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These Talks Are Doomed
· Friday, September 3, 2010
Hamas sent a greeting card to the quintet of leaders meeting in Washington, D.C., this week to initiate negotiations about a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. In a well-planned ambush, they killed four Israeli civilians near the city of Hebron, two men and two women (one nine months pregnant), creating seven orphans. The murderers escaped, and may perhaps have videotaped the atrocity.
In Gaza that evening, 3,000 celebrants clogged the streets, waving flags, setting bonfires, passing out candy, and carrying their children on their shoulders. If there is videotape, it will presumably permit the revelers to relive the pleasure, even as the video of Daniel Pearl's beheading has circulated on the Internet.
While the Palestinian Authority did condemn the attack, it did so in mincing terms. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad disapproved, he said, because "the operation went against Palestinian interests." It would be difficult for a leader of the "moderate" (that word is always attached) PA to condemn such attacks as, say, immoral or despicable, as the Palestinian Authority itself (formerly the PLO/Fatah) was conceived in violence and continues to honor its spirit.
In the course of the past few months, the PA has named a square and a children's summer camp in honor of a terrorist who murdered 37 Israeli civilians on a bus, and provided a hero's funeral to Amin al-Hindi, one of the planners of the kidnapping and murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. The official PA newspaper described al-Hindi as "one of the stars ... who sparkled at the sports stadium in Munich." Both Mahmoud Abbas and Fayyad attended the funeral.
These realities, reflecting as they do the unreadiness of the Palestinian people for peace with Israel, have been and will continue to be ignored by the Obama administration, the so-called international community, and most journalists. Instead, world leaders, very much including President Obama, speak of borders, confidence-building measures, and opportunities for peace, as if the problem were one of details. This thoroughly misconceives the nature of the dispute. An Israeli saying (now decades old) captured the essence: If the Palestinians were disarmed tomorrow, there would be no conflict. If the Israelis were disarmed tomorrow, there would be no Israel.
With whom would Israel be making binding agreements? Since a bitter civil conflict in 2007, Palestinian society has been divided. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, and the PA controls the West Bank. Just last month, the Palestinian Authority canceled scheduled municipal elections for fear that Hamas might again triumph at the polls as they did in 2006. Hamas and Fatah thugs continue to target and assassinate one another. By standing up the wobbly Abbas and perhaps even signing a treaty with him, the Obama administration may imagine that they can strengthen him. But this is a figure so unsure of his current standing with his people - and this is before making any unpopular concessions - that he canceled elections.
Abbas' weakness in this regard is not so much a personal failing as an inheritance. The entire Arab world (and Iran) has conspired to embitter and enrage the Palestinian people in perpetuity, encouraging maximalist demands and enshrining bloodshed and frenzied hatred.
Though Abbas has shaken hands all around in Washington, D.C., the incitement at home continues. A year ago, at Fatah's general congress in Bethlehem, the delegates reaffirmed their longstanding commitment to "armed struggle" as "a strategy, not a tactic ... This struggle will not stop until the Zionist entity is eliminated and Palestine is liberated."
Just this week, the Palestinian Authority's minister for prisoners affairs presented an award called the Shield of Resoluteness and Giving to Um Yousuf Abu Hamid. Her accomplishment? Four of her sons are serving long sentences in Israeli prisons for committing terrorist attacks. Handing her the plaque, the minister intoned, "The Palestinian mother is a central partner in the struggle, by virtue of what she has given and continues to give. It is she who gave birth to the fighters, and she deserves that we bow to her in salute and in honor."
A Palestinian children's television program instructs its viewers that all Israeli cities - including Haifa, Lod, Ramle, and Acre -- are "occupied Palestinian" cities. Another show aimed at children, which often dispenses advice like "drink your milk" and "obey your parents," also advised a young viewer named Saraa that "all Jews must be erased from our land ... "We want to slaughter them, Saraa, so they will be expelled from our land ... we'll have to (do it) by slaughter."
This latest iteration of Israeli/Palestinian peace talks midwived by the U.S. is doomed just as all of its predecessors were - because it is based on a fallacy and a stubborn refusal to face the truth about Palestinian society.
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Norge
Mona,
I have long been befuddled by our inability to see the forest for the trees in the middle east. Arabs and Jews have been in a state of war for millenia now, and will continue until the coming of the Messiah. One people are committed to the survival of God's chosen, on land gifted by God. Another people are committed to the extinction of them, and believe God endorses their murderous jihad. No amount of misguided, if well-intentioned, moderates and western do-gooders is going to trump anyone's diety. Yet we continue to think if we just hold hands and buy the world a Coke...
Posted September 3, 2010 at 8:59:49 AM
Adan
The killing underscores just who Israel is being pressured to deal with on terms they don't deserve. Peace will come when and only after the terrorists turn their swords into plowshares.
Posted September 3, 2010 at 9:00:41 AM
Bob W
"Unemployment rate climbs to 9.6 percent." Yahoo News.Com
And one-trillion dollars of our, our children’s, our grandchildren’s, our great-grandchildren’s and our great-great grandchildren’s tax dollars did what for the economy and jobs?
Obama and his socialist cronies accomplished something; they succeeded in proving socialist economics doesn't work in Capitalist America.
So what are they, or we, going to do about it?
"They" want to pour more of our money into it; and we, want to remove every one of them as soon as possible. Let's get going!
Remember in November!!!
