WHEN BAD MEN RUN GREAT NATIONS

The United States should join Macron's call for Palestinian statehood

Child in Gaza/Photo by Omar Al-Qataa

There are a lot of similarities between Bibi Netanyahu and Donald Trump, and most of the world can see it. It’s rare in advanced democracies that a genuinely cruel, sociopathic person accumulates the kind of power these two have garnered in their respective countries, but it happened. The pain and suffering that has occurred, is occurring, and will continue to occur because of it, is staggering.

In both Bibi and Trump there is a soullessness in regards to those whom they consider the “other.” Whether displayed toward Palestinians in Gaza or Latino immigrants in the United States, there’s a hole in the heart of these men. They are not tough; they are weak. For their incapacity to love, to empathize, to feel compassion for innocent members of the human family is not a display of strength. It is a display of profound brokenness. And together they are breaking the world.

Neither Israel nor the United States will emerge anything less than deeply wounded from having been led by these men. Tasked with protecting two of the world’s most profound sets of values, they have desecrated those values for the sake of their own power. They have transgressed against the sacred and civic principles that their countries stand for. Yet the world stands seemingly powerless before their moral and legal criminality. Structures created to protect us from the kinds of oppression and injustice they’ve both so casually foisted upon people, have crumbled and are crumbling before the shamelessness of their pursuits.

That’s why President Macron of France deserves praise this week. He’s said in essence, "To hell with it, we’re doing it anyway” - breaking with other Western nations by declaring that France officially recognizes a Palestinian state. To those who would say, “Wait, you can’t do that!” his response is clearly, “Yeah? Watch me.” When the status quo is such an abominable failure, the only heroes are those willing to break with it.

Of course Netanyahu slams the move, and Trump derides it. They are cold politicians for whom the truth, much less any moral imperative, is always secondary to whatever agenda they wish to enforce. But Macron has opened a crack in the door and already light is streaming in. As President of a country with more Jews and Muslims than anywhere else in Europe, he’s saying “Enough is enough.” France is an example, like so much of the world, where this conflict has international ramifications. Regardless how much the Bibi-Trump coalition might minimize Macron’s action, he was right to do it. And it has already re-ignited conversation in high places about a two-state solution.

As much as some argue that a one-state solution is the only way forward, in truth the one-state solution is a prescription for continuous civil war and bloodshed beyond anything we’ve already seen. There are enlightened leaders in both the Arab and Western worlds who have offered before, and would offer now, to jumpstart political plans for a state-two solution. Of course it’s been tried before, and everyone knows that. But past failure does not justify present inaction. It was Bibi Netanyahu who, as much as or even more than anyone else, blew up the Oslo accords. What is happening now is nothing but a trip to hell.

There was a time when the United States did its best to be an honest broker in the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians. President Carter had relative success with the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, and President Clinton made sincere though ultimately unsuccessful efforts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians. When George W. Bush brought his pack of neocons to the White House, however, the United States dropped any pretense of fairness. To them, Israel’s enemy was our enemy - and that was that.

Obama, in his inimitable Obama-esque way, knew what was true but was unwilling to spend any political capital backing it up with official policy. “Hey, guys, that’s really not fair, guys. Come on, guys…!” was hardly the tough policy position so needed at the time. The settlements are illegal. The occupation of the West Bank is illegal. And Obama knew that. But for years, the United States just let the ball keep rolling. The Republican Party wasn’t going to budge, and Obama clearly felt it wasn’t a battle he could win.

Everyone knows what has happened since.

Bibi Netanyahu, meanwhile, became more and more of an extremist with each decade. Like Trump, he grew worse as the years went by. He is every bit as much to blame for what’s happening today as is Hamas. He empowered them because he thought he could control them. And with their evil deeds on October 7th, they played him for the fool he turned out to be. One of the reasons Bibi is willing to continue this war is to delay the reckoning that would accompany a day of full disclosure. There is nothing to indicate that his current actions are bringing us any closer to release of the hostages. What is happening now is simply catastrophic, for both peoples and for the world.

In A Course in Miracles, it says “God does not give us victory in battle; He lifts us above the battlefield.” According to our Declaration of Independence, God “created all men equal” - and that does not just mean Americans. The United States should join Macron is declaring Palestinian statehood. We should do everything possible to support forces in Israel who are as sickened by what’s happening as is the rest of the world. Israel is not a monolithic society, and supporting it need not mean supporting Netanyahu’s policies. The United States should be a light unto the world, and when American foreign policy drives it deeper into darkness it is a tragedy for everyone.

In A Course in Miracles, it says “the holiest spot on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love.” Ishmael and Isaac were brothers; we share the same patriarch; we share DNA. We were at peace with each other for centuries longer than we have feared and fought each other. There are those among us, both sons of Hagar and sons of Sarah, who stand firmly in the knowing that with God’s help, this too shall pass.

Update: Since this article was published, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have joined France in announcing that their countries will declare Palestinian statehood should Israel not enter a ceasefire by September, and 22 Arab nations have called for Hamas to disarm and end its rule in Gaza.