Why rescue terrorists?

On the verge of the complete defeat of the Palestinian terror apparatus and the total collapse of the failed PA regime in the West Bank, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is negotiating with PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas to prepare a joint declaration for the upcoming "peace "summit, to provide a "political horizon" for the future establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank – thereby giving terror another life.

The Bush administration and the Olmert government have repeatedly stated the old myth that only the establishment of a Palestinian state will end the Israeli -Palestinian conflict and bring peace and stability to the Middle East.

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Following the Oslo agreement, under which the Israel military withdrew from most of the West Bank cities and communities, Arafat and the PA used the "autonomy" given them to establish a terrorist infrastructure in Judea and Samaria. In the summer of 2000, still believing in that myth, Israeli PM Barak offered Arafat generous territorial concessions, which included the establishment of a Palestinian state in 97 percent of the West bank and Gaza with a capital in Jerusalem. Arafat only needed to agree to end the conflict and cease hostilities with the Jewish state. In response, Arafat began a campaign of terror against Israel, killing more than 1,000 innocent Israelis in three years and injuring more than 5,000, before the Israeli army returned back to the West Bank cities and by the use of sheer military force vanquished much of the terrorism.

When former U.S. negotiator Dennis Ross sought to understand the failure of the Oslo peace process of the 1990s, in which he was an active participant, he zeroed in on the need to bring about the "transformation" of political attitudes and to change the psyche of the Palestinian people toward the acceptance of a Jewish state, which the Palestinian leadership has failed to encourage. He pointed to the education and indoctrination of hatred and violence the Palestinian children receive at summer camps and in school textbooks, as well as the incitement against Israel by Palestinian institutions and leadership, concluding that "no negotiation is likely to succeed if there is one environment at the negotiation table and another on the street."

History shows that for an evil ideology to be crushed and eradicated from the hearts and the minds of its people, that evil regime must first be forced to collapse and fail militarily, politically and economically. If the regime is allowed to be saved, it can through false propaganda still be able to perpetuate the perception of its victory among the people. The people will repudiate the ideology only after publicly witnessing its total collapse and failure.

After the Nazi regime was defeated militarily, its political leadership and education, legal and economic systems had to collapse, be removed and change for a new democratic Germany to rise. The Communist totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union had to collapse as well for a new democratic Eastern Europe to rise. The Reagan administration was involved in such a strong military buildup that the Soviets could not keep up without destroying their economy. President Reagan did not try to negotiate and save them. He let them collapse and the Cold War was over.

The Olmert government, as well as other former Israeli governments led by Prime Ministers Rabin, Sharon and Barak, seem to believe that when the Palestinians are weak and on a verge of total collapse, that is the time to save them politically and in the process weaken Israel strategically.

In 1993, when Arafat and his PLO were on their death bed politically and financially, the Rabin government brought him and his terrorists back with the signing of the Oslo agreement. In 2005, Hamas leaders were on the run and in hiding when Prime Minister Sharon decided to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza. Since then, Hamas won a landslide victory in the January 2006 parliamentary elections in Gaza as well as in the West Bank. In surveys after the Israeli withdrawal, 84 percent of Palestinians perceived the disengagement as a retreat and a victory for the Hamas "armed" resistance.

Now Israel is negotiating for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank with Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah after being strongly defeated in the parliamentary elections and after their forces were defeated in Gaza by Hamas in less than two days.

Following Fatah's defeat in Gaza, the Bush and Olmert administrations decided Israel had an opportunity for real peace because Fatah and Hamas are different – Fatah and its leader Abbas are "moderate" Palestinians who believe in a two-state solution.

Scarily, I remember those exact words uttered by PM Rabin and President Clinton when they welcomed Arafat to the negotiations table.

Ignoring the fact that Abbas, a man who wrote his doctorate dissertation denying the Holocaust, was Arafat's No. 2 for the 37-year-long campaign of terror against Israel seems irresponsible and naive. Since Arafat's death, as president, Abbas was in a unity government with Hamas, despite Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel. Additionally, he has been unwilling and unable to disarm terrorist organizations such as Hamas or even his own Fatah terrorist organizations like the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade. Just over the recent Jewish holidays, Israel security forces thwarted seven suicide bombings emanating from the West Bank. Furthermore, the Fatah charter has not been rescinded and it remains posted on the Fatah website calling for Israel's destruction.

Moreover, the indoctrination to hate and glorification of martyrdom has been continuing by the PA, led by Abbas. Throughout 2007, there has been the ongoing use of hostile terminology in Fatah-dominated news outlets, including references to towns within pre-1967 Israel like Ashkelon and Sderot as being occupied and political cartoons in the official PA daily al Hayatal- Jadida utilizing anti -Semitic motifs that dehumanize Jews as insects or as a sinister worldwide force with blood on their hands. In school textbooks, not only has the PA not been promoting a peace curriculum at school, but it uses hostile language, including a reference in the latest 12th-grade texts to jihad and martyrdom and the non-existence of Israel in all maps.

True peace is not possible for the next few generations. Israel should wait for a change in the hearts and the minds of its enemies and the crushing of its evil terrorist ideology and leadership before any negotiations have the chance to succeed.

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Shoula Romano Horing is an Israeli born and raised attorney, a national speaker and the host of "Oh Jerusalem," a radio talk show on KCXL-AM 1160, in Kansas City, Mo.