Half a century ago, a famous Israeli diplomat came up with a line that has stuck to the Palestinians for decades thereafter. “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” quipped Abba Eban, in an apparent dig at his Palestinian and Arab interlocutors’ refusal to compromise with the Jewish state. At the beginning of this century, amid the fits and starts of the peace process between the two sides, the line was often invoked in Washington in criticism of Palestinian leaders’ unwillingness to relinquish some of their stubbornly held positions. Whatever the merits of that view, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since the Oslo accords and failed talks at Camp David. Israeli security concerns and de facto military rule override the civil rights of millions of Palestinians living in the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, some 2 million Palestinians have seen their lives plunged into a sprawling humanitarian calamity as Israel wages its crushing war against militant group Hamas in the aftermath of the shocking Oct. 7 terrorist strike on southern Israel. Few in the Israeli political establishment are now invested in the project of forging peace with the Palestinians; even fewer Israelis seem interested in affording Palestinians self-determination or an independent state.  |  | |
That includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been in office longer than any other Israeli leader, prides himself on undermining the prospects of a “two-state” solution and is now driving a war in Gaza that has flattened much of the tiny Palestinian territory and killed tens of thousands of people. Amid a growing domestic and international clamor for a cease-fire, Netanyahu’s critics argue he would rather prolong the war to assuage his far-right allies (and keep hold of power) than clinch a deal that stops hostilities and frees the remaining hostages in Hamas captivity — that he is, in other words, missing opportunities. “Netanyahu is not willing to seize the opportunity to get Israelis out of a literal hell until he can be sure that it will not immediately cost him his premiership, yet in doing so, he may be costing more hostages their lives,” wrote Michael Koplow of the Israel Policy Forum. “If ever there was a missed opportunity for which Netanyahu should be unreservedly condemned, this is it.” |
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