U.S. and European governments may regard the lack of a Palestinian Arab state as “the most urgent problem” in the Middle East. But this problem actually is “not urgent or solvable.”
Yet these governments are ignoring the “most urgent” and “eminently solvable” problem of the region – the efforts of the Muslim fundamentalist government of Iran to expand its influence, foment terrorism, acquire nuclear weapons and bring about “an era of Islamic global domination.”
And if such misguided policy judgments persist, “We are in line for a tragedy of biblical proportions… The West is setting the stage for a massive bloodbath.”
So contended Caroline Glick, columnist and deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post, on April 12 at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.
Speaking to an audience of about 100, Chicago-native Glick denounced with self-described “ironic and sarcastic” phrases the idea that if the Palestinian Arabs had their own state, “all problems will go away” and “all will be well in the world.”
In fact, Glick contended, “the Palestinian problem is part of a larger problem,” the refusal of the Arab and much of the Muslim world to accept Israel’s right to exist.
Moreover, Israel never rejected “in principle” the idea of a Palestinian Arab state, Glick said. However, every time Israel or the world tried to offer one — from the United Nations partition plan of 1948 to the abortive Camp David negotiations in 2000 — the Arab world balked.
As for “a solution” to the Palestinian Arab problem, Glick contended that even trying to find such a thing is “utopian and messianic.”
Yet she suggested that “things can be done” like maintaining the Jordanian citizenship of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria — aka the West Bank — or even someday offering them Israeli citizenship if they display “less hatred” and give Israelis less reason to fear the existence of a 40 percent Arab minority.
But the Palestinian problem pales in urgency compared to how Iran is increasing in strength and influence, Glick said.
“Everywhere you look, emerging trouble spots are linked to Iran,” she said. These include Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Hezbollah is likely to win control of the government this June; Syria, which is practically “an Iranian colony”; hostile-to-the-West Latin American governments like Venezuela; Afghanistan and Iraq, she said.
Indeed, during the week before her Milwaukee appearance, Glick said that Egypt had arrested 49 members of a Hezbollah cell and that the Egyptian government has accused Iran of trying to overthrow it.
The rulers of Iran “are serious; they are not joking,” Glick said. “They believe in their ideology.”
Moreover, Glick contended that the majority of the Iranian people “hate the regime” and would welcome Western efforts to undermine or destroy it.
Yet the Obama administration has issued statements to the effect that the U.S. must “sit and talk” with the Iranian rulers, whereas what is necessary is “to confront and defeat them,” said Glick.
There are only “two happy points,” in the recent developments, Glick said. First, Arab regimes in Egypt and Saudi Arabia realize that “their own survival is at stake” and “may force the U.S. to come to its senses.”
Second, Israel’s recent elections brought Benjamin Netanyahu and a Likud-led coalition to power. Netanyahu has said his government intends not to allow Iran to become a nuclear weapons power.
However, “everything hinges on Israel’s ability to stand up to the Obama administration” on these issues, Glick said. That can be reinforced by the U.S. pro-Israel community’s “will to man the barricades and stand with Israel against Iran,” she said.
During the question session, one audience member briefly became disruptive, accusing Glick of being “a propaganda tool for Republicans.”
Later, however, in response to a more civil question, Glick acknowledged feeling troubled that there appears to be “an expanding partisan divide” between the U.S. Democratic and Republican parties in support for Israel.
Glick’s Milwaukee appearance was sponsored by the Committee for Truth and Justice, Advocates for Israel (based in Ashland, Ore.) and the Zionist Organization of America-Milwaukee District.
She said she would be in the U.S. for about a month, visiting Chicago; working at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., where she is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern affairs; and speaking in Florida.
Formerly op-ed editor, Leon Cohen has written for The Chronicle for more than 25 years.
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