In a recent Foreign Affairs article, veteran U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross effectively presented the Biden administration’s “vision” for the resolution of the Gaza crisis in the guise of an objective analysis. The title said it all: “Israel Needs a New Strategy: Total victory is not possible—but demilitarizing Hamas and stabilizing Gaza still are.”
In his article, Ross assumes that Hamas cannot be entirely destroyed (“ideologies live on,” etc.); that a somehow “reformed” Palestinian Authority has a key role to play in a revived “two-state solution”; and that “humanitarian” relief and a “ceasefire” will facilitate both peace and financial support for reconstruction from the likes of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Despite several sympathetic references to Hamas-caused suffering, Ross’s article by and large assumes that Israel’s post-Oct.7 determination to destroy Hamas root and branch is extremist. This dubious claim has already been proclaimed in Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s recent, remarkable demand that Israel hold new elections in the midst of an existential war and depose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the democratically elected leader of a long-time U.S. ally.
Ross’s apparent mindset was best expressed by President Joe Biden’s rather tasteless offhand remark after his recent State of the Union address: That Netanyahu must have a “come to Jesus” moment. Biden’s “Jesus” appears to involve his threats to refer allegedly violent Israeli “settlers” to the International Criminal Court; his decision to rescind former President Donald Trump’s recognition of the legality of Israeli settlements; and his proposed “red line” on a Rafah operation, authorization of parachute-dropped supplies soon to be stolen by Hamas and proposal to build an artificial port for Gaza.
These actions, along with Schumer’s explicit break with Israel and Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Chamberlain-style scramble to hold regional “consultations,” culminated in the U.S.’s recent support for a U.N. Security Council ceasefire resolution that failed to demand that Hamas release its hostages. All of this appears to express a policy sea change following strong initial support for Israel.
The administration appears unconcerned about its policies’ inevitable outcome. For Israel, they are a recipe for a repeat of the Oct. 7 atrocities, as Hamas leaders have promised. Instead of admitting to this obvious fact, the administration treats Israel like a dependent client state; or, as Netanyahu put it, a “banana republic.”
This is much in contrast with the administration and the international community’s insistent “humanitarian” concerns for the Palestinians. They appear uninterested in the fact that the Palestinians voted Hamas into power, backed the Oct. 7 massacre and continue to overwhelmingly approve of it.
In addition, both Ross and the administration ignore alternative post-war “solutions” to the conflict. One, for which there is much sympathy in Israel, is simple: direct Israeli control of Gaza.
A variation on this that avoids direct Israeli rule envisions Palestinian civil autonomy while Israel maintains security control of Gaza. This would be similar to the milliyet structure used by the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the area successfully for centuries. It would involve decentralized Palestinian Arab administrative associations in local villages and urban regions. These self-governing entities would be headed by leading families and clans. Overall security and secure borders would be ensured by the IDF.
Such solutions would be widely supported by Israelis. As for the Biden administration’s “two-state solution,” Israelis know that Hamas’s seizure of power in Gaza led directly to Oct. 7 and that creating an unstable Arab state run by the inept Palestinian Authority would inevitably lead to another Islamist takeover, whether by Hamas or a similar terror group. Israelis from across the political spectrum now agree that this is unthinkable. This leads to a simple deduction: The creation of a sovereign “Palestinian” state is an existential threat and must not be facilitated.
Moreover, the truth is that the only supporters of a “two-state solution” are Western governments. Judging by their previous actions, the Palestinians themselves do not want it. The P.A. has rejected a “two-state solution” many times, while Hamas rejects the idea in favor of genocide followed by the establishment of an Islamist caliphate presumably led by Iran.
The Biden administration and its acolytes seem not to have learned a key lesson, taught to Jews and Israel after the Holocaust and now again by 1,200 massacred victims, 250 hostages and over 300 fallen IDF soldiers: Never again. Given this, along with the repulsive revival of crude pro-terrorist antisemitism at the U.N. in the E.U. and the “international community,” and now on our campuses and streets, the real “come to Jesus” moment is surely not for Israel, but for Joe Biden himself.
{Reposted from JNS}
