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Jewish World Review June 15, 2007 / 29 Sivan, 5766 Five years after Bush's utopian speech about resolving Arab-Israeli conflict, it's time for him to publicly declare new strategy By Caroline B. Glick
The speech the President should deliver Israel's Olmert arriving at White House next week
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's meeting with US President George W. Bush next
week is supposed to serve as a preparatory stage ahead of a planned
presidential address on the Palestinian conflict with Israel. According to
media reports, Bush believes that five years after his last speech on the
subject on June 24, 2002, the time has come for an updated assessment of the
situation.
A lot has happened in the last five years both in Israel and in Palestinian
society. A good way to understand our present circumstances is to recall
that last speech, where Bush laid out his "vision" to bring peace to the
Middle East by establishing an independent, democratic Palestinian state
next to Israel on the west bank of the Jordan River on land that the League
of Nations mandated in 1922 was to be reserved for the Jewish homeland.
Indeed, the President's words speak for themselves. Addressing the
Palestinians, Bush said:
"I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not
compromised by terror. I call upon them to build a practicing democracy,
based on tolerance and liberty."
"A Palestinian state will never be created by terror - it will be built
through reform. And reform must be more than cosmetic change, or veiled
attempts to preserve the status quo."
"The United States will not support the establishment of a Palestinian state
until its leaders engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and
dismantle their infrastructure."
Addressing the Arab states and the Palestinians, Bush said: "To be counted
on the side of peace, nations must act. Every leader actually committed to
peace will end incitement to violence in official media, and publicly
denounce homicide bombings. Every nation actually committed to peace will
stop the flow of money, equipment and recruits to terrorist groups seeking
the destruction of Israel — including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbullah.
Every nation actually committed to peace must block the shipment of Iranian
supplies to these groups, and oppose regimes that promote terror, like Iraq.
And Syria must choose the right side in the war on terror by closing
terrorist camps and expelling terrorist organizations."
Addressing Israel, the President said, "Israeli settlement activity in the
occupied territories must stop."
Bush concluded, "This moment is both an opportunity and a test for all
parties in the Middle East: an opportunity to lay the foundations for future
peace; a test to show who is serious about peace and who is not."
Israel responded enthusiastically to the President's challenge. Successive
governments froze expansion of Jewish communities beyond the 1949 armistice
lines. The limitations placed on Jewish building are so draconian that even
in cities like Ariel and Maaleh Adumim, people cannot receive building
permits.
Not only did Israel freeze building in Judea and Samaria, Israel expelled
all Israeli residents of Gaza and northern Samaria in order to render the
areas Jew-free to the Palestinians. The people of Israel elected leaders who
endorsed Bush's vision of denying the rights of of Jews to live in the
territories he has set aside for a prospective Palestinian state.
For their part, the Palestinians held open and free elections in January
2006. They chose to deny parliamentary representation to non-terrorists, and
place Hamas at the head of the Palestinian Authority. They turned the
newly-Jew-free Gush Katif which Israel surrendered unconditionally into
terror training camps. They turned the ruins of the communities of northern
Gaza into launch pads for missile and rocket attacks against Ashkelon and
Sderot. They turned the abandoned international border between Gaza and the
Sinai into a global jihadist highway through which terrorists from the
Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hizbullah, Hamas and al Qaida, as well as
massive quantities of armaments have flooded into Gaza.
For the residents of Gaza, who overwhelmingly support Hamas, the situation
has become particularly dire. Since foreign correspondents have abandoned
the area, no one seems to notice or care about the fact that in Gaza today,
children are murdered in front of their parents, passengers are removed from
cars and shot in the streets, and doctors are murdered in hospitals as
patients are violently removed from life support systems and taken out of
operating rooms. No one bats a lash as jihadists bomb pubs and internet
cafes. No one hears as Gazans pray for a return of the so-called
"occupation."
Egypt serves as a principal support base for the Palestinian terror networks
by enabling the flow of terrorists and arms into Gaza and by acting as a
central hub of annihilationist anti-Semitic propaganda. Saudi Arabia oversaw
the establishment of the Palestinian unity government which transformed
Fatah into a junior partner in the Hamas government that carries out
terrorism and enjoys the financial support of the Saudis and the Iranians
(and Norwegians).
Iran, and its client state Syria call the shots for the Palestinians today.
As last summer's war demonstrated, in the wake of Israel's withdrawal from
Gaza, the Iranians were able to unify the Palestinian and Lebanese fronts in
the global jihad. Iran manages both fronts while it proceeds unfettered in
its quest for atomic bombs. Syria daily issues threats of war. And both
countries oversee the insurgency in Iraq.
