Israel should practice what it preaches to the Palestinians
Instead of risking a three-front war with its current policy of settlement expansion, Israel would do better if its leaders followed through on previous peace initiatives and the commitments it has made in negotiations with the Palestinians.
First, the good news. Speaking to soldiers and reporters at an Oct. 10 event marking the recent Jewish holiday of Sukkot, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said, “When the next campaign begins, and it doesn’t matter where it begins, in the north or the south, it will immediately become a two-front campaign. There is no longer a single front, and that is our basic assumption.” The northern front is Lebanon and Syria, and the southern front will open up from Gaza, he said.
Now, the bad news, which Liberman spared his visitors and the people of Israel: The next war could well include a third front. He might have forgotten that the previous war, in 2014, during which Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, started on Israel’s eastern flank, in the West Bank, following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli youths. The Cabinet's decision Oct. 17 to link the resumption of the political process to disarming Hamas is a prescription to confrontation with the Palestinians
