The indispensible and once more bracing Warren:

"I needn’t quote the phrase, “weak and stupid”, from any private correspondent, for it is said often enough of their entire political class by some Israeli media. I am myself amazed, and troubled, by how many Israeli officials continue to speak as if the goal were a trade-off with Israel’s mortal enemies. But the thing about mortal enemies is, there’s nothing to trade but your head. Here is my horrible thought: If "liberalism" can survive under such intense conditions, as those to which Israel has been exposed for nearly sixty years, it can survive until the West is extinct. [ Unfortunately, a thought that I keep having with increasing regularity. -ed. ]

...

Egypt and Jordan did not come to terms with the state of Israel, in 1979, because they suddenly developed a soft spot for Zionism. They did so when they realized they couldn't budge Israel, let alone drive her into the sea. Peace came when they gave up trying."