Aaron David Miller

Look, you know, one of the most disheartening things to me

And I'm very conscious of the fact that in an existential conflict, or one that the party is perceived to be nearly so, the influence of outside actors, however well-intentioned they may be, are minimal.

I still do not understand why.

in the course of two years, the international community, key Arab states, both Israel's treaty partners and Abraham Accord country partners, and the United States failed to impose a single cost or consequence.

A single cost or consequence.

That would have altered the trajectory of either of these combatants.

And the International Court of Justice will continue to debate and will at some point make a judgment on the issue of genocide.

That's not going to solve or fix anything.

I would have argued that instead of virtue signaling and doing performative things on the issue of Palestinian statehood, Europeans ought to have looked at their relationship with Israel.

The second largest trading bloc is the EU.

Europeans did nothing.

The Germans imposed a partial arms embargo, and yet they're buying $4 billion of aero defense systems from the Israelis.

So Israel's brand and the impact of what the Israelis have done in Gaza

That issue is going to reverberate for years.

And whether Israel's brand can be reconstituted will depend almost completely, I think, on whether or not you can actually have a new generation of Israeli leaders that will emerge.

I can't.

Let me sum it up.

Jack Kennedy described himself as an idealist without illusion.

That's where I am.

And frankly, that's where I think anybody interested seriously in working on this issue needs to be.