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OCTOBER 10, 2023
On the Prospect website
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**David Dayen** on Israel's war with Gaza and the disarray in the U.S.
House
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**Ryan Cooper** on Bidenomics and a strong labor market
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**Ramenda Cyrus** on federal assistance for left-behind communities
Meyerson on TAP
Israel and Palestine: No Exit
Hamas's murder rampage is one more death blow to Palestinian
nationalism, strengthening Israeli hawks. Outside powers (mainly the
U.S.) should impose a two-state solution.
Here's one thing that Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas
have in common: None of them let Palestinians vote.
While Arab citizens of Israel can and do vote in Israeli elections,
Israel's refusal to allow the creation of a Palestinian state
effectively disfranchises the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza on
the paramount issue of their collective life. Still, the Palestinian
Authority and Hamas do govern, after a fashion, in their respective
terrains, but they don't govern democratically. The Palestinian
Authority has not held an election since 2006 rather than risk defeat,
and since Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007, it also has held no
elections and cracked down on domestic opposition. The residents of Gaza
didn't get to vote on the current attacks, or on any of their many
predecessors, or for or against the sectarian government that waged
them.
The justifiable fury that Palestinians feel about Israel and its
occupation would doubtless spur many of them to support the current
attacks if given a choice, but others would conclude that Israel's
military response and much of the world's political response would
only make things worse. Had they been told in advance that Hamas would
target children and the elderly for killing and kidnapping, to be
broadcast to the world via social media, some would have concluded those
military and political responses, sure to be more devastating than any
that had come before, made these attacks a profoundly self-sabotaging
idea. And, as Palestinians are no less or more human than anyone else,
some would have simply been appalled at such violence, as they are also
appalled when children are killed by Israeli armed forces in the West
Bank.
But Hamas didn't convene a conclave or commission a poll. They just
went ahead.
As someone who's supported Palestinian statehood for the past
half-century, the response of a number of Westerners who agree with me
on that question has been as infuriatingly stupid as it's been morally
bankrupt. The case for Palestinian statehood is every nation's
generally self-evident case for national self-determination, but it is
greatly diminished when it is linked to the deliberate barbarism of
Hamas. The pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the streets of New York and
other cities, by the very fact that they've taken to the streets
**now**, have made that link more forcefully than the opponents of
Palestinian nationhood ever could. Did they think the American public
would be more receptive to the Palestinian cause
**because**of Hamas's murders? If they did, they probably also believe
that Americans' immediate response to Pearl Harbor was to repeal the
Oriental Exclusion Act.
The Palestinians have real enemies, but with friends like these, their
slim prospects for statehood grow steadily slimmer.
Their real enemies-Israel's far-right and center-right parties,
which dominate the Knesset-have made Israel's 56-year occupation of
Palestinian territories even more oppressive and violent in recent
years. Those forces have grown stronger in Israel in rection to each
successive intifada, as the pro-two-state Israeli left has dwindled to a
sliver of the electorate. At this juncture, it's impossible to
envision the Israelis and Palestinians resolving this conflict
themselves or, for that matter, doing anything other than intensifying
it. Once the current round of slaughtering civilians has run its
god-awful course, the United States and other nations with the
wherewithal to enforce borders and provide financial aid should do all
they can to compel a two-state solution. Some populations, like the
Israeli settlers on the West Bank, will have to be and deserve to be
moved-in the settlers' case, to within Israel's internationally
recognized borders. Anyone who still believes a single state of Israelis
and Palestinians is a viable option has to believe that the worst
instances of settlers' violence in the West Bank and Hamas's mass
murders of the past few days are both jim-dandy, for they'd be
everyday occurrences in a unified state.
~ HAROLD MEYERSON
Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter
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The Speaker's Race and the Israeli War
New urgency on foreign aid might make getting through the budget and
Ukraine funding easier. More likely, it will make it harder. BY DAVID
DAYEN
Why the Full Employment Created by Bidenomics Should Be Celebrated
The economy has many problems. But the labor market hasn't been doing
this well in many decades. BY RYAN COOPER
TCTACs: A Treat for Disadvantaged Communities
The Biden administration is funding technical assistance for places that
have been left behind, so they can access public investments. BY RAMENDA
CYRUS
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