BEYOND A CEASEFIRE, WHAT’S NEEDED IS COURAGE
Two years ago, when the Palestinian Authority and Hamas agreed to form a unified government, Israel had a golden opportunity to lay out a lasting blueprint for peace. Finally, they had a true partner. No such luck. In Israel’s mind, why back a peace process? It is far easier to keep Hamas as an enemy than to give up land to the Palestinian Authority, uproot settlers, deal with Jew-on-Jew violence, and even risk a civil war. The whole notion of giving up something tangible, such as land, for something abstract, such as peace, just doesn’t compute.
As a Jew—a Zionist—it pains me to see what Israel did in Gaza and then what happened at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Again, Palestinians were being singularly criticized for killing Jews when, while not for a second condoning those killings, we have to ask ourselves what Jews were...
