Senator Jeff Merkley: The Reckless Resolver

The September 12 non-binding resolution authored by the junior senator from Oregon is disconcerting. Senator Merkley’s call for President Trump to recognize a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside a secure Israeli state epitomizes the impulsive, misguided and broken thinking of progressives and their foreign policy ideas.

The first problem with the Senator’s resolution is the emphasis on precedence.

The resolution highlights a series of chronological events about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It begins with the 1947 UN Resolution to partition the British Mandate of Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state. The Senator proceeds to include other examples of diplomatic support for a Palestinian state over the next 78 years.

The purpose of Merkley’s history lesson is to demonstrate that his call to recognize a Palestinian state is not novel. The idea of a Palestinian state has been discussed and supported by states and international entities for decades. In other words, his resolution is not a provocative or dangerous act.

However, a decision derived from precedence does not necessarily entail wise or constructive U.S. foreign policy. The arena of international politics is not the U.S. legal system. Rather, Merkley’s emphasis on precedence in this context suggests the absence of resolve or capitulation. The thinking here goes something like this: “If we just promise a state which people, countries and institutions have been supporting for years; then we move closer to a resolution.”

The path of least resistance and unilateral concession are not the ways to a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They are pathways to compounding or complicating the conflict. Reasons existed as to why........

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