Here is the key excerpt from what he wrote today
"As for Newt, well, let’s see: If the 2.5 million West Bank Palestinians are not a real people entitled to their own state, that must mean Israel is entitled to permanently occupy the West Bank and that must mean — as far as Newt is concerned — that Israel’s choices are: 1) to permanently deprive the West Bank Palestinians of Israeli citizenship and put Israel on the road to apartheid; 2) to evict the West Bank Palestinians through ethnic cleansing and put Israel on the road to the International Criminal Court in the Hague; or 3) to treat the Palestinians in the West Bank as citizens, just like Israeli Arabs, and lay the foundation for Israel to become a binational state. And this is called being “pro-Israel”?"
I have never written about #3 because I don't see Israel going that way. Following Path #1 or #2 is where I fear conservatives in both the Israel and the U.S. will go when the only reasonable path to a permanent peace is a 2 state solution. Now I don't expect a 2 state solution to bring peace immediately. But what I do expect is after the Palestinians have their state and Israel has to invade it on a temporary basis to get rid of terrorist activity, eventually the people will hold their Palestinian leaders responsible for the lack of peace and the Palestine Government will start to act like one. Then peace will be possible. But until then, the Palestinian leadership cannot control the terrorists because there is too much acceptance of the terrorists within the Palestinian population.
Go to the NY Times.com to find Freidman's full column where he discusses how secular American Jews like myself are losing our connection to Israel. Growing up I knew I had distant relatives somewhere in Russia, Hungary or parts in between and I knew that they had not likely survived German occupation in WWII. So to me, Israel's foundation was always just and appropriate. But Jews have survived all over the world through time by remaining true to their religion while adapting to the environment around them. Israel's conservatives and their U.S. supporters have forgotten this. Israel can only survive as an honorable Jewish State if they remember this.
The Palestinians have receiveds hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for decades. They could have built schools, hospitals and an infrastructure. They could have built a future. Instead they bought weapons with which to attack the Jews. They are their own enemy.
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