"Gaza Shall Be Forsaken"

In the new issue of Commentary magazine I contribute an article entitled “Gaza Shall Be Forsaken.” In it, I look at the Trump plan and ask why Palestinians—alone among civilians in the last century of war, from World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all the rest —are told by their own leaders and all Arab states that they are not permitted to flee to safety. The answer: they are not viewed as vulnerable individuals and families, but as part of the struggle against the Jewish state.

Here is the final paragraph:

Gaza is, as Trump called it, a “hellhole,” and history suggests it will remain so. Not because of anything the Israelis did. They left it in 2005 with an open possibility for a better future. Not because of Donald Trump, who in his first weeks in office offered a different future and asked Arab governments to think for once about Gazans as people rather than cannon fodder in the struggle against Israel. But it is apparently still easier to dream on about the “two-state solution” and the “right of return,” and far easier to scream about Israeli crimes and Palestinian victims, than to let the Jews live in peace. Until that changes, “Gaza shall be forsaken.”

Again, full text can be found here at the Commentary web site.