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Is a right-wing government the answer to the Israeli-Arab conflict?
16/03/2009 By Henry Siegman
A right-wing Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu is widely seen as leading to an end to a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Given ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, an expansion that Netanyahu has promised to accelerate, no other outcome seems conceivable. Yet, a good case can be made for that it is only a right-wing government of the kind now being put together by Netanyahu that holds what hope there might still be for viable Palestinian statehood. The only remaining hope for preventing the disappearance of the two-state solution is a decisive change in U.S.-Middle East policy that means an active intervention
Effigies of Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (L), Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu (C), and Defense Minister and Labor Party leader Ehud Barak (R) are seen during a parade to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim on March 10, 2009 in Holon, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. (J.Guez/AFP/Getty Images)
Given the imminent disappearance of the two-state solution and Israel’s military and diplomatic dependence on the U.S. (a dependence that has only increased with the growing anti-Israel mood in the region and beyond), an American president who is prepared to say “Enough” to the two adversaries and to present them with clear parameters for a permanent status agreement is far more likely to do so with a recalcitrant Israeli right-wing government led by Netanyahu than with a centrist government headed by leaders who claim to seek an end to the conflict.
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Keywords
Conflict Conflict resolution Gaza Strip and West Bank Israel Middle East and North Africa Peace processRelated publications
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Bio author: Henry Siegman
Henry Siegman is president of the U.S./Middle East Project, a program of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) for the past 14 years and, as of September 2006, an independent policy institute. He is also a research professor at the Sir Joseph Hotung Middle East Program at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Mr. Siegman's areas of specialization include Arab-Israel relations, the Middle East peace process, U.S. Middle East policy, and interreligious relations.
