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Everyone here is fixated on David Friedman sledgehammering a wall; meanwhile, in the past week: British Home Secretary visits the Kotel, Israel’s FM visits Abu Dhabi, real possibility of restored realtions with Oman, Bahrain workshop not as pointless as many hoped it would be...
...and a successful bombing run on Damascus. As I’ve noted before, there’s a certain group of expert-types who can’t abide the fact that Israel’s path to stability, prosperity, and even regional acceptance was so different from what they said it would be and in fact had to be
The actual path being: More capitalism, an allergy to risk-taking re: the Palestinians (suspended, w/ objectively disastrous results, in 2013-14), smart diplomacy w/frenemies like Russia, China, Egypt; &an overall realization that the Arabs need Israel more than Israel needs them
Notably, the path did not involve wild and reckless experiments in regional co-existence, subordination to some other power’s regional # condominium, or major territorial retreat. Realities to be reckoned with, perhaps
None of this means the current success doesn't come at someone else's expense, or is totally cost-free to Israel, or can last forever. But it's obvious by now that peace, whatever that even means, wouldn't be cost-free for Israelis or Palestinians either
And this says nothing about the inherent or abstract morality of Israel's course recently. This is a trite statement but nations very often improve their economic or strategic position--never mind internal cohesion/functionality--through profoundly immoral means
Including democratic nations! Including, like, America--but also, like, Denmark, probably. Anyway.
