The Issue: Whether the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the root of the Middle East’s turmoil.
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While The Post’s editorial “It’s Not About Israel,” (Aug. 19) correctly points out that Israel is not solely responsible for all of the Middle East’s problems, it fails to mention the importance of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Now, more than ever, the two-state solution is necessary for Israel to maintain its character as a Jewish and democratic state.
The current status quo is simply unsustainable, and time is not on Israel’s side. Todd Wexler
Brooklyn
It is certainly true, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points out, that Israel is not the root cause of all the misery and fighting in the Middle East, and resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not solve all the region’s problems.
However, while it will be difficult to obtain, Israel needs a comprehensive, sustainable two-state resolution with the Palestinians in order to avert renewed violence, effectively respond to economic, environmental and other domestic problems, and to remain a Jewish, democratic state. Failure to obtain such a resolution will result in a very negative future for Israel, the Palestinians, the United States, and much of the world.
Richard H. Schwartz
Staten Island
Of course the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is only one of many problems in the Middle East, but it’s one the United States actually stands some chance of doing something about.
While solving it certainly wouldn’t make the other problems disappear, it would take away one element that tends to inflame every situation in the region, as well as many others around the world.Martin J. Levine
Maplewood, NJ
This editorial does a real disservice to efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by carelessly attacking a false, tired straw man: “the myth that Israel is the root cause of all the misery and fighting in the Middle East.”
The distressing tide of events unfolding across the region does not absolve Israel of the responsibility to work to settle its own problems at home. A just two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a panacea to all the recent turmoil, but is necessary if Israel is to survive. Matthew Ellis
Manhattan