Charles Krauthammer has an excellent column in the Washington Post explaining the situation in the Middle East. It is brief, and hence misses many nuances I am sure, but it summarizes a lot of my own views about Israel.
If you grant that Israel has a right to exist (I do, but I am quite certain some of my friends do not), and if you grant Israel has a right and even an obligation to defend itself, then it is hard to blame just Israel for everything that happens there.
From Krauthammer,
I have news for the lowing herds: There would be no peace and no Palestinian state if Isaac Herzog were prime minister either. Or Ehud Barak or Ehud Olmert for that matter. The latter two were (non-Likud) prime ministers who offered the Palestinians their own state — with its capital in Jerusalem and every Israeli settlement in the new Palestine uprooted — only to be rudely rejected.
This is not ancient history. This is 2000, 2001 and 2008 — three astonishingly concessionary peace offers within the past 15 years. Every one rejected.
The fundamental reality remains: This generation of Palestinian leadership — from Yasser Arafat to Mahmoud Abbas — has never and will never sign its name to a final peace settlement dividing the land with a Jewish state.
But please, PLEASE read the entire column. It explains a lot of what lies behind my fairly strong pro-Israel views.
For my previous blog posts on Israel, click here.