The Way to Fix the Middle East
A response to the WSJ article "The Way to Fix the Middle East Conflict Looks Obvious, August 18th, 2024
The following is a letter-to-the-editor that I sent to the WSJ. The link to the article is here: https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/two-state-solution-israelis-palestinians-708b6075?mod=middle-east_more_article_pos2
It was just printed in the August 20th, 2024 paper addition as Two-State Hopes for Israel Look Dimmer Than Ever. I expect the WSJ to do better.
It is unfortunate that so much ink was wasted by Marcus Walker, Anat Peled and Fatima Abdul Karim in their August 18th article The Way to Fix the Middle East Conflict Looks Obvious - Except to Israelis and Palestinians. It could have been entitled: Everyone is living in Dream Land - Except the Israelis and Palestinians.
They write that “the US, Europe and many Arab governments insist the overdue answer is the two-state solution… The snag is that Israelis and Palestinians no longer believe in it.”
It would have been real reporting if they had said the “snag” is that the leading Palestinian factions, from the Palestinian Authority through Hamas and Islamic Jihad, all state that their goal is the destruction of the State of Israel.
The PA, formed from the PLO, never ratified changes to its charter calling for the destruction of Israel, despite letters from Arafat to the US President stating otherwise.
The PA produced in 1993, educational textbooks promoting the destruction of Israel, occupation of all of Palestine, glorifying martyrs and all acts of violence against Jews, following the Oslo accords and in breach of those agreements. To this day the PA pays those who killed, maimed or attacked Jews more than $25 million a month, according to 2023 figures, or some 8% of the PA’s total budget. These payments are not new. They are not due to the failure of the two-state solution and they have only increased year over year.
The Hamas charter calls for the destruction of Israel, as do those of the other Palestinian organizations carrying out a war with Israel. Add to this Hezbollah, and at the forefront Iran, all openly stating their goal to destroy the Jewish state and you have proof that the concept of a two-state solution is not what these players are after and that it is just a cynical ploy to achieve their ultimate goal.
None of this is mentioned in the article. The authors present us with a situation in which everyone sees reality but the 2 main participants. The authors are misleading the public through their failure to include this information.
The WSJ is one of the last bastions of reliable journalism. It is deeply distressing to see the stature of the WSJ tainted by such skewed reporting. I expect the Editorial Board of the WSJ, especially its Editor-in-Chief, to bring the facts to the front page and not wishful thinking, no matter how difficult reality may be to deal with.
Meir