Now that Hamas is attacking as never before with someone—or several entities—funding them, the least anyone should say is rest in peace “two-state solution” to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
It was never really about peace anyway, although I and millions of others believed and wished that it was.
Just ask former Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat what he was really thinking when he shook hands with President Bill Clinton on the White House lawn those many years ago in celebration of the Oslo Accords.
Well, I guess you can’t, but I imagine what was most on the deceased terrorist’s mind was continuing the payouts for his wife’s lavish lifestyle at Paris’s Hotel Bristol, not to mention preserving his own life so he wouldn’t end up assassinated like Anwar Sadat after the Egyptian president made peace with Israel.
The terrorist leader, who has been blamed for the Munich Olympic slayings (although not by Steven Spielberg in his obfuscating film), also wouldn’t have been surprised by what’s going on today—long after Israel returned Gaza to the Palestinians and his own PLO was violently smashed by Hamas, who then took over the territory—with Hamas now waging war to an extent never thought possible.
“Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas!” and “From the desert to the sea, Palestine will be free!” are just two of the favorite slogans of this terror organization the Associated Press prefers to refer to euphemistically as a group of “militants.”
Does that sound like a group eager for a “two-state solution”?
These “militants” just invaded another country and have taken hostages, knowing full well the lengths, beyond any country I can think of, that Israel will go to bring back their own.
Who’s to blame?
Fingers are pointing at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the vaunted Mossad for not having anticipated this disaster, which, also as of this writing, numbers more than 200 Israelis dead and 1,000 injured, figures that are highly likely to grow, as will the Palestinian numbers because Hamas is well known to hide its missile installations in hospitals and schools. Fatalities, especially children, are then used against Israel in the obedient press.
And, indeed, Israel has been in the midst of a rather all-encompassing internal political dispute over its judicial system that undoubtedly kept its eye off the proverbial ball. That appears to be over for the moment.
But it’s almost too easy to see where the true impetus has been coming from—the Jewish nation’s greatest enemy and Hamas’s greatest financial benefactor, Iran.
It also isn’t coincidental that, less than a month ago, as part of a prisoner exchange, the Biden administration agreed to give Tehran access to $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds.
What was that money for?
Considering that Iran is a religious dictatorship and has been found to be lying numerous times, it’s hard to conceive that even Mr. Blinken could believe this. One wonders what he’s thinking now.
The Biden administration also didn’t cover itself in glory when it immediately called for “restraint on both sides” after Hamas initiated its actions. Russia, ironically, of all countries, did exactly the same thing.
Realizing, or being told, that the “optics” weren’t terrific, our administration quickly switched course with President Biden assuring Mr. Netanyahu of his support for Israel’s right to self-defense.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is criticizing Israel for somehow “provoking” the Hamas attacks, causing some to wonder if interdicting the much-rumored Israeli–Saudi rapprochement is part of what instigated this war.
Whatever the case, we’re left with the question—what next?
Many in Israel, with justification, are calling for using this invasion as a reason to finally “put paid” to Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Islamic Republic of Iran once and for all.
It has been said that, during his administration, President Barack Obama prevented Mr. Netanyahu from carrying out an attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.
Since then, Iran’s support for its cut-outs—Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and yet more importantly Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon—has only increased.
Imagine if Hezbollah, on orders from its masters in Tehran, decides it’s time to take action from its side while Hamas continues its work.
The conflagration will be extraordinary with the chance that most of the world will be drawn in. And then what? Will Israel still be the villain as it is so often at the United Nations?
“The Jews are a peculiar people: Things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.
“Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people, and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it. Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks and Algeria a million Frenchmen. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese—and no one says a word about refugees.
“But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace.
