Commentary
In time-honored mainstream media fashion, the Associated Press does its best to downplay President Trump’s brokering a mutual recognition pact between Israel and the United Arab Emirates by calling it a “rare diplomatic win.”
(Hello, AP, have you missed that Trump is the first president in decades to negotiate successfully with Communist China, by far our most significant adversary?)
Nevertheless, this “win,” such as it is, could be of considerable importance not only to Israel but to the international community, the part of it, anyway, that is in favor of world peace.
The UAE will only be the third Arab state to recognize the Jewish state, but its decision is likely to inspire others that have long been on the fence, including major regional player Saudi Arabia.
In return for the agreement, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu had to put the annexation of certain disputed territories “on hold.” He used that term to placate his settler constituency though it is unclear how long the “hold” would obtain.
As upset with the deal as the settlers is the perpetually-choleric Palestinian Authority. What they are objecting to, however, is also unclear because preventing the annexation was supposedly exactly what they wanted.
Oh, well. Abba Eban told us long ago the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”
(For their parts, Hamas and Islamic Jihad unsurprisingly appear more concerned with their latest payments from Iran and, alas, Qatar than anything remotely to do with peace.)
Regarding territorial settlement, the Palestinians have always adamantly refused to have any Jewish enclaves exist within their state if and when it comes about.
Meanwhile, nearly two million Muslim Arabs live inside Israel, many in Arab towns and villages, availing themselves of the best educational system in the Middle East, not to mention serving in the Knesset and on the Supreme Court and working in one of the most advanced technology industries on Earth.
Something’s way out of balance here. Nevertheless, Jewish liberal pundit Peter Beinart, with maximum naiveté, recently lobbied for a one-state solution with Jews and Arabs inhabiting the country in harmony. Maybe he’s living in one of those parallel universes from science fiction. Or maybe he’s just a moral narcissist.
I’d call President Trump “The Anti-Beinart,” but the pundit’s influence, thankfully, is small.
So huzzah for Trump, who has again shown himself to be, with Harry Truman, one of the two greatest presidential friends Israel has ever had—and, unlike Truman, one who demonstrates no ambivalence.
But this is an election year and we are constrained to evaluate everything in those terms—how does this pact affect the electorate? Will it move the needle?
I regret to say not much. The mainstream media, as indicated by the AP denigration above, will do their best to ignore or under value what has happened.
Equally important, the American Jewish community is already divided left-right (roughly 70-30) and most are locked into their positions. (One wonders what Kamala Harris’ Jewish husband is thinking.)
Despite the high level of education among Jews, ironically, they seem to have little interest in facts—unless they ratify their previous position. Then they are adhered to like a childhood security blanket.
In this way, they are similar to most groups. Getting people to change their views is extremely difficult. Few do.
As for Israel, it is far away for many American Jews, in some case almost an embarrassment. They wonder at the pro-Israel feelings of evangelicals—is it a trick? And they’re not overly concerned about the kindergarten kids near the Gaza border when the missiles are flying. Didn’t they ask for it by living there?
Of course, we’re not all like that. Some of us really do care. And we love President Trump for what he has done. We will fight as hard as we can to wake (not “woke”) our co-religionists up.
Speaking personally, I’m not optimistic, but that’s not going to stop me. Not for a second. And there is one thing that occasionally changes minds—an actual visit to Israel.
Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, co-founder of PJ Media and now columnist for The Epoch Times. You can find him on Twitter and Parler @rogerlsimon.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment