King Abdallah, President Obama, and an Israeli Cure for Deafness

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There he goes again. King Abdallah of Jordan was a guest on Meet the Press last week. He said, “Unless we solve the core issue of the Israeli-Palestinian, Israeli-Arab challenges, then we will always be an area of instability that costs all of us… Any crisis that you want to talk about, whether it’s Al Qaida, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, all comes back to the sore -- the emotional issue that is Palestine and Jerusalem. Any conflict that you pick in the Middle East today, ‘all roads lead back to Jerusalem’ is probably be a better way of -- of explaining it.”

The King is an eloquent spokesman. But he has a strong motive for being less than candid. His monarchy in Jordan is unlikely to survive another decade unless a separate Arab Palestinian state is created in a way that leaves Jordanian territory out of the equation. This is why the King forwards the preposterous idea that solving the Israeli-Palestinian problem allows the Israeli-Arab-Muslim problem to be solved and in turn, is the best way for the United States to persuade Iran to back away from a nuclear program.

Unfortunately, David Gregory, the host of Meet the Press is not educated enough on this issue, confrontational enough, or quick witted enough – take your pick – to have asked the King how the dispute between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs/Arab-Muslim world caused Iraq to invade Iran or Kuwait, Syria to sit on Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt to fear Iran, Hezbollah to seek to upend Egypt, the Taliban to attack in Pakistan, genocide in Darfur, etcetera, etcetera.

Hopefully, President Obama won’t be swayed by the eloquent, self-serving, King of Jordan.

Hopefully, President Obama will learn quickly and won’t be swayed by Bush/Clinton era politicians like his Mid-East envoy, George Mitchell, who says: the "two-state solution is the only solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hopefully, the President won’t strong-arm Israel.

If the President is swayed and does strong-arm Israel, Israel and the free world will pay the price. Israel’s imminent survival may not be at stake by a return to the 1967 borders, but it’s viability as a thriving Jewish state is at stake.

As for the world, the price will be steep. As just one example, think of the medical discoveries that may be lost over time if Israel is prevented from thriving. Recently, Israeli researchers made a discovery regarding the function of small molecules in the inner ears of mice that could lead to a cure of adult deafness. Wouldn’t it be nice to cure adult deafness for all of humanity?

There is plenty of room in the Middle-East for everyone. If the Palestinian Arabs really want their own state, the state should not be feckless. Surrounding Arab states, including Jordan should donate some land to the cause of their brethren. Israel, the only Jewish majority state in the world, should be large enough to be independent and viable well into the future. A thriving Israel benefits the world.

Here’s hoping the world can hear. If not today, then when Israeli medical researchers help cure the deaf.

--David Naggar