[Salon] Saudi Arabia and Jordan Know the Key to Peace, but Does Israel?

[Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com>]

FM: John Whitbeck

Transmitted below is today's lead editorial in HAARETZ.

While generally reflecting obvious common sense, recognized as such by the overwhelming majority of governments and peoples, this editorial goes bizarrely off the rails by arguing that "the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel" would strengthen the "anti-Iranian axis".

If a future Israeli government were to withdraw from essentially all the territory of the occupied State of Palestine, subject only to agreed land swaps and a creative solution for sharing Jerusalem, there would be neither any reason nor any likelihood that any future Iranian government would continue to view Israel with threatening hostility and hence no need, even in rational Israeli or American eyes, for any "anti-Iranian axis" to exist.

Of course, one must admit that rationality does not always govern international relations, as evidenced by the "enemy-deprivation syndrome" which caused the U.S. government to spurn Russia's naïve interest, in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, in creating a European space in which no country felt threatened by itself joining NATO, an alliance which, without Russia as an enemy, would have had no continuing reason or excuse to exist.

Some countries feel a virtually existential need for enemies, going out of their way to create them when they cannot otherwise find them, and it has long been recognized that Israel's Jewish population, comprised of people from many different countries and cultures and adhering to widely different interpretations of Judaism or none at all, has little in common except their common enemies, so that a genuine peace and an absence of enemies would risk unleashing intrinsic internal hostilities which have until now been constrained and producing an existential fracturing of their society.

Perhaps even the estimable editors of HAARETZ cannot imagine "life in a country at peace with its neighbors" and instinctively fear the potential risks and consequences of "enemy-deprivation syndrome" for Israeli society.

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2024-10-07/ty-article-opinion/saudi-arabia-and-jordan-know-the-key-to-peace-but-does-israel/00000192-6380-d340-afb6-73a4884c0000

Saudi Arabia and Jordan Know the Key to Peace, but Does Israel?

Even, especially, on October 7 – moderate Israelis must remind everyone that the road to peace in the Middle East and to strengthening the anti-Iranian axis runs through the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Haaretz Editorial

Oct 7, 2024

Memorial events for October 7 will take place throughout the country on Monday. This will happen even though the war that erupted on that day, following a murderous attack by Hamas terrorists, is still at its height.

These memorial events will take place even as Israel is still led by the same irresponsible government on whose watch the catastrophe of October 7 occurred. And that government is headed by the same man who has steered the country for the last 15 years (aside from one year) and is the chief culprit for what happened to the country and its citizens.

This leadership doesn't offer a single message of hope and is incapable even of imagining a sustainable vision for life in a country living at peace with its neighbors.

Without a diplomatic vision, it will be impossible to end the war. Without solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel will be entangled time after time in security problems that will end only in more blood, death and memorial days.

But while there is no good news coming from Jerusalem, in the Arab world, there actually are people who insist on talking about the future. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan wrote in an op-ed for the Financial Times that "true security for Israel will come from recognizing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. By embracing a solution that allows both peoples to coexist in peace, we can dismantle the cycle of violence that has entrapped both sides for far too long."

He also stressed that "the voices of moderation must rise above the din of conflict, and it is our collective responsibility to ensure that they are heard."

Bin Farhan's comments come on top of those of Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi. At a press conference during the UN General Assembly, following a joint declaration by representatives of the Arab states, Safadi said that "all of us are willing to guarantee the security of Israel in the context of Israel ending the occupation and allowing for the emergence of a Palestinian state."

He then asked a question that nobody in Israel would be able to answer: "Can you ask Israeli officials what is their end game, other than just wars and wars and wars?"

Israeli moderates must join forces with the moderates of the Arab world to remind everyone – even on October 7, especially on October 7 – that the road to peace in the Middle East and to strengthening the anti-Iranian axis runs through the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Israel must work shoulder to shoulder with its allies, first and foremost the United States, both in fighting the war and in diplomacy. This is also the only way to ensure that a disaster like that of last October 7 never recurs.

The above article is Haaretz's lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.

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