Douglas Murray, writing for The New York Post, said it best: “It’s amazing how long bad ideas take to die. That’s certainly the case with one of the least successful ideas in the world. The idea of the two-state solution in the Middle East.”
After the horrors, atrocities, savagery and barbarism of October 7, it is a delusion to think that a two-state solution will solve anything. No Israeli would be in favor of such a radical and nonsensical idea after being put through the worst day of their existence since the Holocaust. Israelis don’t ever want to see October 7 repeated. Rewarding Hamas for cutting heads off babies, raping women, butchering human beings, and burning people alive is sheer insanity. Hamas perpetrated a blot against humanity. Anyone who has aided and abetted them is guilty. Creating a terror state directly on Israel’s borders is madness.
The idea of doing it unilaterally without Israel’s consent is preposterous and outrageous. President Obama set in motion in 2016 as he was about to leave office UN Resolution 2334, which was meant to pave the way for a two-state solution. He hoped Hilary Clinton would win the election and ask the UN to declare unilaterally statehood for Mahmoud Abbas. Donald Trump won the election and the idea was scrapped. President Biden, who for three months helped Israel with arms and cover at the United Nations, has decided that it is time to do a 180-degree turn. He is now pushing for a two-state solution and has threatened Israel that he will abstain from a UN vote on the subject just like President Obama did in 2016.
Although many factors went into the Trump victory of 2016, the unilateral move by President Obama against Israel was a factor in Hilary’s defeat. President Biden has become obsessed with the swing state of Michigan. Presently Trump defeats President Biden in Michigan. The majority of the state supports Israel against Hamas and would not take kindly to President Biden unilaterally declaring statehood for Abbas. Rewarding terror in this fashion will only hurt the United States in the long run. Once again, it sets an extremely poor precedent. If President Biden thinks that appeasing terror in Israel will protect the United States from another 9/11, he is mistaken. Terror breeds terror. Given the violent protests we have all witnessed in the United States by pro-Hamas groups, escalation into outright terrorist incidents is more real today than ever before.
President Biden should be reassuring Americans that Hamas terror in the United States will be thwarted and prevented. Any time he talks about Israel acting “over the top,” he is incentivizing terror not only in Israel but in America as well.
When Tom Friedman in The New York Times writes that a two-state solution will bring Saudi “normalization,” he is wholly mistaken. The Saudis were ready for “normalization” with Israel without Abbas being given a state on a silver platter. The Saudis have one major worry, and that is an Iran. The Hamas attack threw a monkey wrench into the works, but “normalization” with Saudi Arabia will happen without terror being rewarded. It is a matter of self-interest. The Saudis need Israel and America for protection and survival. Friedman remains in a time warp. He is also fostering a delusion that he has opined for 30 years of Oslo. Oslo led to the deaths of thousands.
Israel’s very existence has been shaken to the core after October 7. The world still has not grasped what Israel is going through. Shoving a two-state solution down the throats of all Israelis is demeaning, disgraceful, and sheer fantasy. It would be pouring salt on a very open and painful wound. Stop the delusional thinking; just let Israel win. If Israel wins, America wins - and so does the rest of the world.
Joseph M. Frager is a physician and lifelong activist.
