The Palestinian Authority and the Muslim community, and not the upcoming Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu government, are the obstacles to peace in the Middle East, New Republic assistant editor James Kirchick recently wrote in the New York Daily News.
Chiding critics who have claimed that the new government will bring about “the death of the peace process,” Kirchick wrote, “When was the last time a journalist asked the leader of a democratic country whether Muslim states' not being ‘fully signed up’ to the existence of Israel and having ministers in its employ who ‘insult’ Jews threatened Middle East peace?
“It's worth pointing out here that the people decrying the new Israeli government are the same ones who constantly call for the United States and Israel to ‘engage’ with every rogue state and terrorist outfit in the region. If the Syrian Ba'ath Party, Hamas' Islamists and the mullahs of Tehran are all worthy of our engagement, surely we can deal with the likes of Netanyahu and Lieberman.”