.jpg)
A.P. Photo/ Mohammed Muheisen -- Abbas, Arafat
Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority (P.A.), has escalated his demands of Israel. First, he would not negotiate a final peace agreement, unless Israel froze all building beyond the Green Line. Now he demands that first Israel agree to withdraw from beyond the Green Line. This is contrary to the Road Map to which he had agreed (www.imra.org.il, 12/15) and to the Oslo Accords.
There would not be much to negotiate, if Israel agreed.
Now Israel’s lack of policy and propaganda in the national interest manifests most clearly. Here is Abbas, a terrorist, violator of agreements, afraid to run for re-election, and surely an extremist. There is Israel, releasing dozens of checkpoints, thousands of convicted terrorists, and millions of dollars among other measures to “strengthen Abbas.” He never is strong enough, except to make trouble for Israel. Isn’t it now clear that Israeli policy of appeasement failed?
All those years Israel wasted by waiting for Arab peace offers that never came, creating the Palestinian Authority Frankenstein in the first place (which imposed a PLO dictatorship upon resident Arabs), and assisting the P.A. even though the P.A. works to topple Israel and not just seize the disputed Territories. Israel failed to maintain its independence from agreements such as Oslo and Road Map involving foreigners. Israel failed to institute a policy for Jewish national development in its core homeland, Judea and Samaria. It let Jews build where they would instead of expanding and annexing steadily outward from the State of Israel and in a way that would enhance security instead of allowing a hodgepodge mixture of communities such that terrorists could attack or menace Jewish ones. Israel forgot the Talmudic notion that can be interpreted that if Israel does not stand up for itself, who would.
(To see an earlier step in escalation, click here
Comments