What The "Two State Solution" Has to Do with the Rise of Islamic Extremism:
Zero
by Khaled Abu Toameh
October 20, 2014 at 5:00 am
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4801/two-state-solution-isis

The "Arab Spring" did not erupt as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. Rather, it was the outcome of decades of tyranny and corruption in
the Arab world. The Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans and Yemenis who removed
their dictators from power did not do so because of the lack of a "two-state
solution." This is the last thing they had in mind.

The thousands of Muslims who are volunteering to join the Islamic State [IS]
are not doing so because they are frustrated with the lack of progress in
the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The only solution the Islamic State believes in is a Sunni Islamic Caliphate
where the surviving non-Muslims who are not massacred would be subject to
sharia law.

What Kerry perhaps does not know is that the Islamic State is not interested
in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at all. Unlike Kerry, Sunni scholars
fully understand that the Islamic State has more to do with Islam and
terrorism than with any other conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's claim that the lack of a "two-state
solution" has fueled the rise of the Islamic State [IS] terrorist group
reinforces how clueless the U.S. Administration is about what is happening
in the Arab and Islamic countries.

Speaking at a State Department ceremony marking the Muslim holiday of Eid
al-Adha, Kerry said that the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel
and the Palestinians was vital in the fight against Islamic extremism,
including Islamic State.

"There wasn't a leader I met with in the region who didn't raise with me
spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the
Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and
agitation," Kerry said. "People need to understand the connection of that.
And it has something to do with the humiliation and denial and absence of
dignity."

The U.S. State Department later denied that Kerry had made the statement
attributed to him.

Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters that Kerry's comments were
distorted for political gains; she pointed a finger at Israeli Economy
Minister Naftali Bennett.

"What [Kerry] said was that during his travels to build a coalition against
the Islamic State, he was told that should the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
be resolved, the Middle East would be a better place," Harf explained.

The Islamic State is one of the by-products of the "Arab Spring," which
began as a secular revolt against Arab dictatorships and degenerated into
anarchy, lawlessness, terrorism and massacres that have claimed the lives of
hundreds of thousands of Arabs and Muslims.

The "Arab Spring" did not erupt as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. Rather, it was the natural and inevitable outcome of decades of
tyranny and corruption in the Arab world.

The Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans and Yemenis who removed their dictators
from power did not do so because of the lack of a "two-state solution."

Nor did the Arabs revolt because of the failure of the peace process between
Israel and the Palestinians. This is the last thing these Arabs had in mind
when they took to the streets to protest against decades of dictatorship and
bad government.

It is this "Arab Spring," and not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that
brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Egypt. And it is the same "Arab
Spring" that saw the emergence of Islamic terror groups such as the Al-Nusra
Front, the Islamic Front, the Army of Mujahedeen, Jund al-Sham and, most
recently, the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

The rise of the Islamic State is a direct result of the anarchy and
extremism that have been sweeping the Arab and Islamic countries over the
past few years.

The thousands of Muslims who are volunteering to join Islamic State are not
doing so because they are frustrated with the lack of progress in the
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. They are not knocking on the Islamic
State's doors because they are disappointed that the two-state solution has
not materialized.

Kerry is anyway naïve to think that the jihadis believe in something called
a "two-state" solution. The only solution the Islamic State believes in is
the one that would lead to the establishment of a radical Sunni Islamic
Caliphate across the Middle East where the surviving non-Muslims who are not
massacred would be subject to sharia law.

Not only is the Islamic State opposed to the "two-state solution," it is
also opposed to the existence of both Israel and a Palestinian state. Under
the new Islamic Caliphate, there is no room for Israel or Palestine or any
of the Arab and Islamic countries.

Had Kerry studied the goals and ideology of the Islamic State, he would have
discovered that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not even at the top of
the group's list of priorities.

In fact, the "liberation of Bait al-Maqdis" [Jerusalem] is ranked sixth
among Islamic State's objectives.

The group's first goal envisages stirring chaos in the Arab and Islamic
countries.

Second, the group will move on to what it calls "management of savagery" in
these countries.

Third, Islamic State will embark on the process of establishing an Islamic
Caliphate.

Fourth, it will proceed with "liberating neighboring countries and expanding
the size of the Islamic Caliphate.

Fifth, the group will start the process of "liberating the Islamic
countries," including Bait al-Maqdis.

Obviously, Kerry must have missed the speech delivered by Islamic State
leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi last July.

Al-Baghdadi did not talk about the "two-state solution." Nor did he call on
Muslims to join his group because of the lack of progress in the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Instead, al-Baghdadi told his followers that, "Allah likes us to kill his
enemies, and make jihad for his sake. O Allah, give Islam victory over the
disbelief and the disbelievers, and give victory to the mujahideen, in the
East of this earth and its West."

What Kerry perhaps does not know is that the Islamic State is not interested
in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at all. The terrorist group did not even
bother to comment on the last military confrontation between Israel and
Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The failure of the Islamic State to express solidarity with the Palestinians
or Hamas during the war drew strong condemnations from some of the Arab
world's leading columnists.

"What is shocking and strange is that the Islamic State and other terrorist
groups that claim to speak on behalf of Islam did not make a single move as
Israeli planes were shelling civilians inside the Gaza Strip," remarked
Egyptian columnist Jamil al-Afifi. "Nor did any of their wise men come out
to condemn the ruthless killings (in the Gaza Strip).

Kerry did not reveal the identity of the "leaders" who told him that the
absence of peace between Israel and the Palestinians was a "cause of
recruitment and of street anger and agitation" in the Arab and Islamic
countries.

What is clear, however, is that Sunni scholars do not seem to share Kerry's
assessment.

Last month, over 120 Sunni scholars issued an open letter denouncing the
Islamic State and its religious arguments. "You have misinterpreted Islam
into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder," the letter
said. "This is a great wrong and an offence to Islam, to Muslims and to the
entire world."

Needless to say, the scholars did not mention the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict as a cause for the rise of Islamic State.

That is because unlike Kerry, the Sunni scholars know that the Islamic State
is completely unrelated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And unlike
Kerry, the Muslim scholars fully understand that Islamic State has more to
do with Islam and terrorism than with any other conflict.