Aaron David Miller on CNN, wisely advising against a reoccupation of Gaza, but offering this [adjective to be supplied later] statement:
probably try to nurture quietly the very productive discussion that
have been taking place between the president of the Palestinian
authority, Mahmoud Abbas, and the next prime minister of Israel. Of course, we have elections in Israel on February 10th."
I'd note that Miller is from an old Zionist family. I know that he has been a largely-fair influence in the unending peace process, once saying that the Camp David team under Clinton acted as "Israel's lawyer," but I have at times questioned the vantage point from which he sees the world. In his recent paper on Gandhi and nonviolence in the occupied territories, Norman Finkelstein said that we must get past the question, Are you now or have you ever been a Zionist? Norman, I think this is an utterly legitimate question. To get past it, must we not first ask it? Don't Americans who want a balanced policy in the Middle East have a right to know whether someone is an Arabist, a Zionist, an anti-Zionist etc?
