Israel Matzav

He should have walked away

In the early days of the Oslo 'process,' when nearly everyone thought we really would see 'peace' from it, then-Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin would excoriate us in his drab monotones about korbanot ha'shalom (the sacrifices of peace). It was nonsense then. And we've had 17 years since then to learn that it's not only nonsense - it's dangerous nonsense. Jeff Jacoby rakes Prime Minister Netanyahu over the coals for not doing the right thing on Tuesday night.

A persistent myth of the Arab-Israeli conflict is that Palestinian terrorists kill Jews in order to “disrupt the peace process,’’ and that the best response to terrorism is to persevere with negotiations. That explanation for last week’s carnage was repeated everywhere, from the White House (“This brutal attack underscores how far the enemies of peace will go to try to block progress’’) to Israel’s opposition leader Tzipi Livni (“[the terrorists had a] cold, political motive: to prevent the peace process’’) to the international media.

But far from opposing a “peace process’’ meant to push Israel into ever-deeper concessions, retreats, and self-endangerment, terrorists — whether affiliated with Hamas or with Fatah — seek to accelerate it. The two Palestinian factions may be at war with each other, but they have always been as one in rejecting Israel’s existence as the sovereign state of the Jewish people. So long as they refuse to budge from that position, Israeli-Palestinian peace is impossible.

Yet rather than say so forthrightly, Israeli leaders keep insisting that diplomacy can end the conflict, and that they are prepared to sacrifice greatly for peace. It was once Israel’s policy never to bargain with terrorists, and to pursue peace through deterrence and patience and strength. But with the advent of the Oslo Accord, deterrence gave way to appeasement, talks, and a yearning for peace at any price. To Fatah and Hamas, that desperation has made the Jewish state seem weak — and vulnerable to further pressure. In an opinion survey released last week, 55 percent of Palestinians endorsed anti-Israel violence as “essential’’ or “desirable,’’ while less than 14 percent called it “unacceptable.’’ “Israel’s very pursuit of peace,’’ journalist Evelyn Gordon wrote earlier this year, “has spurred its enemies to go for the jugular.’’

Netanyahu should have walked away from the table after last week’s butchery. Instead, he publicly anointed Abbas “my partner for peace’’ and reasserted his commitment to negotiations. When those negotiations fail, as they inevitably will, the impasse will be blamed on the insufficiency of Israel’s concessions. That will further enrage its enemies, some of whom will turn to terror.

The picture at the top of this post is 9-year old Hodaya Ames crying at the funeral of her parents, who were murdered in Tuesday night's terror attack. Normally, I don't post photographs from funerals - in fact I don't believe they should be published at all. People have a right to grieve in private. I am posting this one, because I want you all to feel the pain of this child, who became an orphan in a matter of about a minute on Tuesday night. Because if you don't feel her pain, no one else will. Not the international media - or for that matter most of the Israeli media. Not the United Nations. And not the current occupant of the White House.

Read it all.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:14 AM