02-07-2020, 03:48 PM
(02-05-2020, 11:00 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: I found what he said about Israel's strategy to be quite
startling. It described a major change in strategy by Israel's
leadership that occurred 15 years ago:
Very interesting article. I remember concluding to myself at the time that peace between Israel and the Palestinians was not going to happen, after Israel had rejected negotiations with Hamas and it became clear that the PLO was structurally unable to make commitments that would be needed for peace, even if they had wanted to. However, I don't remember articulation of a change in Israeli policy.
Quote:One more memory -- 2005 was the year when Israel withdrew from Gaza
and turned it over to the Palestinians as a gesture of peace,
something it now regrets. The was perhaps the last major decision of
Israel's Unraveling era, prior to the beginning of the Crisis era, and
the disastrous 2006 invasion of Lebanon.
That's not how I remember it. Israel was sustaining politically untenable casualties trying to maintain occupation of Gaza, and they were also killing politically untenable numbers of Palestinians there. Israel had to withdraw or they would have faced isolation, even from the US, which was not something they could sustain; it was hardly a voluntary gesture of peace. And in retrospect, it has worked out well for Israel, resulting in much reduced violence since they were able to put up effective border barriers.
Quote:Which brings us back to Trump's "Peace to Prosperity" peace plan,
presented by Trump to Netanyahu in the White House last week.
Netanyahu didn't lecture Trump the way he had lectured Obama.
Instead, he was grinning broadly the whole time, and seemed to
be enjoying the joke. Did Trump get the joke? Had Trump
gotten the memo?
I think Netanyahu was grinning for two reasons. First, the proposal was something Israel could accept, were it to become reality. Second and more importantly, Netanyahu knew, just as you point out, that there is no way the Palestinians would ever accept it. He gets all the credit for being nice and reasonable and offering a workable peace plan, without the danger of having to live with it.
