Israelis Trapped in Denial

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Israelis Deny Being Trapped

Despite its military superiority over Hamas, Israel is caught in a trap, whose latches cannot be sprung from the inside.  The Israel Defense Force's superiority over Hamas and the Iron Dome defense system protecting Israel's major cities from rocket attacks are pumping up Israelis and their American supporters with a false sense of the Jewish state's invulnerability.  In truth, Israel's security parameters are collapsing and no one other than the Arabs and Iran appear to be taking notice. With Secretary of State Hilary Clinton heading back to Cairo for more talks, it is true that diplomacy has its uses.  But in this crisis, it will have as much of a long-term effect as it had in trying to stave off the American Civil War.

The Middle East's ground game has changed since Israel's 2009 invasion of Gaza.  The Arab Spring brought the once quiet border with Egypt under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood.  Syria's disintegration into civil war makes its border with Israel open to any number of scenarios, all of which involve hostile Arab militias.   Iran may be developing nuclear weapons.  As for international public opinion, the heroes' narrative this time around has shifted to Hamas fighters, continuing to fire rockets into Israel despite a relentless bombardment from IDF drones.

The two-state solution involving the creation of a viable Palestinian state on Israel's border has been bandied around for decades.  But it is moribund given the fact that Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands have been growing without restraint.  The number of Jews in what would have been the new Palestinian nation will soon rival the number of Arabs living there.

Even so, this conflict does have a solution, which Americans will have to embrace at some point in the future. It is called binationalism or the "one-state solution," and involves the evolution of Israel into a secular democracy, encompassing Israel proper, the West Bank and Gaza and offering citizenship and equal rights to all inhabitants without regard to religion or ethnicity.  Some Israelis of European ancestry will wish to relocate.  Space should be found for these emigrants in the United States and Europe.  This would be a small act of atonement on the part of the West, which has tried to forget that Hitler launched his "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" once it became clear that the western nations were slamming their borders shut  to Jews trying to flee the Nazis.