Ever since the modern State of Israel was founded in 1948, and even before that, there have been attempts to negotiate a peace settlement that would enable Israelis and their neighbors to live side-by-side in an atmosphere of harmony and mutual tolerance.
Presidents, Kings, Premiers, dictators, strongmen, weaklings — all of them and more gave their best efforts to achieving a peace settlement.
All failed.
Yet every new American administration, every new President, every new Secretary of State, thinks that he or she possesses the solution that has eluded everyone else. Everyone thinks he can untie the Gordian knot that has confounded the world.
And again, all fail.
It is one of the most curious situations that has ever occurred in world history: peace settlement after peace settlement has failed, yet no one ever seems to stop and wonder why. Instead, they go back to the drawing board, thinking that this time will be unlike all the others, this time the key to peace will be revealed, this time they’ll finally hit upon the secret.
In The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process, I tell the fascinating, never-before-told story of these negotiations, and I do provide the key that has eluded everyone else: in this book, I show why the negotiations failed, and why the entire “peace process” has been ill-conceived from the start.
And yes, I do offer a way forward out of this most intractable of problems.
This is one of the only books to buck the convention wisdom about this vexed issue, which affects not only the Middle East, but the entire world — and American policy.
It’s long past time for a realistic appraisal of the situation and a new approach. The book will be out December 3. You can preorder it here.
More about it coming soon.

Dajjal says
Bottom line: the aggressors are Muslims. Consider Allah’s promise, threat & imperatives. Muslims must hate whomever Allah hates, including Jews. Muslims must wage perpetual war against Jews. Muslims must reconquer lost territory. They will burn if they don’t try. That is “Why Peace Is Impossible”.
carpediadem says
Disagree.
Peace is impossible because the entire world thinks it necessary to sympathise with and FUND the constant, Islamically-based jihad against Israel by Arabs, propagandise for it, fund anti Israel NGOs, community groups, educational facilities, schools, local counsils, churches, church groups, Lefty groups and of course fund Jewhating Muslims in every country in the world and their proPali groups at universities and in society, even in various govts and govt bureaucracies worldwide.
The EU made a bargain with the Islamic countries to sponsor a “Palestinian” state built on the bodies of murdered Jews. They give billions to the Arabs in many forms, direct and indirect. They help Arabs build illegally on Israeli land, shrinking by fiat the land belonging to Jews.
The Left and many Muslims support it.
There will be no peace because of this. Of course there will be no pace agsint jiahd anywhere else either.
The jihad against Israel is only one branch of the general jihad, but those who want all Jews dead obsess over it and make it the only “conflict” at hand.
carpediadem says
Oops.Correction.
Of course there will be no peace against jihad anywhere else either.
gravenimage says
Muslims would still hate and commit violence against Infidels even if so many of us were not enabling them.
Angemon says
Spoiler alert: is it because negotiators ignore that one of the sides isn’t interested in living “side-by-side in an atmosphere of harmony and mutual tolerance”? 😉
gravenimage says
+1
gravenimage says
70 Years. Endless Negotiations. Yet No Peace. Here’s Why.
…………………..
I knew that the “Palestinians” wanting peace was a complete sham after Oslo–although I had suspected it earlier. This was before I knew much about Islam, or I would have figured it out sooner.
I am looking forward to reading Robert Spencer’s new book.
Emilie Green says
Islam. Islam. Islam.
The three reasons for the failure of the so-called “peace” negotiations.
If their Qur’an says that Jews are to be hated and never trusted, for all time, then that settles the matter. At least as far as the Muslims are concerned. I realize that there are those who don’t have the Muslim mindset who just couldn’t believe that there are people who think this way, and could never accept that Muslims operate on this premise. But despite their incredulity, that is a fact of Muslim thinking and a fact of Muslim life.
Keys says
Well said, EG.
