The constant talk of a political horizon, the demand to take political initiative, and the development of feelings of guilt that we haven't done enough are all Western ailments that have no place in our part of the world. If Islam can bide its time, then we too can bide our time.
The problematic relationship between US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is derived first and foremost from the US misunderstanding and misreading the reality in the Middle East. America is acting in a manner that may be appropriate for countries like France, England and Sweden but which does not befit a superpower.
The personal relationship between the two leaders is important, but it is not the heart of the matter.
It all started when Barack Obama visited Egypt at the beginning of his tenure. In a speech he made at the University of Cairo, he asked for forgiveness from the Egyptian people and the entire Arab-Muslim world for the period of American and Western colonialism in the region. He deliberately skipped Israel during his visit.
Rather than calling on the Arab leaders, whose countries are large, spacious, blessed with many resources and no longer controlled by anybody but them, to take responsibility for their nations' development and constructive integration into the modern era, and offering American assistance with these important efforts, Obama chose to bend his back and apologize to these leaders.
The US is acting in a shockingly amateurish and simplistic manner, and in doing so, is strengthening negative trends in our region. We have been absorbing this mud in increasing volume ever since Obama became president. The US failed with Egypt, with Erdogan and Turkey, with Iraq and Afghanistan, in Syria, Libya and everywhere else, and it is failing with Israel as well.
At the heart of the great breakdown in relations between us and the US lies the perception of "two states for two peoples" as the only good solution to the Palestinian question. Nobody in the American government has bothered to reexamine or refresh this dated and universally held concept, and neither have many of us. In light of the cold and cruel Arab winter ruling our region, and in light of this past war in Gaza, it would be folly to continue to support expired and irrelevant stances.
One need not be a famous scholar of Islam and Arab history to be familiar with and understand the great historic conflict that has existed between Jews and Islam since the birth of Islam. Like Christians before them, Muslims see themselves as the chosen people, replacing the Jews.
To them, the Jews have failed and therefore should no longer be the chosen people. The Jewish people have paid the price of this historic narrative through the intense list of pogroms, murders, the Inquisition, and finally mass extermination in the incinerators of Auschwitz. It will suffice to read about this topic in Dr. Avi Beker's excellent book, Who is The Chosen People: The Biggest Struggle of Ideas in History.
When the swirling storm surrounds us, and the principle of political sovereignty has worn thin, and Islamic State fighters dump the Charter of Human Rights down dry desert wells, and nobody knows what the region will look like just a year from now - this is not the time to establish a dwarf Palestinian state that will grasp Israel by the throat.
We pulled out of Lebanon and got Hezbollah. We pulled out of Gaza and got Hamas. Who would predict that it will be any different when we pull out of Judea and Samaria? I wouldn't make such a gamble with history.
Israel is not an experiment that can be reversed. It is a fact on the ground.
In the Second World War there were more than 50 million refugees in Europe, who were all absorbed by their new countries. Only in our region do 650,000 Palestinian refugees, who fled and were expelled from Israeli territory during the War of Independence, suddenly qualify as a nation. Everyone knows the picture: the Arabs used the Palestinian refugees as leverage with the intent of waving us out of the region. That's the whole story. Every feasible solution to the Palestinian problem must begin with the Arab countries' readiness to absorb the Palestinians. We can therefore deduce that so long as the Palestinians stand with their backs toward Jordan and Egypt and their faces toward Israel, there will not be peace here.
The establishment of a Palestinian state is not our responsibility, nor is it the responsibility of our friends in the West. If the Arabs want a Palestinian state, they should establish one on their territory. In due course we will contribute our part, once conditions stabilize and are clarified, and this will end the "occupation." One possible realistic solution is for Palestinians to be integrated in the state of Jordan, as was the case before the Six Day War. We can then turn over large portions of Judea and Samaria to the framework that will be established, though under no circumstances would we surrender all of Judea and Samaria. And all of that can occur only once territories have been demilitarized and our safety ensured.
