September 6, 2016
To the Editor:
Re “In the Middle East, a Covert Friendship?” (editorial, Aug. 28):
For decades, Israel’s neighbors chose to deal with the Jewish state by war, vilification and denial. Egypt bravely broke the pattern in 1979, and Jordan in 1994 — both committing to peace but, in solidarity with the rest of the Arab League, continuing to discourage normalization, ostensibly to benefit the Palestinians.
Successive Palestinian leaders, however, squandered this support, alienating their own people and their regional allies through corruption, incitement and an astonishing lack of realism. As every Middle East leader outside Ramallah knows, the Palestinian conflict with Israel — oceans of propaganda to the contrary — is not by any stretch this troubled region’s central issue. Still, extremists and despots have exploited the conflict, and the P.L.O. has continued to peddle the fiction that regional peace must await its resolution.
But regional peace and cooperation can’t wait, and Arab leaders are beginning to publicly acknowledge what they’ve been saying privately for years. The Palestinians can have peace and a state if they return to the direct negotiations with Israel they abandoned — and the Middle East can take a step forward if all states refuse to be held hostage by Ramallah’s obstinacy and self-delusion.
There is much to be gained by all sides if Israel and Arab states develop bilateral and multilateral cooperation in sectors from economic development to water management.
JASON ISAACSON
Associate Executive Director for Policy
American Jewish Committee
Washington
