Required Reading

(AP photo)

Food for thought from Gilad Sharon, who argues that Israel has to think about what to do next, now that there’s no undoing the Iran nuke deal:

What we should do now is offer [the Palestinians] their own state with provisional borders on the land defined as Area A and Area B, with territorial continuity that will enable them to go from Jenin to Hebron without seeing a single Israeli soldier. And they won’t have to relinquish any of their demands. They can continue to demand the right of return, the 1967 borders, or the boundaries set by the 1947 partition plan or the 1937 Peel Commission. We have demands too, and when the time comes, they’ll all be on the table for discussion. In the meanwhile, they’ll have a state. Isn’t that what they and the rest of the world have been clamoring for all along? What’s wrong with this arrangement? We don’t have permanent borders today either.

A political storm is raging around us and the winds are getting stronger every day. There is no way to hold it back. Standing with our arms stretched out and pretending it’s a pleasant breeze won’t make it so. And it poses substantial danger for Israel. Our economy is export heavy, and we can’t afford to receive the kind of treatment South Africa got. What’s more, a binational state is a much worse option. Anyone who has trouble imagining what that would look like should pay a visit to east Jerusalem – stones, Molotov cocktails, knives, hatred, death.

Welcome to the local version of Libya, Iraq, or Syria. If we don’t want a binational solution and we don’t offer an alternative, we’re left with charges of occupation, oppression, apartheid, etc., which invite South Africa-style sanctions.

Taking up the global cause of economic sanctions against Israel would be the logical next foreign policy move for Barack Obama in his last 18 months as President — provided it isn’t “too soon” after the Iran deal.