Herd of Elephants: a New Strategy for Middle East Peace
By Joshua M.Z. Stanton
A Different view of Israel (and a Future Palestine?)

Hana Zemer, former editor of Haaretz newspaperand one of Israel’s most eulogized pundits, once wrote that Israel should be like an elephant. It would be immoral for the country to become a predator and unintelligent for it to let down its defenses and become prey to one of its foes. The elephant, she remarked, “does not take advantage of its strength or its great intelligence to harm others…. And it is not hunted, because it would be imprudent to do so given his strength.” What Zemer forgot to account for, however, was the constitution of Israel’s neighbors. A pride of lions can pick off a lone elephant, and a frightened elephant may trample another animal. Elephants get along best with other elephants.
            As news percolates about the Obama Administration’s forthcoming framework for Middle East peace, we must hope that it seeks not merely to provide details for a two-state solution, but also a more concrete plan for how to significantly bolster the political, social, and economic infrastructure of the future Palestinian state. Telling a state that it is sovereign and democratic does not make it so, and presuming that the Palestinian Authority can retain control of the West Bank without demonstrating significant improvements to the everyday life of Palestinians living there is hardly realistic. As the United States learned in post-Communist Russia, a failing economy cannot produce a successful democracy.
            Yet equally apparent is the need for the United States to help create a state in the West Bank (ideally at some point including Gaza) with a significant security force. This force need not have weapons with which to take new ground, such as fighter jets and ballistic missiles, but it should possess a significant conventional force to guarantee the stability of the nascent state. As Hamas’s 2007 takeover in Gaza demonstrates, extremists with guns often win, unless kept in check by strong forces domestically. If the Palestinian Authority builds a large and well-trained security service in the West Bank, it, like an elephant, is unlikely to succumb to the efforts of extremists. The United States has already begun high-level training for an officer corps of the security forces. However, these efforts must be expanded, as should the forces themselves.
            Though I am usually hesitant to argue that more weapons can facilitate peace, I would suggest that had Palestinian security forces had more significant training and been greater in number in Gaza, Hamas’s takeover (“election”) might have been averted. Hamas quickly proceeded to threaten Israeli cities in the south, its rockets moving ever closer to Tel Aviv. And as we saw all too vividly in last winter’s war between Israel and Hamas, when a frightened elephant is provoked, it too can overreact.
            America’s new goal in any post-‘roadmap’ framework must therefore be to raise a new elephant alongside the one created in 1948. Though Israel’s own history demonstrates that it will be a long process, it is one that must be undertaken with significant care in order to stabilize the oft-wild Middle East.
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