How Vladimir Jabotinsky Foresaw Israel’s Current Predicament

In his 1923 essay “The Iron Wall,” the Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky—whose Revisionist Zionist movement was the predecessor of the Likud—argued that conflict with the Palestinian Arabs was inevitable and that only by acquiring significant military power would a Jewish state be able to coexist with its Arab neighbors. Yossi Klein Halevi discusses the many ways in which this essay proved prescient, what it got wrong, and its author’s surprising—but characteristic—sympathy with Arab national pride. (Interview by Jonathan Silver. Audio, 50 minutes.)

Read more at Tikvah

More about: Israel & Zionism, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Revisionist Zionism, Vladimir Jabotinsky, Yossi Klein Halevi

Expand Gaza into Sinai

Feb. 11 2025

Calling the proposal to depopulate Gaza completely (if temporarily) “unworkable,” Peter Berkowitz makes the case for a similar, but more feasible, plan:

The United States along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE should persuade Egypt by means of generous financial inducements to open the sparsely populated ten-to-fifteen miles of Sinai adjacent to Gaza to Palestinians seeking a fresh start and better life. Egypt would not absorb Gazans and make them citizens but rather move Gaza’s border . . . westward into Sinai. Fences would be erected along the new border. The Israel Defense Force would maintain border security on the Gaza-extension side, Egyptian forces on the other. Egypt might lease the land to the Palestinians for 75 years.

The Sinai option does not involve forced transfer of civilian populations, which the international laws of war bar. As the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other partners build temporary dwellings and then apartment buildings and towns, they would provide bus service to the Gaza-extension. Palestinian families that choose to make the short trip would receive a key to a new residence and, say, $10,000.

The Sinai option is flawed. . . . Then again, all conventional options for rehabilitating and governing Gaza are terrible.

Read more at RealClear Politics

More about: Donald Trump, Egypt, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula