MSNBC’s Katy Tur and Senior Fellow of American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Arthur David Miller got their priorities backwards as they wondered on Tuesday how a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians can happen “with the current makeup of the Israeli government.”
The duo wasn’t so blind to current events that they think peace is possible right now. Miller had just finished describing an idealistic scenario where Israel removes Hamas from power, eventually turns Gaza over to the U.N., who in turns holds elections that see the Palestinian Authority come back into power in Gaza and the Saudis and Europeans pour resources into the Strip to rebuild it when a skeptical Tur replied, “And you have to get the buy-in, though, from Arab states surrounding Israel. And that's a big buy-in that we haven't seen Saudi Arabia or anyone else be willing to make.”
That Arab governments are not as on board with the Palestinian cause as MSNBC should give the network pause, but Tur plowed ahead, “If it is going to be a two-state solution, how do you get there. and I think that's what you are saying. How do you get there with the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, how do you get there with the current makeup of the Israeli government?”
Miller replied:
Right. Well, with the current makeup of the Israeli government, you cannot get there. This is the most extreme fundamentalist right-wing supremacist government in the history of the state of Israel. but I'm persuaded in the wake of unsuccessful wars, failures of intelligence, '73 is a perfect example, a national commission was set up, the Agranat Committee. They held the security intelligence, military professionals responsible for the intelligence failure, 2,600 Israelis were killed. Golda Meir was forced from power, not as a consequence of that report, but because of public pressure.”
Miller should’ve taken his 1973 analogy further. Israel and Egypt eventually concluded a peace deal that was signed by conservative Menachem Begin. If—a massive “if”— the Palestinians come out of this ready to deal in the same way Anwar Sadat was, then there is no reason why a right-wing government can’t come to peace with them. If they do not, even with a less Israeli right-wing government, then it becomes obvious that blaming “the most extreme fundamentalist right-wing supremacist” coalition is absurd.
Moving on from history lessons, Miller made the grotesque claim that the war has the benefit of killing off Prime Minister Benjamin’s Netanyahu’s judicial reforms, “And the best news, if there is any good news in this horrible, savage, brutal situation, is that the judicial overhaul, the effort on the part of this government to rearrange the political furniture in Israel and to emasculate and eviscerate an independent judiciary, that’s dead. Because this prime minister has presided over the worst terrorist attack in the history of the state of Israel.”
Based on the 1973 example, it is possible that Netanyahu loses, but absent any change in Palestinian behavior-- not just among Hamas, but among the people who voted for them-- it won’t matter who replaces him and no amount of dreaming up Utopian scenarios or lamenting of “settlements” will change that.
Here is a transcript for the October 10 show:
MSNBC Katy Tur Reports
10/10/2023
2:43 PM ET
KATY TUR: And you have to get the buy-in, though, from Arab states surrounding Israel. And that's a big buy-in that we haven't seen Saudi Arabia or anyone else be willing to make. And I wonder if you’re going to get to that point and I know it’s early days, but the discussion is worthy of having because it can't continue on like this. It just doesn't work. If it is going to be a two-state solution, how do you get there. and I think that's what you are saying. How do you get there with the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, how do you get there with the current makeup of the Israeli government?
ARTHUR DAVID MILLER: Right. Well, with the current makeup of the Israeli government, you cannot get there. This is the most extreme fundamentalist right-wing supremacist government in the history of the state of Israel. but I'm persuaded in the wake of unsuccessful wars, failures of intelligence, '73 is a perfect example, a national commission was set up, the Agranat Committee.
They held the security intelligence, military professionals responsible for the intelligence failure, 2,600 Israelis were killed. Golda Meir was forced from power, not as a consequence of that report, but because of public pressure. The average length of an Israel government since independence is 1.8 years. This government will be in power for one year in December. I don't like making predictions, but if I'm coming back on your show a year from now, I don't think that this government will continue to exist.
And the best news, if there is any good news in this horrible, savage, brutal situation, is that the judicial overhaul, the effort on the part of this government to rearrange the political furniture in Israel and to emasculate and eviscerate an independent judiciary, that’s dead. Because this prime minister has presided over the worst terrorist attack in the history of the state of Israel.
More Jews were killed in the last three days, in a single three-day period, than in any day since the end of the Nazi Holocaust. So there will be a political price to pay. It is not a conversation worth having now. You may end up with a national government unity in Israel before the Israelis decide to mount a ground campaign. That would be smart politics for this prime minister.
