The terror of the 2-state ‘solution’
IT’S amazing how long bad ideas take to die. That’s certainly the case with one of the least successful ideas in the world. The idea of the two-state solution in the Middle East.
How do we know it is unsuccessful? Because it has been tried for decades and never works.
Generations of US presidents have wasted energy on the idea. All based on a falsehood. Which is the idea that a two-state solution would “unlock the problems” of the Middle East. In this song — sung by Republicans and Democrats alike — if the Palestinian people had another state, then all the other problems of the Middle East would be solved. The economy of Yemen would suddenly boom. The ayatollahs in Iran would suddenly grant equal rights to women. There’d be gay pride in Saudi Arabia.
It is a fairy tale, of course. None of the rest of the Arab world gives a damn about the Palestinians. Most actively hate them — seeing them as bringing terror wherever they go (as the Palestinians did when they went to Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon — to name just a few).
Refusing their own state
Besides which, the Palestinians doggedly refused a state every time they were offered one. They refused in 1948 and every other time right up to 2000. Then, in 2005, the Israelis effectively gifted the Palestinians a state in Gaza, when the Israeli government forced every Jew out of the area and handed the strip over to the Palestinians.
And what did the Palestinians do with their new state? Well, they voted in Hamas, who then had a coup and spent 18 years taking US taxpayer dollars to build a terror state from which they invaded Israel again last year.
After Oct. 7, who on earth could believe it’s a good idea for the Palestinians to be given another state? Well, our government, for one. Ever since the atrocities of 10/7, President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have been insisting that now is just the time to “double down” on the two-state solution. It’s like watching an alcoholic trying to recover from a hangover by having the first drink of the morning.
Within a month of the October attacks, Biden wrote a piece in The Washington Post in which he said: “As we strive for peace, Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution.”
But why? Why after Palestinians had carried out the most brutal day of terror since the creation of the state of Israel should they be rewarded with a state? And why should it be governed by the Palestinian Authority?
A corrupt entity
The PA is about as likely to be “revitalized” as is Biden. It is a totally corrupt entity, which siphons off international funds to impoverish the Palestinian people and make the leadership rich.
It is led by 88-year old Mahmoud Abbas, whose “four-year” term in office started in 2005. Eagle-eyed readers will notice that this means
Abbas is currently approaching the 20th anniversary of his “four-year” term.
One reason is that if there were elections in the West Bank today, Hamas would win. Because the Palestinians in the West Bank are as supportive of Hamas as are the Palestinians in Gaza. And like Hamas, they satisfy their desire for violence by using international funds to reward the families of Palestinians who kill Jews in acts of terror. This payment scheme increases depending on the number of Jews you’ve killed. Nice “partner for peace” right there.
Does Biden not know this? It appears not. In November, Biden said, “We need to renew our resolve to pursue this two-state solution. Two states for two peoples. It’s more important now than ever.”
His secretary of state is just as bad, singing the same outdated refrain.
On Oct. 8 — as terrorists were still running wild across the south of Israel — Blinken told CBS, “We think the best way to resolve [the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] remains a two-state solution.”
A month later, he could be found claiming that a two-state solution was “the only way to end a cycle of violence.”
By the time he was in Davos in January, Blinken was telling The New York Times that creating a Palestinian state would solve all the problems of the region, including (bizarrely) regional instability caused by Iran. By the end of January, Blinken was reported to have ordered the State Department to review options for American recognition of a Palestinian state.
Blinken’s warm-up act
In recent weeks, Blinken has been sending out his British counterpart — Lord Cameron — to advocate for the creation of a Palestinian state. He was doing it in Washington this week. Cameron is clearly acting as Blinken’s warm-up act. Blinken recently boasted that he was in Ramallah with Abbas “to reiterate US support for reforming the PA and establishing an independent Palestinian state.”
But such a policy is an embarrassment.
As Israeli politicians of left, right and center have told me in recent months, even if you believe the Palestinians should be given another state, now is not the time to discuss it. To push for a two-state solution now is to say to the Palestinians, “You carried out a horrific terror attack on October 7th, and as a reward you will be given another state.”
I wonder how many more terror attacks will come about by incentivizing terror in this way?
But the other reason why it is so wicked is that since 2005 we know what a Palestinian state in the West Bank would look like. It would not just be one more failed Arab state. It would be another Palestinian terror state. One that had views over the entirety of Israel and where the rockets could this time easily hit Tel Aviv, Haifa and Ben Gurion Airport.
So long as the Palestinians celebrate terror, encourage terror and pay for terror, they should not have another state.
Two states? It’s not a solution. It’s part of the problem.