Jordan King Says Two-State Solution Is Needed to Defeat ISIS,But Prospects Are Dim

ISIS cannot be defeated until the Israel-Palestine conflict is resolved, says Jordan’s King.

Speaking in February at the Munich Security Conference, King Abdullah II said: “Left unresolved, the Palestine-Israel conflict will become a religious conflict of global dimension.” He noted that the “festering injustice” of the unresolved conflict “continues to be exploited by ISIS and its kind … It is only a matter of time before we may be faced by yet another war in Gaza or South Lebanon. This is why reaching a two-state solution should remain a priority for us all.”

King Abdullah called for “a new level of global action” focused on defeating ISIS: “We, as Arabs and Muslims, have a responsibility and duty to be in the lead in the fight against … the outlaws of Islam. This is a war to protect our religion, our values, and the future of our people, but it must be global in partnership, just as it is global in scale.” (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Feb. 12, 2016)

With Israel continuing to build settlements in the occupied territories, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman (Feb. 10, 2016) writes that, “The peace process is dead. It’s over … The next U.S. president will have to deal with an Israel determined to permanently occupy all the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, including where 2.5 million West Bank Palestinians live.”

Asking, “How did we get there? Friedman writes: “So many people stuck knives into the peace process it’s hard to know who delivered the mortal blow. Was it the fanatical Jewish settlers determined to keep expanding their footprint in the West Bank and able to sabotage any Israeli politician or army officer who opposed them? Was it right-wing Jewish billionaires like Sheldon Adelson, who used their influence to blunt any U.S. congressional criticism of Bibi Netanyahu? Or was it Netanyahu, whose lust to hold onto his seat of power is only surpassed by his lack of imagination to find a secure way to separate from the Palestinians? Bibi won: He’s now a historic figure — the founding father of the one-state solution.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro said in January that Israel’s fast- moving expansion of settlements on Palestinian lands “raises honest questions about Israel’s long-term intentions” and commitment to a two-state solution. Mr. Shapiro also said that, “Too many attacks on Palestinians lack a vigorous investigation or response by Israeli author¬ities, too much vigilantism goes unchecked, and at times there seems to be two standards of adherence to the rule of law: one for Israelis and another for Palestinians.”

Editorially, The New York Times (Jan. 22, 2016) declared: “The criticism of Mr. Shapiro, a vigorous advocate for Israel, was unusually personal and unfair. He correctly identified a serious problem. Since 1967, there has been a dual legal system in the West Bank in which Palestinians are subject to military courts, where, experts say, they are almost always convicted. Israeli settlers fall, under the Israeli civilian judicial system, with its greater rights and protections. Israel is moving quickly to establish facts on the ground that preclude a Palestinian state, leaving Palestinians increasingly marginalized and despairing.”

Ambassador Shapiro was bitterly attacked by both Prime Minister Netanyahu, who called his statement “unacceptable and incorrect,”and his former aide, Aviv Bushinsky who said on television that, “To put it bluntly, it was a statement typical of a little Jew boy.” Shapiro is an Orthodox Jew who speaks Hebrew and studied, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem” (Mondoweiss, Jan. 21, 2016).

In Israel, many prominent voices are increasingly critical of the government’s policies. The respected author Amos Oz says_ that he will no longer participate in official events sponsored by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He calls the Netanyahu government “the most militant, right-wing government Israel ever had.” He referred to the “Hilltop youth,” Jewish settlers who commit attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territories, as “Hebrew neo-Nazis … They’re not Nazis, but they have a great deal in common with neo-Nazi hooligans all over the world: desecrating churches and mosques, synagogues and cemeteries, violently attack¬ing foreigners; filled with hatred and xenophobia; aspiring for some despotic central regime to replace what they regard as anarchy. These are the syndromes of neo-Nazism.” (The Forward, Feb. 5, 2016) •