Allah wills it so,
the Koran tells me so.
mortimer says
It’s not really a ‘DELUSION’ … they do not believe it themselves. On July 24, 1922, the United Kingdom hived off 77% of the original Mandatory Palestine, naming it ‘Transjordan’. The remaining 23% of the territory was for the Jewish homeland. But 77% did not satisfy the Arabs, because they wanted 100%.
That has not changed. They really want a reunited territory of pre-1922. Moreover, Arabs have actually dislike the name ‘Palestine’ considering it to be ‘Jewish’, when it is actually what most Europeans called it pre-1947.
This is what Arab leaders have said about the non-existence of ‘Palestine’ …
“There is no such country as Palestine. ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible… Palestine is alien to us.” – Awni Abdul-Hadi, Peel Commission testimony, 1937
“There is no such thing as Palestine in history. Absolutely not.” – Arab historian, Dr. Philip Hitti, Anglo-American Committee testimony, 1946
“It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria.” – Saudi representative to the United Nations, 1956
“Never forget this one point: there is no such thing as a Palestinian people. There is no Palestinian entity … Palestine is an integral part of Syria.” – Hafez al-Assad to Yasser Arafat
Trick_or_Treat says
Don’t recall anybody commonly referring to the region in general as ‘Palestine’ prior to the early 1960’s, let alone prior to 1948. The (excuse me) ‘state’ of Palestine, and ‘Palestinian people’ is an invention that was thought up in the head of this bloke named Yasser Arafat – in exactly the same manner as the inventions of this nasty vicious incitement called the qur’an, and it’s so-called ‘allah’ was cooked up in the head of this idiot named mohhamed.
gravenimage says
It was mostly Jews who referred to the region as Palestine–as in the saying, “Next year in Palestine!”. It did not refer to Muslims at all.
ElderlyZionist says
Leben Zol Palestina, Long Live Palestine, a hot klezmer jazz bulgar from Poland between the world wars:
Infidel says
Not just that, the term ‘Palestinian’ before 1948 was used to refer to the Jews, not the Arabs. The Arabs were just called Arabs.
As Hugh pointed out, it wasn’t until 1967, after the 6-day war, that the Arabs started calling it the ‘Palestine Liberation Organization’ and rebranded themselves as ‘Palestinians’. I’d say it was the most successful rebranding exercise in history. Hitherto, it has been seen as a war b/w a tiny country Israel vs an Arab empire stretching from Morocco to Iraq, and Syria to Somalia. But by rebranding themselves as ‘Palestinian’, they made it look like the larger Israeli state vs Arabs packed in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In other words, they flipped the David vs Goliath narrative to make Israel appear like Goliath, rather than David.
Also, historically, during Muslim rule of the area – both Arab and Turk – there was no entity called Palestine, and Jerusalem was the capital of nothing. Everything east of the Euphrates was Iraq, and everything west of the Euphrates – in other words, the entire Levant – was Syria. The capital was Damascus, there was no Jordan, Lebanon nor Palestine. If the Arabs are so enthusiastic about history, maybe they could persuade Jordan and Lebanon to dissolve themselves and become a part of Syria again? But no, they won’t, since an Alawite dynasty named Assad now runs the place. Any reading of history of the region during Arab and Turkish rule all refer to the region as Egypt and Syria, w/ the Suez canal probably being the dividing line
gravenimage says
Thank you for that link, ElderlyZionist., I have long been a fan of Klezmer music.
Infidel says
Mortimer, Hafez al-Assad’s statement to Arafat was historically accurate: as I pointed out above, whenever the area was under Muslim rule – either Arab or Turk, the entire Levant was known as Syria, which was the entire area west of the Euphrates. There was no Palestine, Transjordan or Lebanon then – just Syria, which ran until the Suez Canal, at which point, Egypt started. All historical references to the region always talk in terms of Syria and Egypt: even Arabia was a part of an extended Syria once the Umayyad caliphate started in Damascus. Like Saladin was known as the sultan of Egypt and Syria
Of course, there’s no way today’s Arabs would be caught dead conceding that, since they’d then have to concede that the Assads and the Alawites have a claim to Arab Islamic leadership, which is as heretical as anything else they can imagine
Tony Naim says
First time in history the designation of “Syria” came around was in 64BC with the Roman Empire expansion into the eastern Mediterranean. Such designation was made based on the language of the indigenous population who spoke Syriac.
