In a fall 2009 article, "Spoilers: The End of the Peace Process," co-authored with Michael Singh, Abrams identified the "chief" spoiler as Iran.
"By fomenting instability in the Levant, and putting Arab leaders who want a settlement on the defensive with accusations of collaboration, Tehran distracts Israel and weakens the Sunni Arab states that have dominated the region during the last half century," the Abrams-Singh article stated.
Abrams recommended bringing heavy pressure on Iran "to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, thus heading off a Middle East arms race that would multiply the region's troubles and Israel's insecurities." (Abrams makes no reference to Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal, which is considered one the most sophisticated in the world.)
Abrams' position meshes smoothly with Netanyahu's interest in relieving pressure from the Obama administration on Israel while ratcheting up international condemnation of Iran.
"It is frequently asserted that progress in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will bolster the effort to negotiate Tehran out of its nukes, but this puts the cart before the horse," Abrams and Singh wrote. "Iran has no real interest in the Palestinian issue and merely manipulates it to advance its own interests."
Abrams and Singh said the real concern should be over "Iran's nuclear and hegemonic ambitions." In essence, it appears that Abrams wants the Obama administration to extend George W. Bush's hawkish policies toward any Islamic nation or group considered militantly anti-Israel.
"Concerted multilateral action must be taken against
terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas," the Abrams-Singh article said.
"Because they masquerade as political parties, the West is increasingly tempted
to engage these groups or to treat as separate entities their military and
political "wings.'"
"Syria's role is most important, and the United States, Israel, and their allies must compel the Assad regime to choose between Iran and the international community. Confronting Damascus with this choice will require a level of fortitude from the United States and European countries beyond anything they have mustered in the past."
Demographic Worries
Abrams also expressed demographic concerns about Jews maintaining their numerical dominance in Israel similar to his alarms in Fear or Faith about the Jewish people surviving in the United States.
"Demographic trends in the region pose stark choices for both sides," the Abrams-Singh article said, noting that the Palestinian population has more than doubled in less than two decades and "is growing half again as fast as the Israeli population. " Many Israelis have concluded from these developments that for Israel to remain a democratic Jewish state, it must separate from the Palestinians and allow them their own state.
"But some Palestinians have reached the opposite conclusion. " Why accept a Palestinian state that would be divided into two parts, the West Bank and Gaza, contain some Jewish settlements, consist of only 6,000 square kilometers, and lack resources? Why not push for a single unified state?"
So, for Abrams, the chief goals of a two-state solution would be to confine the Palestinians to a tiny, disjointed area of the West Bank and Gaza while ensuring that the Jewish state of Israel gets Jerusalem, some choice lands on the West Bank where settlements already are located, and nearly all of its pre-1967 territory, except for some undesirable land that might be traded away for the West Bank settlements.
Abrams worries about a shift in sentiment among the Palestinians toward a multi-ethnic state living under an American-style separation-of-church-and-state principle, and embracing the democratic ideal of one person one vote. That might lead to "the state of Israel-Palestine" that so riled Abrams in his book.
Though Abrams and other neocons deny that their strong sympathy for Israel has influenced their judgments as U.S. officials and opinion leaders regarding the Middle East, there can be little doubt that neocon policies have consistently dovetailed with the hard-line Likudniks who have dominated Israeli politics for the past three decades.
Those shared interests were especially obvious during George W. Bush's administration when Abrams and other neocons held key positions in the national security bureaucracy, especially inside the Pentagon and in Vice President Dick Cheney's office.
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