where Israel went wrong

Submitted by Irish Savant (United States), Oct 11, 2007 at 15:26

Israel does indeed face new and serious challenges. In my mind the country went seriously wrong when it annexed and settled the West Bank and Gaza. This contravened international law, and lost Israel, and by extension Zionism, much sympathy from fair-minded people. More insidiously, it corruped the state and the people by making them occupiers, with the inevitable brutality that follows all occupations.

The other insidious problem is of course demographics - we all know the implications of that. Israel has, sadly, dug itself into a hole with the settlement policy and there's no easy way out. My view, build the wall along the 1967 borders and exit the West Bank as with Gaza. In the event of subsequent rocket attacks, Israel will have unquestioned rights to obliterate the sources of such attacks, and the West would have no excuse for supporting the Palestinian state that allowed them.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".