Friday, April 10, 2009

The Proposed Palestinian State: A Deal-Maker or a Deal-Breaker?

Yoram Ettinger

1. The Palestinian issue was a deal-breaker during Israel-Egypt peace negotiation. In defiance of Carter and Brzezinski – the "Palestine Firsters" – and in spite of Palestinian terrorist threats - Begin and Sadat introduced a Palestinian-bypass, thus concluding a peace accord. Their determination to overcome White House and Foggy Bottom preoccupation with the Palestinian issue as, supposedly, the root core of the Arab-Israeli conflict and Mideast violence, produced a peace treaty. It has lowered the prospect of an Arab-Israeli war, has decreased regional tension and has advanced US interests. A2. The Israel-Egypt precedent documents that the road to peace goes through Arab capitals and not through Ramallah or Gaza, that the Palestinian issue does not constitute the crown-jewel of Arab politics, that the Palestinians do not possess veto power over Arab policy-making, that the Palestinian issue has not been the cause to the Arab-Israeli conflict and that the Palestinian issue has been employed by Mideast radicals as a fuel – and not as water – to the Mideast fire.



3. During the October 1998 Israel-Jordan peace ceremony, Jordan's top military command impressed upon their Israeli colleagues to oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River, since "it would constitute a death-sentence to the Hashemite regime." They expressed their disillusionment with Palestinian commitments, "which are signed in the morning and violated in the evening."



4. Israel-Jordan, as well as Israel-Egypt, peace treaties have withstood Palestinian opposition and have prevailed despite an on-going Israeli war against Palestinian PLO and Hamas terrorism.



5. A dramatic departure from the Road Map of the Israel-Egypt and Israel-Jordan peace treaties has been committed by the 1993 Oslo Accord and its derivatives: Hebron and Wye Accords, 2nd Camp David and Sharem A-Sheikh conferences, the "Disengagement," Zinni and Mitchell Plans and the Road Map toward a Two States solution. Never has "peace process" yielded so much failure, hate-education, terrorism and bloodshed and no success. Oslo and its by-products have subordinated the Road Map to an Israel-Arab Peace, Israel's national security and US vital interests to the resolution of the Palestinian issue. Switching focus from the Israel-Arab path to the Israel-Palestinian path, and irrespective of Western and Israeli good intentions, the Oslo Accord and its off-springs have played into the hands of Mideast rogue regimes and terrorists.



6. The "Palestine First" approach has produced dozens of initiatives, conferences, summits, agreements and cease fire episodes, which have yielded a series of short-lived illusions of peace and false sense of security. It has been promptly and systematically violated and crashed - since Oslo 1993 - by an unprecedented wave of Palestinian hate-education, the manufacturing line of generic terrorism and homicide bombing.



7. The Two States solution is based on a series of erroneous assumptions, ignoring documented precedents, and therefore constituting an erroneous policy.
"Israel and Palestine living side-by-side in peace," while the PLO and Hamas have been engaged in a horrific civil war, while there has not been inter-Arab peace during the last 1,400 years, while there has not been inter-Arab compliance with most inter-Arab agreements during the last 1,400 years, while there has not been a single Arab democracy during the last 1,400 years??? The Two States solution has exacerbated regional turbulence, has fueled terrorism, has promoted war and has reduced the prospects for peace, thus undermining the national security of both the US and Israel.



8. Drafting demography to the cause of the Two States solution constitutes either a dramatic mistake or an outrageous act of misleading (please see http://yoramettinger.newsnet.co.il/Front/Newsnet/reports.asp?reportId=266030).

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