Syriac is the same as Aramaic, which is the Jewish designation. Based on the word “Aram” meaning highland in Hebrew. In reference to the high lands north of Israel.
Syriac or Aramaic continued to be the language of the Fertile Crescent until the Arab occupation in the seventh century.
Arabs are not only imposed their language but they continue to intimidate to impose their distorted religion too.
Infidel says
The Arabic term ‘ash-Sham’ that they use – the official name of Syria – was historically actually used to describe the Levant as a whole. In other words, the Asian side of the Suez Canal was Syria, and the African side was Egypt.
Syria for the Arabs didn’t mean the same thing as it did for the Romans
Tony Naim says
Al sham refers more specifically to Damascus the city. Bilad Al sham is the designation to the general area you refer to. Still Souryia in Arabic is the same designation that Arabs borrowed from the Romans
mortimer says
The British should simply have said to the Arabs in 1922, “OK, you’ve got 77% of the territory of Palestine and that’s all you’ll get. Enjoy it. And work with the Jews or we’ll come back and make you wish you did.”
The British tried to weasel out of taking a stand and helping the Jews create a strong state that wouldn’t be challenged by anyone. Weakness and a lack of resolution of the territory keeps the conflict going. Israel’s gradual approach of assimilating the territory into Israel is the best approach. Arabs will gradual become more comfortable with life in Israel and enjoy the life style. The jihadists will eventually lose the allure they have now. People will decide to get a life.
KWJ says
I wonder if they were to have a peace settlement and two-state resolution how much of UNWRA funds would dry up. A Palestinian said to Katie Hopkins in an interview there that he thinks it’s about all the money they get out of this endless problem. But I saw a Palestinian on video say if they took over Israel only Muslims would be allowed in a holy place currently available to all faiths. Apparently he picked up on the Islamic doctrine of subjugating and humiliating non-Muslims.
They’re biding time and world opinion and whatever will make Israel weaker. The USA’s support is a wrench in their fan they hope to overcome. I doubt many leaders who talk about the “peace process” really believe that or else their heads are in the sand. Besides, Hamas’s charter is clear that the state of Israel is to be defeated and it’s all or nothing.
Tony Naim says
Before 1947, there were no Palestinian refugees. None, Zero, Zilch. Jews owned half the land in Palestine which they BOUGHT square inch by square inch. When the British decided to leave , Jews demanded political rights. THAT IS WHERE ALL THE PROBLEM STARTED : EQUAL POLITICAL RIGHTS FOR THE JEWS, which was incomprehensible in the minds of the majority Muslim population.
HOW CAN A SUPREMACIST RELIGION LIKE ISLAM BE ACCEPTING OF JEWS AS EQUAL , WHEN THE KORAN ITSELF FORBIDS SUCH RELATIONSHIP ?
So the conflict began!
22 Arab countries adopt Islam as official religion of their states, the prime source of their legislation. Islam is discriminatory and violent. Islam and human rights are mutually exclusive.How can the UN accept such a reality?
How can the West?
A Muslim immigrant lands in America, their full rights are guaranteed by the constitution.
Islam only guarantees Dhimmitude to non Muslims!
Where is justice? How in hell can this prevail?
gravenimage says
+1
Mr. Cohen says
Jonathan S. Tobin (editor in chief of JNS dot org) said:
“The Palestinians are still the prisoners of a mindset
that causes them to refuse to accept the legitimacy
of a Jewish state, no matter where its borders are drawn.”
