| Half a century ago, a famous Israeli diplomat came up with a line that has stuck to the Palestinians for decades thereafter. “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” quipped Abba Eban,
in an apparent dig at his Palestinian and Arab interlocutors’ refusal
to compromise with the Jewish state. At the beginning of this century,
amid the fits and starts of the peace process between the two sides, the
line was often invoked in Washington in criticism of Palestinian leaders’ unwillingness to relinquish some of their stubbornly held positions. Whatever
the merits of that view, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge
since the Oslo accords and failed talks at Camp David. Israeli security
concerns and de facto military rule override the civil rights of millions of Palestinians
living in the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, some 2 million Palestinians
have seen their lives plunged into a sprawling humanitarian calamity as
Israel wages its crushing war against militant group Hamas in the
aftermath of the shocking Oct. 7 terrorist strike on southern Israel.
Few in the Israeli political establishment are now invested in the project of forging peace
with the Palestinians; even fewer Israelis seem interested in affording
Palestinians self-determination or an independent state.
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That includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been in office longer than any other Israeli leader, prides himself on undermining the prospects of a “two-state” solution
and is now driving a war in Gaza that has flattened much of the tiny
Palestinian territory and killed tens of thousands of people. Amid a
growing domestic and international clamor for a cease-fire, Netanyahu’s
critics argue he would rather prolong the war to assuage his far-right
allies (and keep hold of power) than clinch a deal that stops
hostilities and frees the remaining hostages in Hamas captivity — that
he is, in other words, missing opportunities. “Netanyahu
is not willing to seize the opportunity to get Israelis out of a
literal hell until he can be sure that it will not immediately cost him
his premiership, yet in doing so, he may be costing more hostages their
lives,” wrote Michael Koplow of the Israel Policy Forum. “If ever there was a missed opportunity for which Netanyahu should be unreservedly condemned, this is it.” |