Before President Joe Biden had even entered the White House, a full court press emerged to try and push the Palestinian issue back on to the center of the global agenda, a place that it clearly doesn’t warrant.
Firstly, there was the meeting in Cairo on January 11 of the foreign ministers of Egypt, France, Germany and Jordan to discuss ways to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
One day later, to fanfare and barely any critical dissent, much of the world media fawningly relayed an outrageous report by B’Tselem that Israel is a regime of “Jewish supremacy” and “Apartheid”.
The timing is certainly no coincidence.
In the subsequent days, we have seen this ‘good cop’ and ‘bad cop’ double act played out at the United Nations, the State Department and organizations many thought had been put out of their misery by their years of policy recommendation failure, like the Geneva Accords.
The ‘bad cops’ are those individuals and organizations that overtly or more subtlety see no future for the Jewish State, in any form. We know who they are, and they grow louder and more emboldened by the day. While they might be a problem, they are probably not a threat.
The greater threat is from the ‘good cops’.
These are an assortment of actors which open their thoughts and words with all the usual pleasantries about recognizing Israel’s security needs and acting in Israel’s best interests.
The problem is, they invariably end with a recommendation that is certainly not in Israel’s interests.
For the last four years, the U.S. and other allies around the world shrunk the Palestinian issue to the importance it deserves. It did not follow the tired and disproven notion that peace between Israel and the Palestinians is key to regional peace and wider global security.
They demonstrated the opposite is true. If you refuse to accept the Palestinian veto on Israel’s place in the region, then peace and warm relations can emerge.
The Palestinians were certainly not forgotten by the Trump Administration. They were offered large amounts of funds and assistance which could have built a new and progressive polity and given hope to the Palestinian people. The offer of peace, an end to the conflict, in return for prosperity was shunned the Palestinian leaders.
The creators of this approach learnt from the failures of the past and understood that the Palestinian leadership is not close to being ready to come to the negotiating table and for compromise and recognition.
Thus, a new paradigm emerged which saw pragmatic Arab nations understand that the Jewish State is not their enemy, but rather a potential ally.
This emboldening of regional peace, and the sidelining of the Palestinians made Israel more secure. Statistically, the year 2020 witnessed the lowest number of Israelis killed in terrorism or combat in the country’s history.
This appears to be ending.
Unfortunately, emboldened by the Biden Administration, our ‘good friends’ want to return to a different policy, one that will amount to the loss of far more Israeli lives.
Already in early December, Israel’s National Security Council warned of a rise in potential terrorist attacks, and this communique became prescient. Only a few days later, the body of Esther Horgen was found in a forest near her Tel Menashe home in northern Samaria after she had gone jogging the previous afternoon and been viciously beaten to death by a Palestinian terrorist.
That murder equaled the total number of Israelis killed by terrorists in the previous 12 months.
Clearly, the ‘good guys’ are unwittingly emboldening the ‘bad guys’, and it will cost Israelis in blood.
The State of Israel should get ahead of this reversal for the security of its citizens.
It should make the argument to Washington DC and the international community at large that there will be no return to the failed policies of the past which cost Israel dearly. It should say to the ‘good guys’ that your false embrace is killing us, and we dare not return to the terrorist onslaught of yesteryear.
We need to be bold enough to say that we know what is best for our long-term security - and that is a need to end the conflict on our terms. Those terms need to be unequivocal and say that we are ready to talk, negotiate and even compromise, but only when the Palestinian will to continue the conflict is not emboldened, but crushed.
If our friends in the international community truly wish us well, they will give Israel the green light to force the Palestinians and their enablers to accept that they have ben defeated in their over-100 battle against Jewish sovereignty in its indigenous and ancestral homeland.
Palestinian violent rejectionism was teetering over the last few years, simply because it was ignored. It needs to be given a knock-out punch over the next few years, not allowed to stagger to its feet once more, helped by its international enablers.
Israel can suffer the ‘bad guys’, but the ‘good guys’ are the ones we should really be worried about.
Alex Nachumson is an IDF Military Commander (Res) and CEO of Mivtachi Israel, an organization of former senior IDF Officers.