SOURCE:
Will a secular surge spark a revolution in Israeli politics?
by Jonathan S. Tobin, 2019 June 5
http://www.jns.org/opinion/will-a-secular-surge-spark-a-revolution-in-israeli-politics/
Mr. Cohen says
What Palestinians DON’T Want YOU to Know
by Hananya Naftali:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iof1T7WZvLc
Mr. Cohen says
How a pro-Palestinian American reporter
changed his views on Israel and the conflict:
by Hunter Stuart, 2017 February 15
http://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/A-view-from-the-frontlines-480829
Mr. Cohen says
How Palestinians are still trying to figure out who they really are!
http://israelshield.blogspot.co.il/2015/03/read-how-palestinians-are-still-trying.html
Mr. Cohen says
Who Were the 1948 Arab Refugees?
by Yoram Ettinger
http://www.algemeiner.com/2016/06/06/who-were-the-1948-arab-refugees/
Mr. Cohen says
In this short article, Yossi Kuperwasser [a retired
Brigadier General of the Israeli Army] explains
that the Palestinians are not serious about
peace with Israel, because the Palestinian
government refuses to stop [or even reduce]
the money rewards it pays to terrorists who kill
Jewish civilians [including Jewish teenagers and children]:
Still no partner for peace
by Yossi Kuperwasser:
https://www.jns.org/opinion/still-no-partner-for-peace/
dhans says
What actually defines a separate people? I would say there has to be some difference in language, dress, culture, or even food. None of those things apply to differentiate the Palestinians from Arabs.
carpediadem says
They are Arabs.
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
Did anyone see the show last night entitled, Nazi Jihad? It covers the persecution of the Jews in the Middle Easr during WWII by the muslims as an outgrowth of nazism. I believe it was a PBS program. At no time do they link Islam and nazism. Shame on PBS.
gravenimage says
Still glad they covered this at all.
Tama says
Way too much brainwashing with rules on which foot to get into the bathroom with and how to drink water, and then crap like this spread on social media including braille as a muz invention. BBC and other corporations pushing that crap.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Ah9ZlBxBu/?igshid=85x1zb4c2fbk
gravenimage says
Good grief–Muslims had nothing to do with inventing braille. Besides, typically Muslims abuse and mistreat the handicapped–they would not even think of such a thing.
And this was ultimately developed from a French military code–again, nothing to do with Muslims.
FireFox says
People and cultures will always think themselves better than others, but their humanity allows for co-existence. All, except for Islam, whose arrogant supremacism and god of hate glorifies terrorism and death, commands expansionism, and promotes taqiya and slavery, making Islam the eternal cancerous scourge of humanity. Islam is the belligerent child of humanity and needs to sit by itself in a corner, preferably in the desert from where it arose. Moving Islam into the enlightened free world only magnifies its evil nature and starts a new growth of societal cancer.
infidel says
72 Years. Endless Negotiations. Yet No Peace.. between Pakistan and India..
Just replace Pakistan with Palestine, Jews with Hindus, and Israel with India and
it will still read the same..
dumbledoresarmy says
Spot on. And in fact the partition of British India – due to Muslim refusal to live as minority in a non-Islamic state – took place at *exactly* the same time as the partition of Mandatory ‘Palestine’ into a Muslim/ Arab-dominated portion and a smaller Jewish portion (Israel).
The ‘peace’ process’ with Muslims in Southern Thailand or in the Philippines is just as futile as the ‘peace process’ in the ‘middle east’.
Muslims are taught to never make permanent agreements with non-Muslims; they may make use of a *temporary* ‘truce-treaty’ – hudna – if they feel themselves momentarily weak vis a vis the Infidels, but they are supposed to use the time thus ‘bought’ to regroup and rearm (it is a ‘timeout’) and the instant they feel strong enough to go back in for the kill, they are supposed to do so.. Muslims do NOT feel obliged to keep any agreement or treaty made with non-Muslims. They will break such treaties, promises/ agreements, at will, if they think they can get away with it and profit from so doing. The key is the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, which Mohammed feigningly made with the naive and foolish meccans and which he very soon treacherously broke, for Muslim advantage. (Though Muslims are very good at reversing perceptions of reality; they will usually claim – with loud hysterical shriekings – that the *other*, infidel party breached the ‘agreement’ in some way; but those who keep their feet on the ground and look very calmly and steadily at the facts, will see that in fact the *Muslims* are the ones who initiated the breach).
