- IDF soldiers in the West Bank
By Ben Cohen: The ongoing Israeli control of the West Bank hands the Palestinians a decisive strategic advantage they will never concede, and therefore Israel needs to make clear to the international community that the “occupation…is part of the price Israel has to pay to live here,” a leading Israeli strategic analyst argued in a newly-published paper.
The paper — authored by Max Singer, an expert at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Israel — comes at a time of growing apprehension over the viability of a “two-state solution,” within the framework of which Israel would hand over most of the West Bank and conceivably parts of eastern Jerusalem to the Palestinians. Since taking office earlier this year, US President Donald Trump has indicated on several occasions that he is among the concept’s doubters, saying that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators should not feel bound by the formula in shaping a final peace agreement.