Free Republic

Formally backing a Palestinian state is no longer a symbolic gesture. It’s a strategic imperative.Ali Shihabi is a Saudi author and commentator and member of the advisory board of the new Saudi region of Neom planned by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.The world should wait no longer to formally recognize the State of Palestine. This is not about sentiment or symbolism. It is about urgent, necessary action to rescue a peace process on life support. Recognition is a critical diplomatic tool to shift a stagnant and increasingly dangerous status quo. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has persisted for more than seven decades....

The basically insurmountable power imbalance between the Arabs and Israelis, let alone between the Palestinians and Israelis, argues for a radical rethinking of the approach to solving the Palestine problem.

Less than two months after he was given prominent op-ed space in the Washington Post, a video has surfaced of Houthi rebel leader Mohammad Ali al-Houthi launching a shoulder-fired missile and then reciting the Houthi slogan, which calls for “Death to America.” The Washington Post contributor chants, “Allah is the greatest. Death to America. Death to Israel. Curse the Jews. Victory to Islam.” He has also taken to his unverified but media– and think tank-cited Twitter account to repeat the infamous Houthi slogan. Ali Shihabi, the founder of the Arabia Foundation, a Washington D.C.-based Middle East think tank, confirmed to...