Non-Islamic rulers, governments, diplomats, businesspeople and private citizens need to get this basic concept through their heads. The bottom line is: you are best not trying to ‘do business’ with Muslims, whose intention is very probably, from the outset, to weaken you/ damage you and yours/ cause you harm/ destroy you.
People forget that orthodox Islam views non-Muslims as ‘illegal occupiers’ absolutely *everywhere* on planet earth; Muslims feel themselves entitled to rule the *entire planet*, every last inch of it, and are supposed to wage jihad neverendingly, in all its forms, until the whole planet is one vast, hideous sharia despotism.
Infidel says
And in India, the Nehrus at the time equated India w/ the Arabs, and Pakistan w/ Israel, since the analogy was a minority carveout of a country (Pakistan, Israel) from a larger country (India, Transjordan) b’cos minorities refused to live as minorities – Jews in Transjordan, and Muslims in India. The incompatibility of Muslims w/ both Jews and Hindus just wasn’t a factor there, according to them
Of course, in the minds of Nehru and Gandhi, there was never anything wrong w/ the Muslims, just the Brits, and so once India became independent, it became a diplomatic puppet of both the Arabs and the Soviets. It wasn’t until 1992, after the worldwide Muslim condemnation of the destruction of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, that India realized that it couldn’t depend on Arab support against Pakistan, and finally opened up diplomatic relations w/ Israel
Thomas Frank says
Peace will come but that will be the end of the world.
Singleton Mosby says
The piece of real estate Jews call “Israel” and Arabs call “Palestine” has no more significance to the United States then Zimbabwe or Tibet. Our country should confine its concerns to matters that are within out vital interest.
gravenimage says
Here’s the appalling Singleton Mosby again, suggesting that our abandoning civilized Israel to the ravening Muslims is good for America.
Also, even if he cares nothing about Jews–which is clear–few things would so embolden Jihadists as destroying Israel would do.
Singleton Mosby says
Sorry for my typo. I meant “our” not “out.”
Paul says
As an example of intransigence I would like to point you to Northern Ireland versus Ireland/Irish Free State/Eire.
They speak the same language, are equally proud of their country but separated by a religion and a belief one will lord it over the other even though both accept parts of the EU constitution regarding personal freedoms. IE Homosexuality and abortion.
I can understand people from the 7th century hating their neighbours but these people are in the 21st and swear blind about Scottish settlers in the 17th century. How can you discuss these matters with such rigid minds and opinions.
Answers on a postcard please.
Paul
gravenimage says
Neither Northern Ireland nor Eire follow a creed that tells them to slaughter each other.
Would that this were true of Muslims, whose faith tells them to murder Jews,
Perhaps that is why there is peace in Ireland, and not in the Middle East.
FYI says
The mistaken belief that the “palestinians” ever really wanted peace and that constant appeasement will somehow provide a solution given their implacable hatred of Israel…
The COD Delusion.
Rarely says
It has nothing to do with islam per se. Islam is just the tool that the Arab leadership uses to rally the populace against “the other” (in this case — Israel) so that they, the leaders, can maintain their power and privilege. The Palestinians have been used as a political tool since Israel’s inception. It works so it continues.
The arrival of Iran as an enemy of the various Arab regimes and Israel may make for strange bedfellows and may also break down some of the rhetoric against Israel leading to an improvement in relations. But, as is the case with dictatorships, a change of leader can, and often does, lead to a complete reversal of the previous regime’s policies.
It is hard to imagine a scenario where Arab-muslim animosity towards Israel is eased since it works so well. I suspect that the best Israel can hope for is peaceful co-existence.
gravenimage says
Rarely, the idea that Muslims are not really Islam is entirely mistaken.
