Thinking about the Israeli-Palestinian issue over the past week has reminded me of that famous (but possibly apocryphal) Henry Kissinger quote about European disunity. Israel's detractors don't want to hear this, but Arab disunity is one of the biggest impediments to making peace in the region. Whom should Netanyahu call if/when he wants to make peace?

Based on the vitriol in the press, you could be forgiven for forgetting that Israel has withdrawn twice in the past 10 years from occupied territories, and formed a new party 5 years ago (Kadima) based on a platform of withdrawing from the remaining territories. Kadima was the ruling party in Israel until Netanyahu took over last year. 

Unilateral withdrawal was supposed to address the problem of not being able to dial up the leader of the Arab world. But it didn't--without Arab leadership, the most extreme voices prevailed in response. After Israel pulled out of South Lebanon, there was no peace-- only rockets and kidnappings from a de-facto Hizbullah state. Replacing one "party of God" for another, the withdrawal from Gaza has had the same result.

So the withdrawals from South Lebanon and Gaza, which were supposed to be the templates for withdrawal from the Golan Heights and the West Bank, have instead become fierce arguments for continuing to occupy the West Bank (and keep Gaza under lockdown). 

With rejectionists in control of Gaza, the linchpin of the piece process is now the West Bank. Withdrawing from the West Bank and establishing a Palestinian state under Mahmoud Abbas's leadership could be a masterstroke-- sucking air out of the rejectionist Hamas-Hizbullah-Iran-Syria terror caucus, and putting power back into the hands of pragmatic realists. It could also be a debacle-- opening the population centers around Tel Aviv to insufferable rocket attacks, making Israel's only international airport inoperable, and emboldening the rejectionists to focus on de-legitimizing pre-1967 Israel.

Unfortunately, all recent history points to the latter outcome. Considering the immense political capital involved in withdrawing from the West Bank, Israel's last bargaining chip, and the unprecedented fight with the settler movement necessary to make it happen, it is impossible for any Israeli leader to countenance withdrawal at this point. Sadly, that makes it impossible to see a viable peace in the future. And every day that the status quo endures, the stronger the rejectionist camp becomes.