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Jewish World Review August 11, 2003 / 13 Menachem-Av, 5763 The day after the hudna By Gary Rosenblatt
Please understand, I don't consider myself either a hawk or a pessimist. Part of me desperately wants to believe that the almost three-year suicide war has turned the corner and is coming to an end, that the Palestinians have come to realize they can accomplish their goals of statehood and independence more readily through negotiations than having their children blow themselves up. After all, Mahmoud Abbas is now prime minister and his pragmatic approach, calling for an end to Palestinian violence as self-defeating, seems to be a vast improvement over Yasir Arafat, whose political strategy has always combined politics and terrorism. In addition to Abbas, there are now key Palestinian officials trying to make the Palestinian Authority financially accountable, if not transparent, and even Israeli officials acknowledge there has been a recent effort to tamp down the violence and the media incitement against Israel. But it's not nearly enough. A senior adviser to Ariel Sharon who was in the United States with the prime minister last week, in an effort to speak positively about progress with the Palestinians, pointed out that attempted attacks on Israelis have gone down to about 15 to 20 a day, compared to three and four times that many a few months ago. He added that Palestinian television now shows fewer hours a day of anti-Israel footage consisting of the bloodied bodies of young Arab "martyrs." Is that supposed to give us comfort? It's like your hostile neighbor telling you not to be paranoid, he's not trying to kill you every moment of the day, only every hour.
Equally disturbing, Abbas has been quite clear about refusing to attempt to dismantle the terrorist factions, a key element of the road map provisions. Instead, he harps about Israel's resistance to free more Palestinian prisoners and complains about Israel's security fence, though neither are even mentioned in the road map. The media falls for that trap, failing to point out that there would be no need for an Israeli fence if the Palestinians stopped the violence, as promised. Israel is portrayed as the stumbling block to progress when in fact Sharon has taken action on numerous fronts (dismantling outposts, freeing prisoners, easing travel restrictions, providing the PA with funds, etc.) while the PA resists fulfilling its most basic requirement, yet averts criticism. More ominous, though, is that the Bush administration and sometimes the president himself seem so focused on pushing the peace process forward that they ignore the glaring deficiencies along the way, which is precisely what happened with the now-demeaned Oslo accords. We lead with our hearts rather than our heads when we emphasize the minor steps taken to resolve the conflict and ignore the fact that Arafat is still firmly in charge of the PA and controls the majority of the security forces, with attempted violent attacks continuing every day. Moreover, Israeli army officials say the Palestinian terror groups are using the hudna to rearm and regroup. When Abbas says he will deal with Hamas and the other terror factions by incorporating them into the political process rather than disarming them, the Bush administration should insist that such a response is unacceptable, if not infuriating — a violation of the road map in body and spirit, and a recipe for chaos. Instead, fearful of the collapse of the peace process, the administration's response is to back off on its demands for Abbas to curb the militants now, suggesting that the PA is too weak to carry out its obligation, so (goes the logic) it is incumbent on Sharon to keep making concessions to bolster Abbas' stature among his people. But who is fooling who? The road map calls for a regime change within the PA and true democratization. Abbas may be an improvement over Arafat, but he is a self-declared underling who has taken no steps to arrest, disarm or condemn those groups committed to destroying Israel. Such changes take time, we are told, but the clock is ticking because the road map calls for the "creation of a Palestinian state with provisional borders" by the end of this year — in five months. Why is there no urgency in demanding Palestinian compliance, or at least signs of the PA attempting to fulfill its obligations? We keep hearing that the road map, unlike Oslo, is being measured by performance rather than promises. But the facts indicate otherwise, and I fear we are drifting into an Oslo-like mind-set that puts the momentum of virtual negotiations ahead of the sobering reality of daily attacks. The world's response: If the Palestinians refuse to stop the violence, blame Israel for not fostering a climate of concessions. Ignore Israeli complaints about Palestinian violations — and even ongoing violence — as nitpicking, and concentrate instead on the big picture of continuing talks and negotiations, building momentum toward a climate of conciliation. But agreements must have meaning to be worth jeopardizing one's security, and it should be noted that previous Arab-Israeli wars came about when Arab violations of agreements continued, increased and went unheeded. As Sharon noted in an address this week to the National Defense College, "past experience teaches us that the greatest mistake after reaching a diplomatic agreement is restraint in the face of seemingly minor violations." Every case, he said, citing as examples Nazi Germany's violations of the Versailles agreements in the 1930s and Egypt moving ground-to-air missiles illegally in 1970, led to "the unavoidable descent into war." So enjoy the relative quiet of the current hudna while it lasts, but be prepared for the rude shock of increasing Palestinian terror attacks just around the corner. And when they happen, it is Israel that will be blamed for its inevitable military response. Or will the U.S. only then — after Oslo and the road map have come and gone — understand that a people should be granted a state only when they prove their willingness to live for it, not just die or kill for it? Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR Gary Rosenblatt is Editor and Publisher of the New York Jewish Week. Comment by clicking here. © 2003, New York Jewish Week | ||||||||||
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