And the idea that if only Muslims had different leaders that they would reject Islam is pretty questionable–where has this ever happened? The closest was Turkey under Attaturk–and Turkey today is fast re-Islamizing.
James Lincoln says
Test
dumbledoresarmy says
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, at a conference in Jerusalem some years ago, tried to explain the sheer intransigence of Islam. She told the Israeli Jews, at that conference (which was discussing the so-called ‘peace process’) that “even if you give them Jerusalem, there will be no peace”. Mr Spencer’s friend Hugh Fitzgerald put it this way – “there is no solution – one-state, two-state or n-state – to the Jihad”. He argues that the only way forward is for Israel (or, for that matter, any other non-Islamic nation) both to *be* AND to be seen to be, inassailable. Then the principle of ‘darura’, necessity, kicks in; the Ummah, like all bullies, *will* back off, if he thinks he will get a bloody nose and his backside kicked good and hard, if he tries anything on.
My own view – and I have reached this after ten years and more, at this site, reading many of Robert’s books and many, many other books including the Quran – is that if Israel is to survive, in the foreseeable future, they *have* to have complete control of the military high ground – Mt Zion, and the Mountains of Israel, Judea and Samaria; the Jordan Valley; and the Golan. These should all be indissolubly part of Israel.
And, to be blunt, I think that, over time, all professed card-carrying mohammedans – death cultists – need to be expelled from Israel.. and from every other currently-majority-non-Islamic country… and then, once out, *kept* out. The ‘nice’ Muslims essentially play goodcop to the jihadis bad cop; their smiles and wiles and niceness help to confuse the naive infidels and prevent them from defending themselves successfully ; and those same nice Muslms quietly pocket the gains – in territory, in deference – brought them by those who wage jihad on their behalf, to expand the power and dominance of the Ummah. Sam Solomon’s book “Al Hijra” is very instructive.
Got Muslims? Got Jihad. That is true of Israel, India, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Australia, USA, Uk, France.. Sri Lanka… Ethiopia.. Kenya.. everywhere there are Musilms sooner or later there is covert and/ or overt aggression against the surrounding non-Muslims.
The only way not to have jihad waged from within the gates (Australia, for example, has had no fewer than *sixteen* jihad plots hatched within the past four years or so) is to not have Muslims within the gates.
And once you have them *outside* the gates you have to keep them outside.. and make damn sure that your gates and walls are very solid, and very well and resolutely defended.. into the foreseeable future. For generations. Whether the infidel country is Israel, or India, or Australia, or USA, or *any* other infidel country one might care to name, the same precautions can and should be taken.
Thse days modern technology allows us to flood the airwaves of the ummah, with persuasively presented alternatives to Islam. But while we wait and hope for that sort of thing to have some effect (but we cannot *count* on it having enough of an effect).. we had better keep pressing our governments to get to work on halting.. and then reversing.. the Hijra, the Muslim immigration-invasion that has happened and is happening across the world. The Ummah colonies are fifth-columnists, everywhere they are established.
We wouldn’t allow hundreds of thousands of known members of some organised-crime syndicate to enter and settle in our countries. In the Cold War, we in the free west would not have admitted hundreds of thousands of card-carrying Soviet Communists to enter and settle within our societies. So.. we should not be admitting known adherents of Islam – whcih is a totalitarian political entity, and a human-sacrifice/ death cult/ war cult into the bargain, and also functions very much like an organised-crime “family” (and for that matter, an awful lot of Muslims in the west are up to their necks in organised crime, human trafficking, sex slavery, drug-pushing and manufacture) – into our countries.
gravenimage says
Agreed, Dumbledore’s Army.
Francis Weber says
Peace is possible when someone with the resolve to achieve it nukes Mecca!
gravenimage says
Francis, the Kaaba has been damaged and even destroyed several times. The canard that Islam would clear up if only Mecca were nuked has no basis in reality.