Chuck Schumer is Actually Right About Something

This has to be a first. New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer and I are actually in agreement on a major foreign policy issue. Schumer did a great job of eviscerating Obama's clueless and counterproductive approach to the Israeli-Palestinian situation.

the policy they took to try to bring about negotiations is counter-productive, because when you give the Palestinians hope that the United States will do its negotiating for them, they are not going to sit down and talk," Schumer told Segal. "Palestinians don’t really believe in a state of Israel. They, unlike a majority of Israelis, who have come to the conclusion that they can live with a two-state solution to be determined by the parties, the majority of Palestinians are still very reluctant, and they need to be pushed to get there.

Exactly. This point cannot be emphasized enough. And there's more.

Every administration has this idea to talk tough to Israel and make nice to the Arabs and the Palestinians and that’s the way to bring about peace. It’s counter-productive, it’s actually the opposite. The only way the Palestinians will sit down and talk is if they know Israel and the United States are as close as could be.

Rather than standing by our ally and pressuring the Palestinians to make reasonable concessions in the interests of peace, we are encouraging intransigence and ridiculous demands. And in so doing we are acting against our own interests, giving support to a people largely hostile to the United States, while simultaneously damaging relations with a long-time ally and client state. Even Chuck Schumer can see that.