Here’s Mort Zuckerman at US News & World Report saying that only Israel can defend its borders (wherever they are) and therefore we can’t have a two-state solution, and for security reasons the Palestinians must exist in political paralysis forever.
This is straight-up Israel lobby stuff (Kosovo and Tajikistan and Pakistan get a state, never the Palestinians) but what’s bizarre is Zuckerman’s casual derision for American military efforts in the region even as he applauds Israel’s efforts.
He says that in Lebanon, 1982, "a few hundred French and American service members" were killed in a failed U.N. effort. True, but weirdly cold; is there any acknowledgment of the importance of that event? 241 Americans died; Wikipedia says, "The attack remains the deadliest single attack on Americans overseas since World War II."
Also, notice Zuckerman’s casual reference to the "failure" of NATO troops in Afghanistan. I agree, it’s a failure. But the Israeli occupation is a roaring success? Zuckerman:
Paradoxically, the presence of U.N. forces creates an obstacle to Israel’s ability to defend itself, by itself. Look at what happened to the force that was dispatched to Lebanon in August 1982. The U.N. mission was made up of units from Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, but in October 1983 both the French paratrooper barracks and the U.S. Marine headquarters were attacked by Shiite suicide bombers, killing a few hundred French and American service members. Within a year, both forces withdrew from Lebanon, reflecting the reality that foreign forces will quickly leave the theater when attacked. The states that volunteer them soon lose political support for keeping them there.
…Israel must prepare for the possibility that even after agreements are signed, and a demilitarized Palestinian state is established, groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad would act in contravention and an international force would likely not take action. Iranian-backed rocket assaults against Israel would place its coastal plain in range and make Israel uninhabitable. And if U.N. forces were present on Palestinian territory, the Israeli army couldn’t open fire against the enemy without first verifying the location of the U.N. personnel. It would thus be even more difficult for Israel to act against terrorists.
There is an old saying: "Nobody ever washes a rental car." Only Israel would have the will to defend itself. When you think about the failure of NATO forces in Afghanistan, you have to wonder about the efficacy of NATO troops in this theater….
Israel has prudently maintained its uncompromising policy of disarming the terrorist infrastructure within and along its borders. But Israel’s success in this relies on high-quality, precise military intelligence, along with full freedom of operation to enter Palestinian city centers and villages to locate and destroy bomb-producing factories. This is the only way that Israel can deal with the asymmetrical threat of terrorist groups able to attack Israel at will.
Until this same kind of security is assured, the two-state solution is not a solution at all, but a dramatic escalation of risk.
