WASHINGTON — It seems that as the years pass the books and films
on World War II remain enormously popular. Indeed, I would not be
surprised if they are more popular today than they were
immediately following the war. After the war this nation was
tired of conflict. Probably many knowledgeable Americans
recognized that victory had been no sure thing. Yet now, 65 years
after D-Day, the story is reassuring. We are comfortable
recalling how America roused itself from isolationism, created a
huge army of young soldiers, and off President Franklin Roosevelt
sent them to vanquish the Japanese militarists and the Nazi
barbarians.
“The sheer improbability of this victory [on D-Day] is part of
what makes D-Day so memorable,” President Barack Obama sermonized
the other day at Omaha Beach. I am not completely sure that I
know what the president was talking about. American commanders
wanted a cross channel invasion of the Nazi positions as early as
1942. They did not expect to fail on D-Day. Perhaps the president
meant to stress that victory in war is never a sure thing. There
is always enormous risk. If that is his fundamental understanding
of war, why is he now so breezy in lecturing the one nation on
earth that faces war daily, Israel?
At his speech in Cairo President Obama emphasized his
government’s sudden opposition to Jewish settlements on the West
Bank, though some of those settlements are crucial to Israeli
security. Heretofore our government understood that in any peace
treaty with the Palestinians Israel was expected to keep some of
these settlements after compensating the Palestinians with land
from other parts of Israel. It was a matter of national security
for a nation that faces war daily.
The idea of accepting some Israeli settlements and compensating
the Palestinians for land lost in pursuit of improved Israeli
security was agreed to by the last two American administrations,
one Democratic, the other Republican. There are signed agreements
to that effect. Now, of a sudden, the Obama Administration is
tearing up those agreements. In Cairo the president said, “The
United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli
settlements.” I wonder what Bill Clinton thought about that, and
George W. Bush too.
Obama has had no experience in foreign policy in his life. He
demands humility in our nation’s foreign policy. He ought to
demonstrate some humility in his bold demands on Israel. He is
demanding of that nation with its six decades of grim foreign
policy experience behind it to trust his sudden volte
face, no matter how unlikely it will be to bring peace to
the Middle East. I think that is asking a lot.
The Israelis began giving up real estate to the Palestinians 16
years ago in the Oslo Accords. The gesture has gotten them no
thanks and no closer to peace. As a consequence of Oslo, the
Israelis turned over portions of the West Bank and Gaza. The West
Bank shows no development and remains incompetently governed and
a source of poverty and radicalism. Gaza is a nightmare,
abounding with tunnels for smuggling weaponry and launching
guerrilla attacks, including rocket attacks into Israel.
Israel has already given up real estate to the Palestinians. It
is now time for the Palestinians to govern their real estate
peacefully. If they need developmental funds to build
infrastructure surely the money will be forthcoming from the
international community. As for political gestures, surely it is
time for the Palestinians to eschew violent assaults on Israel
and acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.
That is the point that the President should have zeroed in on in
Cairo. The Egyptians live in peace with Israel. The Palestinians
can too. All they need to do is put down their arms and accept
Israel as a neighbor. That will also mean living up to earlier
understandings on Israeli settlements and the recognition of
Israeli security requirements. Instead of changing the rules of
the game, President Obama would be wise to build on the positions
carefully crafted by positions of his predecessors. He seemed to
understand how dangerous war is in his Omaha Beach speech. Israel
understands too and has every reason to want peace with the
Palestinians.