Posted September 3, 2010 at 9:14:20 AM
JuliaHope
Israel is the chosen land of God. The Jews are his people first and foremost. Any country set against them will face the wrath of God. America has always been their friend, until Obama.
Anyone ever heard of the Sampson option? If Israel is attacked with nuclear weapons, say from, oh I don't know, Iran? They will fire all their own nuclear missiles at all of their enemies at once, in other words, they'll take everyone else with them, as Sampson did.
But I believe God will save Israel at the end. So go ahead arab/muslim world, go after Israel with all you've got, you cannot defeat God. You will only destroy yourselves, and frankly, that might just be a good thing.
Posted September 3, 2010 at 10:04:49 AM
Doktor Riktor Von Zhades
This type of dastardly deception was practiced by the Japanese during WWII. They'd trot out some soldiers with white flag, and when a few Marines went out to parley, they'd drop down and another would open up with a Nambu light M/G. It worked for a while, until the Marines began to decide that the "only good Jap, was a DEAD Jap". (My apologies if this might offend the sensibilities of our current Japanese allies, but history does not lie). One must conclude that the Israeli's are thinking in a like manner in relation to terrorists.
Posted September 3, 2010 at 10:15:20 AM
KenC
"Instead, world leaders, very much including President Obama, speak of borders, confidence-building measures, and opportunities for peace, as if the problem were one of details."
We can see how well our own borders work, huh? And when the state of Arizona tries to step up enforcement, it ends up with a lawsuit from the Federal Government instead of the support it deserves. The current administration seems to be working nationally as well as internationally to transform our once great Republic into a laughingstock. The current administration is succeeding.
Dear Fellow Patriot - Look deep inside. What are YOU willing to do about it?
Posted September 3, 2010 at 10:34:44 AM
Bill
Last weekend we were told to live honorable lives and that America honors those who do. Those soaking up government subsidies at others' expense - and taking this country headlong into communism by electing corrupt and poisonous leaders - are living a life full of disgrace and dishonor.
I for one pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor - with firm reliance on God - to do everything within my power to expose your disgrace, to dishonor you, and to stop you.
Posted September 3, 2010 at 11:29:22 AM
TJS
Peace will never happen until the Palestinians and all Muslims reject genocide, and accept Israel as their neighbor. Muslims must reject and condemn genocide and conquest.
Hamas and Hezbollah are genocidal maniacs like their sponsor, Iran; so too are most Palestinians, steeped in a culture of rage and hate. There is no reasoning with them. Even if Abbas accepted an agreement, he would quickly be murdered, and the peace would never occur.
Muslims must make a choice: genocide and eternal war, or peace and prosperity.
Posted September 3, 2010 at 11:46:39 AM
Convet
"Peace, peace but there is no peace". The so-called "Palestinians" won't settle for anything less than the destruction of Israel. They will never succeed. The only way Israel will be destroyed will be by Hebrews.
Posted September 3, 2010 at 1:48:23 PM
Aaron
TJS - the choice has been made. The talks are a charade put on for the entertainment of fools. The only negotiation that a rabid terrorist clamoring for Israel's destruction understands or deserves is their own destruction. The faster and more deadly, the better.
Posted September 3, 2010 at 4:41:25 PM
kev
Well, there certainly is a chance for the success of these talks. All Israel has to do is go along with whatever the palestinians, and apparently this administration, want, and there it is! Concession after concession and what have the terrorists done? The only thing terrorists understand is power and might. They misunderstand kindness for weakness and will take advantiage every time. And yet, American Jews keep supporting this administration that is clearly pro-palestinian, all the while whining about what is being done to Israel.
Posted September 4, 2010 at 8:35:53 AM
enemoaofthestatistquo
Peace is what all humans want, or is it? No where else than in the Middle East, or at no other time in history, has Peace been sought so long as to be referred to as a PROCESS.
Posted September 5, 2010 at 5:30:00 PM
enemaofthestatistquop
Notice that the Obama Administration is big on precise [&shrunken] borders for Israel & its staunchest ally, the US.
Posted September 5, 2010 at 5:34:44 PM
enemaofthestatistquo
Why is my moniker showing up misspelled?
Posted September 5, 2010 at 5:36:48 PM
M. Rick Timms. MD
Very nice article that makes the point. One side wants peace and is willing to give up land and security in the good faith effort. The other side wants total dominance and uses violence to achieve it. They have used and WILL USE every weapon that they can secure. First upon Israel, then upon the U.S.
There will be no peace in the Middle East or the world at large until the religion of intolerance is isolated and suppressed.
Fool me once --
Posted September 6, 2010 at 12:50:16 AM
Atticus Cage
"Creating seven orphans"
Thank you, Mona, for spelling out one of the ineluctable, real llfe repercussions of this murder spree.
Whether or not he or she was afforded the courtesy of being counted among the murdered by an AP or a Reuters I bet the unborn victim already had a name (not to mention several fairly detailed photos of him/herself up on mama's refrigerator courtesy of ultrasound).
God help us. Or just bring another flood.
Posted September 9, 2010 at 12:01:39 PM
Atticus Cage
"Creating seven orphans"
Thank you, Mona, for spelling out one of the ineluctable, real llfe repercussions of this murder spree.
Whether or not he or she was afforded the courtesy of being counted among the murdered by an AP or a Reuters I bet the unborn victim already had a name (not to mention several fairly detailed photos of him/herself up on mama's refrigerator courtesy of ultrasound).
God help us. Or just bring another flood.
Posted September 9, 2010 at 1:15:21 PM