Middle East on Edge

Israel and Palestine have been stuck in a violent stalemate, with lopsided results favoring Israel for going on 3/4 of a century now. Here's an interesting discussion giving context to the Iran's massive assault over the weekend. It was provoked by Israel's recent hit against an Iranian general in Syria but the scale of Iran's barrage of bombs shot at Israel was unprecedented. 

Only two things seem relatively clear to me about Israel vs Palestine: Israel cannot be trusted to honor a two-state solution and the Palestinians cannot be trusted to build a state that won't make its primary directive the military destruction of Israel. Israel has fought to forestall a two-state solution for decades, and the Palestinians fight to save their claims to statehood from Israel's efforts to erase them. 

It would seem inescapable at this point that if any two-state solution is salvageable it would now necessarily involve some large, independent, international peace-keeping force. This is something I'm guessing Israel would not welcome but a wider war in the Middle East, with Iran, would almost certainly guarantee. On the other hand, Netanyahu and Israel have been goading the US into a wider war with Iran for years. 

Anyway, this has a Cuban Missile Crisis kind of geo-political tension about it. There will be a lot of pressure on Biden to handle it, while still not clear how much influence over Netanyahu or Israel he has. This has been an area of strength for him, though, so far. (BTW, Trump would escalate the crisis, don't be ridiculous.) 

Back to central paradox of the situation: Israel has a right to exist and defend itself but its ongoing dehumanizing treatment of Palestinians also guarantees it will continue to be attacked by Palestinians and those sympathetic over the rotten deal they get from Israel. 

Curiously, a lot of observers I know seem to think getting rid of Netanyahu could deescalate the violence-- and it certainly seems worth a try, Netanyahu is a smooth-talking thug and crook-- but the Israeli in this discussion thinks Benny Gantz (who looks like Netanyahu's little brother, no?) would make little difference in quelling the violence against Palestinians or Iran. 

Anyway, it's a mess and here's hoping the violence in Gaza and the West Bank stops and cooler heads, on all sides, prevail. Seems pretty clear Iran and US don't want a wider war. Not yet sure about Netanyahu and Israel.