So of all the components of Bush's vision for peace between Israel and the
Palestinians, the only one that has been implemented is his demand that
Israel freeze building activities in Israeli communities beyond the 1949
armistice lines.
Were Olmert to devote his meeting with Bush to reciting a summary of these
cold, hard facts, he would be doing an important, even vital service to the
country. Were the President to receive and accept a a credible report on the
situation on the ground from Israel's prime minister, President Bush's next
speech would have to look something like this:
Tragically, developments over the past five years demonstrate that today, it
is impossible to realize this vision, and therefore, the time has come to
set it aside.
Although the Palestinians have received more foreign aid per capital than
the nations of Europe under the Marshall Plan, rather than use the
international community's support to embrace liberty and build a working
democracy, the Palestinians have built legions of terror.
With US support, the Palestinians held free elections in January 2006.
Rather than choose leaders not compromised by terror, the Palestinians
preferred to choose the Hamas and other terrorist organizations to lead
them. By so choosing, the Palestinians showed the world that they reject
peace and have chosen the path of terror and war.
While Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has publicly condemned acts of
terror and murder, in spite of the generous support he has received from the
United States and Israel, to date he has opted not to effectively combat
terror. Rather than educate his nation to embrace peace and tolerance, Abbas
has overseen the Palestinian Authority school system which teaches the
children of Palestine to choose death over life and to seek Israel's
destruction rather than the establishment of a free, democratic state that
would live at peace with Israel.
This past June, Abbas decided to form a unity government with Hamas. By
doing so, Abbas effectively abandoned peace as a strategy.
Five years ago I said, "The United States will not support the establishment
of a Palestinian state until its leaders engage in a sustained fight against
the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure."
Since none of the Palestinian leaders are engaging in a sustained fight
against terrorists, the United States recognizes that today Israel has no
partner for peace. I am left with no choice but to withdraw American support
for Palestinian statehood at this time.
Since Israel has no peace partner, it is clear that the Israelis must take
the necessary steps to protect themselves. Since Israel's withdrawal from
Gaza in 2005, Gaza's international border with Egypt has turned into a
thoroughfare for global terror with arms and personnel coming in from Iran,
Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and beyond. I am disappointed with the fact that to
date, Egypt has taken no effective action to block the terror traffic from
its territory into the Palestinian Authority.
The United States looks with worry on the emerging situation in Gaza. I view
the transformation of Gaza into a base for global terror not simply as a
threat to Israel, but as a threat to international security. As a result,
the United States will understand and support an Israeli operation aimed at
restoring Israeli control over the international border.
Furthermore, Israelis have the right to live free of fear of missile and
rocket attacks on their towns and villages. Today's situation, where Israeli
communities bordering Gaza are exposed to daily barrages of mortars and
rockets launched by terrorists in Gaza is unacceptable and intolerable.
Over the past two years since Israel withdrew from Gaza, I have come to
recognize a flaw in the two-state model. Until now, one of the guiding
assumptions of the two-state model is that the Israeli settlements located
beyond the 1949 armistice lines constitute an obstacle to peace. But we see
that the evacuation of the settlements in Gaza and the northern West Bank
only caused a further radicalization of Palestinian society.
Aside from that, it is time to recognize that the Palestinian demand to
establish a state on land emptied of all Jewish presence is an immoral
demand. It is impossible to expect that the Palestinians will conduct
internal reforms when the international community gives them the legitimacy
to base their nationalism on ethnic cleansing and the rejection of the
humanity and moral rights of the Jewish nation. As a result, and without
prejudicing future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, today
the United States recognizes the right of Israelis and Palestinians to build
their communities in a manner that provides for the natural growth of their
populations.
The forces in the Palestinian Authority who fight Israel, and who educate
their children to seek death by terror, are supported by the same states
that support Hizbullah in Lebanon and the insurgents in Iraq. Iran and Syria
cannot expect that their support for terror in Israel, Lebanon and Iraq will
go unnoticed. While Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issues near daily
threats to wipe Israel off the map, and Syria threatens Israel with war,
they both must understand that Israel is an ally and a friend of the United
States. We support Israel and its right to defend itself.
We hope that the day will finally come when the Palestinian people reject
terror and hatred and embrace democracy and peace. On that day, the American
people will be proud to look to the Palestinians to join the people of
Israel and so many other nations of the world as our allies and friends.
JWR contributor Caroline B. Glick is the senior Middle East Fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC and the deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post. Comment by clicking here.
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