Palestinian state would ‘cripple’ US interests in Middle East, claims journalist

The Israeli and United States flags are projected on the walls of the ramparts of Jerusalem’s Old City, to mark one year since the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on May 15, 2019. [AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images]

A Jewish Israeli journalist said at the weekend that the establishment of a Palestinian state would “cripple” US interests in the Middle East. Yoram Ettinger added that the land of Palestine is the cradle of Judaism and claimed that the establishment of a Palestinian entity would be a violation of international law.

Ettinger made his comments in the Jewish National Syndicate. Both the League of Nations in 1922 and the UN 23 years later, he said, were “committed to establishing a Jewish National Home in the entire area [of Palestine].”

Having a state of Palestine on what he believes is Israeli territory would, he argued, “add another rogue regime to the stormy region, intensify terrorism and war, inflame regional instability, exacerbate the Israel-Palestinian conflict, undermine the expansion of the Israel-Arab peace process, generate a tailwind for rogue entities and cripple US interests.”

Furthermore, an Israeli “retreat” to the pre-1967 status quo “would obliterate Israel’s posture of deterrence, and would transform Israel from a unique force-multiplier to a strategic liability for the US, depriving it of the largest aircraft carrier, which does not require a single American on board.”

In order to push the Palestinians to forget about their dream of liberating their land, he suggested that, “A dramatic Israeli territorial concession, buttressed by a game-changing international financial package, would entice the Palestinians to abandon the goal to eliminate the Jewish State.”

The journalist pointed out that the US has been supporting a two-state solution which, if implemented, will see a Palestinian state on less than 20 per cent of historic Palestine alongside Israel on more than 80 per cent. To add some historical context to this, it should be noted that the UN 1947 Partition Plan envisaged an almost 50-50 split of the land, with a slight territorial bias towards what became the state of Israel.

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