It’s time for the US, and the rest of the international community to try something new in the Middle East
Either way, it’s equally disconcerting, from a variety of viewpoints. Especially after a weekend when tens of thousands of demonstrators jammed Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., Trafalgar Square in London, and public thoroughfares in Paris, Berlin, Rome, and even Montreal, waving Palestinian flags and shouting vile anti- Israel and anti-Semitic slogans. Israel’s grace period after the horrific Simchas Torah attacks is over. Jews feel unsafe wherever they live.
Blinken made it clear both in Tel Aviv, and in a visit with Arab leaders in Amman, that the US opposes a cease-fire that would give Hamas a chance to regroup. At the same time, he put the onus on Israel to facilitate humanitarian aid to Gaza civilians — the majority of which support Hamas’s genocidal goals. Blinken’s dogged insistence on clinging to a two-state solution that the Arabs have rejected on numerous occasions and in multiple formats over the last 100 years is a denial of history and a dangerous fantasy.
When Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address in 2015 and defended his decision to normalize relations with Cuba, he said: “In Cuba, we are ending a policy that was long past its expiration date. When what you’re doing doesn’t work for 50 years, it’s time to try something new.”
A hundred years is twice as long as 50. It’s time for the US, and the rest of the international community to try something new in the Middle East.
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