Giuliani: Too much stress on two-state plan

Rudy Giuliani says too much emphasis has been placed on brokering a two-state deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“It is not in the interest of the United States, at a time when it is being threatened by Islamist terrorists, to assist the creation of another state that will support terrorism,” the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination and former New York mayor said in an article this month in Foreign Affairs, the magazine of the Council on Foreign Relations, outlining his foreign policy.

“Palestinian statehood will have to be earned through sustained good governance, a clear commitment to fighting terrorism, and a willingness to live in peace with Israel. America’s commitment to Israel’s security is a permanent feature of our foreign policy.”

As the Bush administration winds down, it is backing a push toward a Palestinian-Israel deal.

Other implicit criticisms of Bush administration policy appear in the article.

“In recent years, diplomacy has received a bad name because of two opposing perspectives,” Giuliani wrote. “One side denigrates diplomacy because it believes that negotiation is inseparable from accommodation and almost indistinguishable from surrender.”

Of Iran, Giuliani said the next U.S. president “should take inspiration from Ronald Reagan’s actions during his summit with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik in 1986. He was open to the possibility of negotiations but ready to walk away if talking went nowhere.”

Giuliani also chides Bush’s democracy promotion.

“Aspiring dictators sometimes win elections, and elected leaders sometimes govern badly and threaten their neighbors,” he said. “History demonstrates that democracy usually follows good governance, not the reverse.”