Gaza Crisis Imperils Two-State Solution

CAIRO -- With every image of the dead in Gaza inflaming people across the Arab world, Egyptian and Jordanian officials are worried that they see a fundamental tenet of the Middle East peace process slipping away: the so-called two-state solution, an independent Palestinian state coexisting with Israel.

Egypt and Jordan fear that they will be pressed to absorb the Palestinian populations now living beyond their borders. If Israel does not assume responsibility for humanitarian aid in Gaza, for example, pressure could compel Egypt to fill the vacuum; Jordan, in turn, worries that Israel will try to push Palestinians from the West Bank into its territory.

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Comments

[baffy]

Give me an "A", give me a "P", give me an "A", give me an "R", give me a "T",......................................................................Keep watching.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Egypt and Jordan whining about being forced to provide aid, let alone hospitality, to the Palestinians?

Egypt and Jordan were two of the states that ATTACKED Israel in 1948 -- a war which resulted in not only the Palestinian refugee problem, but moreover, the LACK of a Palestinian State as envisioned by the UN Partition Plan. (As if "Transjordan" wasn't already to have been one.)

I applaud both states having entered into Peace Treaties with Israel, but NEITHER treaty was comprehensive in that NEITHER dealt with the Palestinian issue that remained a time bomb between them.

Egypt and Jordan should open their hearts and wallets, if not their borders.

And all players and stakeholders -- Israel especially, and Saudi Arabia too -- should open their hearts and wallets -- and Israel its borders at least for workers to seek employment. No way there will be peace as long as the Palestinians are kept IMPOVERSHED.

Prospects for peace are being drowned by the bloodshed.

Cease Fire Now.

[1dogs2]

Is it possible that Israel's present government is as myopic as the Bush administration was when it invaded Iraq? Is it possible that Israel did not foresee that the most likely result of its present nihilistic "war to the bitter end" would be to make matters worse and end in destabilizing the entire Middle East? Is it possible that they are seriously contemplating an attack on Iran, as reported yesterday by the NYT? Is it possible that our "special relationship" with our "best friend in the Middle East" has encouraged this madness and that Israel is beyond any temporizing influence of the US?

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Over the past eight years, both Israel and America have been comparably short-sighted and enthralled by 21st century weaponry.

You can't butcher your enemy into sitting at a peace conference.

Note that previously, there was a significant Peace Now movement in Israel. (No real corollary in America, save for a bit of anti-war influence on the Obama campaign.) Perhaps that will come again, but rockets have a way of influencing politics -- as they were intended.

[almazza98]

That is never going to happen, the Palestinians have resisted for too long and will resist as long as it takes, they are not going to be absorbed by Egypt or Jordan, that is actually exactly what Israel wants. It ain't going to happen.

[barakagirl]

that's precisely the point Israel never wanted peace, she wants more land and irrigated land which is hard to find in this ever drying part of the world. The arab leaders failed miserably and for that they will pay. The US will pay too since these military attacks are done with the sponsorship of the US.

THE OCCUPATION NEEDS TO STOP NOW!!!

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Because the Gaza Strip is the breadbasket of the middle east?

The formula has supposedly been "Land for Peace."

Israel has repeatedly won land in war, and RETURNED it. What have they gotten in exchange?

Peace with Egypt.
Peace with Jordan.
Rockets from Gaza.

Peace.

[1dogs2]

I think we're mostly on the same page, Reason, but I don't regard Israel's withdrawal from Gaza as "returning" the land to the Palestinians, given Israel's refusal to acknowledge the results of a democratic election and its deliberate attempts to sow dissension among the Palestinians and to make Gaza ungovernable through, among other things, border closings and harsh economic measures. Israel's rigid refusal to view Hamas as anything other or more than a purely terrorist organization pretty much dooms any effort at a negotiated truce.

Perhaps I've misunderstood your comment.