Progressive America insists on lived experience on everything, except for foreign policy. When it comes to foreign policy, why enlist an American with Arab and/or Israeli heritage, who can speak Arabic and Hebrew and offer ideas on the best way out of the Hamas mess in Gaza? Just enlist people who, from the comfort of their armchairs in America, pontificate about how America should twist the arms of its allies — Israel and Saudi Arabia — but should “put things in context” when violent non-state actors like Hamas go on killing rampages like massacring 1,200 Israelis on 10/7.
The two authors here argue this: Look, it’s easy. An agreement in Gaza “must end Israel’s blockade and functional imprisonment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. It must also deny Hamas the capability to launch attacks on Israel.” No Foreign Affairs fact checkers dispute the claim “Israeli blockade of Gaza,” even though we now know that if Gaza did not import 100 trucks a day through Rafah, before 10/7, its population would have died a long time ago. Gaza has also imported tens of thousands of rockets from Iran that it throws on Israel. But fine, let’s play along. End Israel’s “blockade.” Then what? Agreement “must also deny Hamas the capability to launch attacks on Israel.” How? Can Mr. Duss guarantee Hamas will disband its militia if such an agreement can be reached? If he can, I’ll guarantee him that Israel will stop warring in Gaza tomorrow, and by tomorrow I mean yesterday.
But wait. There is even more “Orientalism” (Said’s term).
This: “Any approach that keeps Gaza separate will fail because Gaza is an integral part of the Palestinian nation.” I don’t know when Duss started following on Mideast affairs (he once said he started when he had an Istanbul Azan epiphany, but I don’t know when that happened). Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, dismantled settlements, dragged settlers out, and handed over the Gaza Strip to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, the PA (integral enough?). So how did Gaza split from “the Palestinian nation?” Hamas killed over 300 PA Palestinians in 2007, took over. Since then, PA and Hamas have refused to even talk. So what can Israel do to make them talk and become an “integral Palestinian nation?” Any Palestinian agency here? Of course, not.
Now check out the last gem, the conclusion. Duss and co blame the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for Gaza’s misery. If so, then misery must have started 75 years ago. But Duss writes that Gaza has endured multiple wars since 2007. So what changed in 2007 to make it the starting point of war and misery? Israel invaded? On the contrary. Israel had withdrawn, two years prior, and Hamas took Gaza in a coup from the Palestinian Authority. By Duss’s logic, it follows that the problem since 2007 must have been Hamas, but in Duss’s conclusion, the problem is… you guessed it: Lack of “American commitment to a sustained diplomatic process grounded in international law.” Mind you, Hamas does not recognize any of the UN resolutions on Israel/Palestine, not a single one of them. Hamas does not accept liberty or democracy, wants an Islamic state because it thinks such a state represents Palestinian heritage and wish. But then, Duss blames Israel and America for not finding a solution grounded in international law.
No fact-checking, no logic-checking, no attempt to be wholistic or objective.

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