A politician knows that all they have to do is say that they are for Israel, and against the Palestinians, and they will be deemed a "staunch supporter" of Israel and the campaign money will flow their way.
supporting the status quo is
- the path of least resistanceit
- is also the one that only adds to Israel's security problems--
- and America's declining strategic position in the Middle East.
The (Bush) eight years
- some of the bloodiest in Israel's history.
- A second intifada took over a thousand Israeli lives (and three times as many Palestinians)
- U.S. demand for elections in the West Bank and Gaza brought Hamas to power.
- With the United States abandoning the role of Middle East "honest broker," Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were intermittent and fruitless.
- Today, in the summer of 2008, Israelis see a new frightening form of terrorism manifested by two attacks by bulldozer in the streets of Jerusalem.
- the utter destabilization produced by the Iraq War, which has moved Iraq into Iran's orbit, facilitating Iranian trouble-making and making it more of a threat to Israel than ever before.
mainstream Israelis and Palestinians are almost in full agreement about what peace will look like. If George W. Bush can repeatedly endorse "two states, living side by side in peace and security," his successor can make it happen.
M.J. Rosenberg is Director of Policy for Israel Policy Forum, an organization supporting US efforts to advance an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. Previously, he worked on Capitol Hill for various Democratic members of the House and Senate for 15 years. He was also a Clinton political appointee at USAID. In the early 1980s, he was editor of AIPACs weekly newsletter Near East Report.
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