Outside-In, Not Victory, or Three-Way

Submitted by Robert (United States), Dec 30, 2021 at 14:21

Dear Dr. Daniel Pipes,

One of the things I appreciate about your MEF is the fact that you do read what your readers write in their comments here, even though you have 69 Million pages here! So I do a search of terms on your Website in order to understand better your views; I am trying to be more careful in not misunderstanding you by research you postings here. I maintain that the more one reads the writing of a scholar such as yourself the better on understands his (or her) position. That stated, I now wish to share with you a few observations and comments.

(1) You have at one point switched to a Policy and Strategy of Victory for Israel.

(2) However, this represent a switch from a Bottom-Up approach involving such things as the economic and self-governance, etc. improvement for Palestinians.

(3) However, when you distinguished between Bottom-Up and Top-Down, you also used the concept Outside-In vs. Inside-Out buy which you meant the Arab-States vs. the Palestine.

It is this THIRD (3) distinction which made upon which I wish to focus here. I believe that you were correct the FIRST TIME - before you advocated your Victory (over the Palestinians) Strategy. However, my I subscribe to a broader and clearer view of this Top-Down strategy. The scope of my use of the term "Top" is the Whole World, particularity as embodied and expressed in the UN; as you are aware, in a recent vote this month, the UN, through one of it's agency, with a vote of 125 member states established a permanent COMMISSION to investigate ONLY ISRAEL. Therefore, I see these 125 countries as the real ENEMIES of Israel, not merely Gaza, West Bank, Hezbollah, and Iran, and their assorted proxies. If the Metaphor of Victory is to have any meaning for me, it means that Israel has to triumph over these "outside" adversary.

And one place where Israel is doing great "victory" progress is in South America, particularly South America, and especially Honduras and Guatemala - I'm quite certain you know what I mean, especial in the case of the most recent move of the embassies to Jerusalem.

All that means is that one must look to the whole word and observe how Israel is interacting with each UN member state. The Battle-ground where Israel is "Wining" (you Victory metaphor) should be judged by the Voting states in the various UN Fora.

Furthermore, Arab Spring, it appears, has resulted in many Arab FAILED STATES, including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and even Yemen. And behind all that is the other major Muslim state which not Sunni but Shia, namely Iran. I interpret that in a Metternich-Bismark-Kissinger Realpolitik: Ironically, it is the Arabs who are the ones who are making PEACE with Israel as manifested in the Abraham Accords executed under our President Trump. And also, it is to be noted that the non-Arab states are also substantial falli8ng into (if they have not yet achieved that status) into FAILED STATES. The next Muslim states that are doing relatively well, and may make PEACE with Israel, are Bangladesh and (with the largest Muslim population) Indonesia. And under the radar is Saudi Arabia, while over the radar are Egypt and Jordan. And there are of course NATO states Cyprus and Greece that have replaced NATO Turkey under Erdogan. And finally (to be brief), we have Russia which is "effectively" working with Israel in Syria, as well as China which has invested in the Port in Haifa Israel.

There is also the important fact that a practical, non-violent, Islamist Palestinian has joined the Israeli government who this month declared that Israel in fact is a Jewish State.

In summary, I think there is a moment of Peace with Israel with most of the countries of the world while the 2-state solution is becoming more remote because of the split in the Palestinian Governance between Hamas Gaza and the PA West Bank. So, I think that I have successfully argued here that you should return to your Strategic initial position of Outside-In, and abandon you Revision of Victory (over the Palestinians) strategy.

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