Notwithstanding the strong historical, legal and moral claims the State of Israel has to Judea and Samaria, Gary Rosenblatt’s censure of the appointment of David Friedman as U. S. ambassador to Israel might have some validity if the pursuit of a two-state solution by Israel and the United States over the past 23 years had produced any tangible progress towards peace (“Trump Pick To Test Jewish Unity,” Editor’s column, Dec. 23).
But as anyone with open eyes must acknowledge, the decades-long “peace process” has resulted in thousands of dead and maimed Israeli and American victims of Arab terror, an entrenched and ever more corrupt Palestinian Authority, the ascendancy of a terrorist mini-state in Gaza and absolutely no concessions or willingness to negotiate on the part of the Arabs. In addition, it is virtually impossible to imagine that the hundreds of thousands of Jews living in communities across the “Green Line” can (or should) be uprooted or that any Israeli government will ever agree to the Arabs’ non-negotiable demand to divide Jerusalem and allow millions of Arab refugees to resettle in Israel.
It is therefore long past due that an American president and his administration take the lead in advocating for and promoting a different approach, namely the one-state solution promoted by ambassador-designate Friedman. Unfortunately, all too many well-meaning supporters of Israel, such as Mr. Rosenblatt, falsely conflate the two-state “solution” with notions of “democratic ideals, equality, justice and human dignity” such that any other approach is inevitably condemned as immoral and leading to apartheid. Even worse, it isn’t the prospect of the failure of a one-state solution that gives many Jewish leaders pause, but rather that the success of such a solution doesn’t neatly fit in with their progressive world view. Let’s not be afraid to take yes for an answer.
Whatever one’s views of President-elect Trump, Jewish leaders who truly care about the safety and security of Israel, not to mention the unbreakable connection the Jewish people have with the very lands that the two-state solution would make Judenrein, should and must welcome the designation of David Friedman as ambassador to Israel.
