E’ uno schema che circola da molte parti, nelle cancellerie e tra qualche intellettuale. E’ uno schema che ritengo miope, e ho trovato conforto nel rapporto della commissione affari esteri della House of Commons britannica. Il rapporto di circa 150 pagine, nella serie Global Security, dedicato a Israele e Palestina, smonta lo schema del West Bank first in questo modo:
We conclude that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must now be understood as essentially a three-way situation, comprising Israel, the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority, and Gaza and Hamas. We further conclude that the continued split in political authority between the West Bank and Gaza represents a central obstacle to progress towards a two-state solution—because of the way in which it weakens the willingness and ability of both the Palestinian and the Israeli sides to make deliverable commitments in peace negotiations, and because of the divergent paths of institutional and economic development on which it sets Gaza and the West Bank. We therefore recommend that the UK Government and the Quartet should reject any idea of a ‘West Bank first’ approach, and make the ending of the West Bank-Gaza split an explicit and urgent objective and work more actively to achieve it.
(Paragraph 127)
Dice anche altre cose, il rapporto, su Israele, sugli aiuti militari britannici alle forze armate israeliane, sulla necessità di parlare con i leader moderati di Hamas.