Steve Walt has a good post on the Friedman piece showing that Tom Friedman is misrepresenting Israeli society as being torn between pragmatic options re the territories, when in fact Israeli government is prey to the radical settler bloc–70,000 settlers having moved into the territories since Camp David. On Brian Lehrer today, WNYC, Lehrer interviewed Martin Indyk as if he were some sage on the matter, and they agreed that Camp David was a just solution and the Palestinians had rejected it, and many Palestinians "now regret that," Lehrer said. This is a highly pro-Israel narrative that leaves out the inherent expansionism of Israel. How can the Israelis claim to have good faith about a two-state solution when they continue to push the wall on the fragment of Palestine left to the Palestinians? Even Bob Simon of CBS has acknowledged that the settler project has now all but destroyed the two-state solution. It would be nice if more Palestinians were included in the conversation. It's their denial of sovereignty that has been the issue here forever. Americans have got to stop speaking for their interests and let them speak for themselves.
I also recommend Walt's analysis of Hillary's testimony yesterday. Last night the great Chris Matthews was gushing that Hillary gave a tour d'horizon and showed mastery of foreign policy. As Walt shows, where's the mastery in saying that we have to have priorities, then filling the blackboard with international problems and not establishing any priority? It's Israel/Palestinian avoidance syndrome.
