Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Friedman: Egyptian Situation Creates Perilous Time for Israel

But also, he believes, one presenting a window of opportunity to make a deal with the Palestinians and ensure peace:

To put it bluntly, if Israelis tell themselves that Egypt’s unrest proves why Israel cannot make peace with the Palestinian Authority, then they will be talking themselves into becoming an apartheid state — they will be talking themselves into permanently absorbing the West Bank and thereby laying the seeds for an Arab majority ruled by a Jewish minority between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

There's a window of opportunity also for President Obama, he believes:

I had given up on Netanyahu’s cabinet and urged the U.S. to walk away. But that was B.E. — Before Egypt. Today, I believe President Obama should put his own peace plan on the table, bridging the Israeli and Palestinian positions, and demand that the two sides negotiate on it without any preconditions. It is vital for Israel’s future — at a time when there is already a global campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state — that it disentangle itself from the Arabs’ story as much as possible. There is a huge storm coming, Israel. Get out of the way.

Read the whole thing and then tell me what you think.

1 comment:

Soccer Dad said...

It would be more convincing if Friedman was actually honest about what was going on. In 2000 and 2008 Israel made offers that were rejected by Arafat and Abbas, respectively. It has been Abbas who has refused to sit down with Netanyahu without preconditions. Friedman has always believed that Israel is the primary obstacle to peace. No number of facts will disanbuse of this.
Finally, given the ease with which Hamas took over Gaza is Israel really in a position to risk having its airport in Qassam range?