After Oslo, A Way Forward

In an Op-Ed Contribution to the Jerusalem Post, U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R- Kansas) comments on the failings of the “two-state solution” and describes his thoughts on a new direction for American foreign policy with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

“When it comes to America’s foreign policy and diplomacy, the significance of the Gaza conflict is clear. The disintegration of Hamas-run Gaza represents the final step in the demise of the Oslo two-state paradigm. On the question of what role the United States should play moving forward, the path is also clear, but it will require the new administration, and the foreign policy establishment, to shed its fixation with the stagnant two-state model and work toward a regional solution that would lead to a more promising and secure future for Palestinians and Israelis.

The background to the current fighting illustrates the failure of the Oslo paradigm. Founded to destroy the entire State of Israel through “a great and serious struggle against the Jews,” Hamas has implemented its goals through a policy of wholesale slaughter of innocent Israeli civilians. In 2001, Hamas began launching rockets into southern Israel, only seven months after former Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Yasser Arafat a state on 98 percent of the land sought by Palestinians for that purpose. Rather than pacifying the Palestinians, Israel’s territorial overtures sparked a second intifada led by the Palestinian Authority itself, killing and wounding thousands of innocent people.”

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