Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas emerged from his fourth meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon complaining that Israel was holding up the process by refusing to bend on the Palestinian demand for the release of 7,700 Palestinian prisoners. The Israelis, eager for peace, combed their jails for Arab political prisoners it could release, with its only proviso being that it would not release Arab prisoners who had Israeli blood on their hands. They were able to come up with 400 or so who qualified.
Prime Minister Sharon said that Israel would not risk releasing potential attackers unless the Palestinians met the first condition of the roadmap for peace – the dismantling of the terror groups who are sworn to Israel’s destruction.
In any other universe but this one, asking your enemies to stop attacking before you lay down your arms is reasonable. In any other universe but this one, one doesn’t return captured combatants to the battlefield to resume the offensive against your own troops.
But in this universe, (or at least, in the one where Israel is attempting to make peace) that is called “unbending.”
Since promising on June 24 to immediately begin dismantling the terrorist infrastructure as a first condition for peace, the Palestinians haven’t arrested one terrorist. All the terrorist organizations in the Palestinian areas have unrestricted freedom of action. Prime Minister Abbas is still holding meetings with the head of Hamas, one of the premiere threats to Israel’s continued existence and one of the terrorist groups Abbas specifically promised to dismantle.
The “roadmap” calls for Palestinians to immediately cease all violence. In Mahmoud Abbas’ first 12 weeks in office, there have been 338 terrorist attacks or attempted attacks. There have been more than 318 wounded and 51 killed. Statistically speaking, since the beginning of the so-called roadmap to peace, it is safer to be a GI in Iraq than a Jew in Israel. With a “peace” like this, who needs a war?
Following the summit in Egypt, Mahmoud Abbas specifically refused to implement any of these elements of the roadmap, claiming that if he did so, he would start a civil war. Abbas, after meeting Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa in Cairo on Tuesday, said, “Cracking down on Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian organizations is not an option at all.”
If the first condition for peace (as promised by the Palestinian side) is “not an option at all,” then can someone please explain when the terms of a signed agreement between Israel and the Palestinians became “optional”? And if the terms are optional, does that extend to both sides?
Can Israel simply decide not to withdraw troops, not to dismantle settlements and not to unfreeze Palestinian tax-sharing revenues on the grounds it is causing riots and demonstrations in Israel on the grounds it might cause a civil war among the Jews?
I think not.
This “peace process” (or maybe “pretext” is a better word) is doomed to follow all the rest. In any universe, a one-sided peace agreement is called a victory for the other side.
In the Middle East, it is the only offer Israel ever gets. And you can only count on future offers promising more and doing even less.
The simple fact is this: There is nothing that Israel can offer that will be acceptable to the Palestinian side apart from offering them Israel itself. Arafat remains in charge, despite the fiction that Abbas is now calling the shots. And Arafat doesn’t want a state side by side with Israel – he wants a state instead of Israel. Evidently, so does Abbas. He proves it with every public statement.
Israel is in a no-win situation. Her back is to the sea – she is surrounded on all three sides by enemies and is being forced into a false peace by her friends. That is precisely the scenario depicted by the Hebrew prophets for the revived Jewish state in the Last Days. And all of this indicates that’s exactly where we are in God’s prophetic timetable.
My greatest concern now is that United States policy is helping to implement this catastrophic situation. According to the Hebrew prophets, who have never been wrong, that is very dangerous for the United States. It puts America in direct opposition to what God clearly vows He is going to do – restore the scattered tribes of Israel to the land He unconditionally promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants.
Some say that makes me a Christian Zionist. And to that I say: “No”! It just makes me one who believes the infallible Word of God.
