Austin's quote

Submitted by PezDispenser (Israel), Mar 23, 2014 at 08:55

"We do all agree that if you can make progress here, you make other issues easier, even if this does not solve them."

Where does this groupthink come from and how exactly does a resolution of the Israeli Palestinian conflict make other issues easier? Even if Israel didn't exist, you'd have Sunnis vs. Shiites, Arab nationalists vs. Islamists, the Iranian Axis vs. Sunni States, Russians supplying their allies, and Arab liberals alone in the wilderness.

If in the past US Arabist policymakers wanted to press Israel for concessions to strengthen a pax-Americana in the region, these days no concessions would bring such a benefit since everyone is involved with their internal problems and wars and anyway the US has lost influence.

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