Fred Schaufeld recently shared a trio of articles by Noam Sheizaf and I just got done reading them. For the most part, they present a very valid if painful perspective analyzing the Israeli thought process.
The gist of the article below reminds me of Gil Shamy’s axiom that pursuing a comprehensive solution with the Palestinians is like going to the dentist for the Israelis: unless they are in pain, they rather hold off.
Some arguments are simplified and some supporting positions are incorrect in fact. For example, the second intifadah was not the impetus for Sharon’s evacuation from Gaza, but for Sharon’s election- it preceded Sharon’s reign, and the impetus for the evacuation was the drive by a significant segment of civil society in 2002-2004 for strategic progress.
And the reason the Arab Peace Initiative gained no traction is at least partly explained by its announcement in early 2002, at a time when our global conscience was still reeling from the 9/11 attacks and the Saudi overture was greeted with skepticism, as a PR stunt to deflect attention from Saudi support for Islamic fundamentalists.
But those are footnotes on a valid and sad thesis, that so long as Israelis are more comfortable with the status quo than with the uncertainties and risks of political change – even if that change holds the potential for far greater happiness for both Palestinians and Israelis – political representatives are unlikely to make bold moves.
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