Member-only story
Bad idea. But our president proposed it yesterday, very pleased with himself, as if he had finally found the magic key to success in the area.
Netanyahu, who stood alongside Trump, seemed delighted. The idea had the potential of changing history in the Middle East, he said.
As the saying goes, what is our President smoking?
It would be us meddling in the process of a people’s quest to self determination, a bloody affair that has been going on for a very long time.
He should ask the British, who tried before and regretted it.
Additionally, we do not have a good track record of assisting others with nation building. We didn’t do it in Iraq and didn’t do it in Afghanistan.
The idea is superficially attractive. Who wouldn’t want Palestinians to be a peace loving people with a commitment to developing their possibilities?
But year in and year out, it doesn’t happen.
In this most recent war (2023), Hamas showed its cruelty, crossing the border with Israel, killing over a thousand Israelis, taking a few hundred hostage, and then running back to hide in tunnels they’d built under Gaza while their brothers and sisters were left to endure the retaliatory bombing from Israel.
Altogether, nearly 50 thousand Palestinians died as a result.
Finally, a truce has been agreed to, with hostages being released, a few at a time, in exchange for many more Palestinians serving time in Israeli prisons.
So the wars between Israel and Palestinians…
