There is a proposal on the table from Yossi Beilin: To swap “people for peace,” which sounds at first hearing eminently reasonable.  But he neglects to note that there are already 1,670,000 Arab citizens of Israel, well more than the number of Jews living across the old armistice line, and infinitely more than the “zero Jews” repeatedly demanded in the Arabs’ future Palestine.  As with the prior failed formula of “land for peace”, “people for peace” cannot succeed as long as the Arab world remains unwilling to live peacefully alongside Israel. In fairness, blame for that should not be placed on Secretary Kerry’s or Israel’s doorstep. In Egypt, Syria, Libya, Gaza and elsewhere, Arabs don’t seem to be able to live peacefully next door to each other, either.

John R. Cohn

Philadelphia, Penn.