"Netanyahu's address to the U.S. Congress, no less than Congress's reaction to that speech, effectively buried the Middle East peace process for good. For what America's solons were jumping up and down to applaud so wildly as they pandered pathetically to the Israel lobby was Netanyahu's rejection of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, thus endorsing his determination to maintain permanently Israel's colonial project in the West Bank.
If Netanyahu succeeds in his objective, these members of Congress will be able to take credit for an Israeli apartheid regime that former Prime Ministers Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Ehud Olmert predicted would be the inescapable consequence of policies the congressmen cheered and promised to continue to support as generously as they have in the past." Henry Siegman
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Henry Siegman is a good man who has labored in many vinyards in pursuit of justice. I have known him for a long time. His persistent pursuit of a two state solution is rooted not only in a wish to see "tikun olam" (a better world) but also in a belief that Israel cannot, in the long run, survive with a large subject Arab population. Since he does not believe that they can or should be expelled from "Eretz Israel," he long ago reached the solution that the map must be re-drawn to put them outside Israel's borders.
There have always been flaws n his theory of "the solution." One of them is the sad problem that neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians are really resigned to the idea of the other side as co-occupants of historic and geographic Palestine. This results in a constant effort to "out-play" the other side. In other words, what we are really seeing on the surface of things is posturing while below the surface all is mere "tactics." Another problem for Henry's view is that there are vitually no Palestinian Arabs, whether in the occupied territories, in the diaspora, nor among the Israeli Arabs who harbor any good will for Israel or Israeli Jews. Druze, and the handful of Negev Beduin in the IDF? These are not large groups. They do not affect the situation. Basically, Israel has no Arab friends, especially among the Palestinians. This never boded well for agreements that could be seen as fair by both sides an the situation has not improved.
The Arab/Israeli confrontation is a catstrophe without end, a catastrophe in which the United States has been trapped by ruthless people who shrink from nothing to attain their goals. pl
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/06/08/what_have_obama_and_netanyahu_wrought
