Mideast Peace Begins with Those Who Actually Want It

A White House event yesterday marked the promising beginning of diplomatic, economic and strategic ties between Israel and two Muslim states in the Persian Gulf, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The way is now clear for many more such breakthroughs – and possibly for an enduring peace in that troubled part of the world.

President Trump deserves great credit for pursuing policies  that engineered this achievement, starting with his effective rejection of the long-practiced conventional wisdom that such a peace depended on first achieving a negotiated resolution of the Palestinians’ conflict with Israel.

The bottom line is now clear: Peace can only be made with those who actually want it. Israel does. Evidently, so do a growing number of Arab states. And they will have it and the resulting benefits. The Palestinians’ rulers still do not want peace – and they won’t.

This is Frank Gaffney.