Israel and the Palestinians: A New Strategy, by Moshe Yaalon

David Weinberg, the director of the CIC’s Israel’s office, recommends “Israel and the Palestinians: A New Strategy,” by Moshe Yaalon, published in AzureOnline.

In this wide-ranging essay, Yaalon, a former IDF chief of staff, proposes a different approach to dealing with an old conflict:

“The strategy outlined in this paper is not particularly uplifting. I doubt that it will thrill the public or win prestigious international awards. It requires, after all, diligence and a good deal of patience. Its enactment would mean giving up expectations of reaching an immediate ‘solution’” to the Israeli-Palestinian problem, and instead adopting a more pragmatic attitude that focuses, at least in the short term, on ‘managing’ the conflict. Yet this new strategy is no less ambitious than the former one. It, too, strives to end Israel’s control over the Palestinians and to establish a new, safer, and more stable order west of the Jordan River. Unlike the Oslo paradigm, however, it begins by laying the foundations for the establishment of this new order, and only then proceeds to build from the bottom up. The policy proposed here rests on the understanding—which has so far eluded Israeli statesmen—that in our geopolitical arena, ‘the realities on the ground shape agreements, not the other way around,’ as Guy Bechor, an Israeli expert in Middle Eastern affairs, once said.”

Read the whole essay here »

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