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Without ceding power, still strong incentives for Israel to negotiate

Andrew J. Bacevich (“Peace between unequal parties”) provides an intriguing and compelling analysis of Israel’s reluctance to give up power in relation to its Arab enemies, but he ignores the incentives that remain for the government to negotiate.

The group J Street, which I support as a Jewish American, does not call for Bacevich’s solution: the withdrawal of military or economic support for Israel by the US government. We note that Israeli businesses have called on their government to make peace because it’s good for business and that the population is war-weary and doesn’t like being occupiers. We also note the well-known demographic dilemma: the risk that Jews will become a minority and will relinquish democracy, which underlies the fracas over the term “apartheid” that comes up regularly.

Andrew Oram
Arlington