership it will not fail to explode over and over and likely escalate.

The idea of a one state solution doesn't work for all manner of reasons discussed at length over the years. So we have to try something different or we keep heading toward disastrous events for all concerned.