Take It Off The Table

Submitted by Ron Thompson (United States), Apr 10, 2003 at 09:46

Suggested topic for debate and discussion, related to the overall topic of international Islamic terrorism, to a belief that the Arab refusal to make peace with Israel is the predominant if not sole key to the meaning of the last 55 years of Mid-east history, and therefore to my belief in the need for the following change in US foreign policy.

TAKE IT OFF THE TABLE
Why the Idea of a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza is Morally
Wrong, and a Permanent Practical Impediment to Peace in The Middle East
Ron Thompson, Fairfax, Va - ronthompson@erols.com - April 9, 2003

Isn't the record clear? For almost 55 years and counting, the
Arab States (with the partial and reluctant exceptions of Egypt and Jordan)
have refused to talk peace with Israel, which so many have forgotten is the
reason the Israelis are in the West Bank and Gaza.
After this refusal had gone on for over 25 years, and following
three wars - all lost and after each of which the Arab States refused to
meet with Israel - a sort of nationalism finally emerged among the
Palestinians and crystallized around the PLO, an avowedly terrorist
organization which was irresponsibly anointed their representative in 1974
in Morocco by the Arab States.
The Arab World has therefore been in clear violation of the
United Nations' 1948 recognition of the existence and legitimacy of the
Israeli State for over half a century. IT IS OUTRAGEOUS THAT THIS VIOLATION
OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY'S WILL BY THE ARAB WORLD HAS BEEN
WITHOUT PENALTY OR EVEN VERBAL CENSURE ALL THESE YEARS BY THAT
COMMUNITY. It is additionally outrageous that, as a result of this non-condemnation, the view of moral equivalency between the behavior of Israel and the Palestinians
expressed in such unfairly neutral language as "the cycle of violence", has
become ordinary and respectable.
Why does anyone reasonably expect that a Palestinian State, up
against the heart of Israel, would lead to peace? Why, in the face of
decades of refusal to accept the existence of Israel, do so many fall into
the view that "everybody knows" what a final settlement will look like, when
the record offers no grounds whatsoever to expect that peaceful result?
What does it take to recognize the Arab world's NO to accepting
the Jewish State?

Therefore, whatever legitimate grievances the Palestinian people
and leadership once had, if any, these grievances have for many years and
even decades been morally and practically overborne by the wars and
propaganda campaigns of political hatred and religious bigotry, culminating
in the lunatic violence of the suicide bombers, initiated by factions and
States who can't defeat Israel in normal warfare, and so have indoctrinated
their own children to sacrifice themselves while trying to kill and maim as
many Israeli children and other civilians as they can.
A great deal of the responsibility for this dreary and terrible
course of events rests on the United Nations' and Europe's moral
complicity in the 55 year refusal of the Arab world to accept the existence
and legitimacy of Israel, and to prove that acceptance by establishing
normal relations with the Israeli State despite unresolved disputes.
Is it not finally clear that as long as the demand for a Palestinian State
in the West Bank and Gaza (as opposed to being located in Jordan, which is
already 70% Palestinian, or elsewhere) is given legitimacy, it will be an
endless incitement to Palestinian terror and Arab State irresponsibility?
The idea that Israel must have secure boundaries between the
Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River has nothing to do with a "biblical" claim
to the West Bank and Gaza. It rests instead, as a result of the events of
the last 55 years and counting, on moral and geopolitical grounds that now
include the fundamental national interest not only of Israel, but of the
United States, and even of a Europe which has been shamefully hostile
to Israel.
In a curious way, the ultimate self interest of the Arab World
is involved too, because that world has made it overwhelmingly clear it is
unable or unwilling to voluntarily accept the existence of Israel as a matter of
international law, and to recognize its own interest in ceasing to be
the world center of religious intolerance and opposition to all that is
peaceful and progressive in modernity.
Take the idea of a Palestinian State in The West Bank and Gaza
OFF THE TABLE.

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