‘Normalization’ with Israel is a flawed policy

Realities are becoming increasingly unreal in an ever more volatile region. Expectation of the Netanyahu government formally annexing Palestinian land—with the excuse that they are only confirming the reality of Israeli rule—means 2019 is going to be a dangerous one in the Middle East. At the heart of the current mess is a “normalization” policy with Israel that will not work, if only because any Arab leader who tries to push this through knows the backlash will be swift. Yet normalization is nevertheless at the core of the so-called “deal of the century” yet to be revealed publicly by the US, but already declared dead by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.  Lately, US policy on Israel has been shaped without Palestinian input. A book coming out this summer by Khaled Elgindy, an ex-adviser to the Palestinian leadership now at the Brookings Institute, refers to American policy-makers as blindly ignoring Palestinian