The Palestinians should be facing a 'tough love' policy - opinion

For over two decades, columnists, politicians, and diplomats have been urging a policy of ‘tough love’ to be focused on Israel, a term that most probably originated with a 1968 book by ecumenical youth organizer Bill Milliken titled Tough Love. 

The pundits were many. There was Stephen Zunes in 2001, Nicholas Kristof and Roger Cohen in 2008, and Thomas L. Friedman, as recently as December 2023, advising President Biden that “it’s time for the US to give Israel some tough love.” 

Technology executive Derek Leebaert of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship even used it retroactively in the Financial Times on November 10, 2023, in describing Dwight Eisenhower’s 1957 threat to Israel to withdraw from the Sinai or face sanctions.

Observing the appointments being made by the incoming US president, Donald Trump, and the shaping of his administration, specifically as regards the matter of the Israel-Arab conflict, the question needs to be asked: Is the time coming when the pro-Palestine factions will be faced with American tough love?

Even the latest ruling by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant is not expected to be a problem. Mike Waltz, Donald Trump’s incoming national security advisor, said the court “can expect a strong response” come January. 

So, too, were the reactions of Tom Emmer, Lindsey Graham, and soon-to-be Senate majority leader John Thune. Even Democrat John Fetterman employed an expletive and added that the court had “no standing, relevance, or path.” That’s being tough.

Most assuredly, tough love applied in the form of diplomatic pressure on the Arab side has been sorely missing from the equation. Thirty-one years on from the signing of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority has not halted anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incitement, nor has it promoted a peace and coexistence school curriculum. 

It refuses to terminate its “pay-for-slay” funding of terrorists and American aid assistance flows without any proper financial supervision. Just last week, in addition to a September 30 announcement of nearly $336 million in humanitarian assistance for the people of Gaza and the West Bank, on October 24, 2024, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said $135 m. in additional “US aid for Palestinian civilians” would be transferred.

The Biden administration placated the irked Mahmoud Abbas by establishing an Office for Palestinian Affairs situated at the old Jerusalem Consulate compound after the US embassy was moved to the city. 

Its staff, in conjunction with Israeli and international pro-Palestine activists, got to work targeting Israeli citizens and NGOs for unique sanctions, a punishment for a fictional crime of interfering with American foreign policy and one unproven in any court. 

In fact, embarrassingly, one person was mistakenly identified, forcing a quick switch of names.

UNRWA, the UN agency keeping alive the refugee status of Gazans as well as providing employment to Hamas terrorists, bases, and storerooms for their operation and weaponry, manages to avoid criticism.

In America, as we witnessed at congressional hearings, the US Department of Education has allowed American universities over the past two decades to permit the colonizing of academia by a progressive, woke, and critical theory agenda. This has resulted in the most dangerous atmosphere developing for Jewish and pro-Israel students on campuses. 

The courses being taught and the lecturers teaching them have created a prejudicial and discriminatory tidal wave of physical and psychological hatred to explode.

What form should tough love toward the PA assume?

For a start, the authority must be instructed in no uncertain terms, to halt its anti-Zionism incitement and instruct its adherents abroad to do the same. The idea of a Jewish national identity must be recognized in word and practice. Peace and coexistence programs are to be inculcated in the school system. 

There must be proper financial oversight over its budget, especially the spoon-fed funds provided by NGOs and EU and US government grants. The rhetoric should be toned down, and its interference with American policy goals, such as the extension of the Abraham Accords, must stop.

If the PA wants to be loved, it needs to make some tough decisions.

If that, however, does not work – and experience has proven that the pro-Palestine camp insists it wishes to be a ‘victim,’ claims no real agency of its own, and demands that all its demands be met or otherwise it will resort to terror, an instrument that it uses first, foremost, and all the time in any case, all the while denying Jews any national identity and legitimacy – there are other steps that can be taken.

There is also partial resettlement as an option of ‘tough love.’

As even the UN Refugee Agency notes, resettlement is a desirable durable solution. However, while the US rejects the advocating for the resettlement of Gazans outside of Gaza as “rhetoric [that] is inflammatory and irresponsible,” on November 21, the State Department announced its committed dedication to a program of Resettlement Diplomacy Network (RDN). 

That program “saves lives through effective protection pathways,” spokesman Matthew Miller stated and added, “We will explore collective diplomatic action to improve and strengthen global resettlement and unlock bottlenecks.”

That November 21 RDN meeting, chaired by none other than Antony Blinken, sought to provide “practical, regular, and safe solutions to challenges presented by displacement.” 

One such example was when in June this year, Julieta Noyes, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, was in Indiana to promote a new refugee resettlement program for 1,150 refugees and Afghan special immigrant visa holders in America. 

The Biden administration even formed the Welcome Corps, which allows local community groups to sponsor refugees and help assist with settlement.

Why isn’t Egypt being pressured to allow Gazans into northern Sinai, even if for a specified limited time? Why is Blinken fearful of showing some tough love to the other side of the Arab-Israel conflict?

The writer is a researcher, analyst, and commentator on political, cultural, and media issues.