Posted on 11/21/2007 6:01:59 AM PST by SJackson
Though the late Yitzhak Rabin vowed there would never be recognition of, nor negotiation with, the PLO and that there would never be a Palestinian state, politicians from various Israeli political parties have succumbed to the international push for just such an entity – the very state Rabin said would bring about the ruin of the State of Israel.
By not sticking to their guns, Israeli leaders have set a trap of their own making.
They did so, first of all, when they recognized an arch-terrorist and pathological liar as a bona fide peacemaker before the nations of the world, and then by accepting as inevitable the idea of an independent Palestinian state on Holy Land soil – a land given as an eternal possession by God to the Jews.
Is there no Israeli politician of standing and influence left to speak against this utter foolishness that the nations, in their reckless desire to quiet things down in the Middle East for their own benefit, are blindly pressuring Israel to accept?
Is there no one in Israel who can, once and for all, blow the whistle on such a plan of folly and destruction? Are they all afraid of the nations of the world and the self-serving “wisdom” they would force on Israel, which alone is asked to risk security and survival to appease the unappeasable?
Arafat was finished and publicly humiliated in 1982 when he was driven out of Beirut as a conquered terrorist gang leader by the victorious IDF. Yet Israel, in an act of unmatched stupidity, turned him into an international hero through the Oslo “peace process,” a statesman worthy of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize, a figure accepted by the nations of the world.
Arafat’s image was rehabilitated beyond his wildest dreams because Israel – not the Arabs, not the Europeans, but Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres – brought him back to life.
The situation Israel now finds itself in is one very much of its own making. By pursuing this path against the wishes and wisdom of some of its most admired statesmen, Israel has cornered itself between its enemies and a world that urges it in beautiful-sounding speeches – like those recently delivered by Condoleezza Rice and Tony Blair – to complete the suicidal process it so foolishly began.
Even if there are few among Israel’s leaders to courageously stand against any further negotiations with today’s Palestinian leadership, the resolution offered by U.S. House Republican Whip Roy Blunt and Rep. Shelley Berkley is refreshing in its clarity. One wishes Israeli Knesset members would find the courage to take the same clear stand their U.S. counterparts have.
With its call for Palestinian accountability, the resolution can have a real impact on the outcome of the upcoming Annapolis summit.
Blunt (R-MO) introduced House Resolution 758 jointly with Berkley (D-NV), calling on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, also chairman of his Fatah Party, to officially renounce ten articles in the Fatah constitution that call for Israel’s destruction and acts of terrorism against its people.
The Fatah constitution opposes any political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and it labels Zionism as racism. Examples of the offensive language among the ten separate articles that explicitly seek to incite violence against the State of Israel include the following:
Article 17 – “Armed public revolution is the inevitable method to liberating Palestine.”
Article 19 – “The struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished.”
Article 22 – “Opposing any political solution offered as an alternative to demolishing the Zionist occupation of Palestine.”
Rep. Blunt released the following statement:
“There can be no reasonable expectation of a broad-based, long-term reconciliation between the Israelis and Palestinians while one side’s constituting document calls for the complete destruction of the other. I believe it’s absolutely critical that the insidious nature of the Palestinian constitution be brought to light – and that those with a genuine interest in working toward peace insist its most unconstructive provisions be abrogated from the text.
“It goes without saying that a basic condition of negotiating with someone is recognizing their right to exist – and once that’s granted, the right to live without fear of terrorism. But, at least according to the ruling party’s constitution, even these fundamental concessions continue to be rejected by the Palestinian leadership.
“The resolution I’ve offered with Rep. Shelley Berkley builds on the Arafat Accountability Act of 2002, which sought to bring action against former Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat as long as he continued to sanction acts of terrorism against Israel.
“This resolution takes a different approach, but the message remains the same: As long as Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah Party continue to promote the wholesale destruction of Israel, there can be no possibility for peace – whether in our time, or any other.”
Jan Willem van der Hoeven is director of the International Christian Zionist Center in Jerusalem.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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Well Rabin did recognize the PLO, negotiated with it, and set the Palestinians upon the path of statehood.
Then again, it will be all glassed over within the decade.
Jan Willen van der Hoeven gets it and nails it - ping!
What needs to be done for Israel is for the world and by that I mean Americans, Europeans, Arabs, NGO's, the UN, to allow Israel to get off the tightrope it has walked since 1949 and be a state on the same level playing field that all the other countries are on. Until that happens, Israel will continue to be torn apart trying to maintain her own security and her place among the nations.
The author of the article would be better served conveying that message for it is a real and desperate need. But until the world system stops seeing everything through a reductionalist prism, this tension will continue,and Israel will continue to be stretched.
Leaving aside the fact that negotiations are impossible between a government with 9% approval and another not in control of it's population or territory can result in no viable agreement, how does the US foster an agreement between Israel and the palestinians by inviting 40 nations. It's a clear slap at Israeli sovereignty. And Israel isn't doing it.
That's true, though with a big push from Bush I/Baker. As I recall the concern being that it would take too long for home grown leadership, and Madrid began with locals, to gain credibility. So bring in the terrorist from Tunis who'll cut a quick deal. Won't honor it, but an agreement was forthcoming.
Reminiscent of GWB and Condi wanting a state by the end of his term.
Better to insist the palestinians cease incitement immediately, and begin disarming terror groups in the West Bank. When that's completed, not started, on to the next step, and recognize it's a decades long process.
Annapolis will be Madrid all over again. Nothing will be accomplished, and it is Israel that will pay because it is easy to blame them. In the meantime, the European's favorite victim (and that goes for our State Department as well) the Palestinians will be the ones that benefit in aid and PR.
I don't know if W really believes that the Palestinians can have a state. I mean, what do we have in Gaza? Wholesale murder, oppression and starvation. Why Annapolis? Probably for the same reason there was Madrid. A bone to the Europeans and Arab governments that the Americans are concerned about the Arabs. And the Americans are the only ones that can deliver the Israelis. Whether willing as a puppy like Barak or as begrudgingly as Shamir... but the Israelis come because they have no choice.
As much as we’d all like to see Iran liberated, my guess is that Israel will be the next major front against al-Qaeda. Israel should be given everything it needs (apart from US troops) to prevail, but Iran must be liberated. I think there’s a high probability that the new “wisdom” among insiders that a new balance of hostility will be constructed (or perhaps reconstructed) involving Iran and its neighbors, a sort of containment policy.
By meeting with Abbas, the administration gets some other diplomatic monkeys off its back (in Europe as well as the Middle East and Central Asia), and also keeps the PLO split raging.
This happens to be one of two issues I disagree with the Bush Administration on (the other being Immigration). Israel has, since 1949, been fighting the same fight we just started to fight in 2001. I feel no desire to exercise restraint with respect to al-Qaeda and neither should anyone else including Israel.
I strongly disagree with (and am alienated from) the Administration on the same two issues.
That only proves to me that we are both right.
Enjoy your Christmas and New Year celebrations. Then next year we can find a candidate for POTUS who is worthy, thinks like we do and who can win.
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