Soccer Dad

If none of the Arab parties is seeking peace with Israel, why is Israel the sole country sitting in the dock accused of holding up peace? All the demands are placed on Israel, which has done a great deal to pursue peace over the last 16 years of Oslo, to no avail. And found no sympathy or understanding from the world for all her sacrifices. Just the opposite.

NormanF - You would, indeed have a good point if that were, in fact, the case. The fact is that your assertion that "none of the Arab parties is seeking peace with Israel," is batantly untrue. The Arab world, by and large, supports the Arab Peace Initiative under which they would agree to recognize the legitimacy of Israel (since it was created, the Arab nations have refused to acknowlege the legitimacy of Israel as a nation, similar to the U.S. refusal to recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan prior to the 2001 invasion.) and open up diplomatic contacts. They would agree to a broad, stable peace with Israel as well. The conditions on Israel are that Israel must withdraw to its 1967 borders, including a withdrawal from East Jerusalem in order to create the capital of an independent Palestine and must allow the Palestinian refugees who were driven from their lands the right to return. This very reasonable offer has been steadfastly refused by Israel.

Your assertion that "All the demands are placed on Israel, which has done a great deal to pursue peace over the last 16 years of Oslo, to no avail" is also heavily flawed. Both Israel and the PA have been given demands and neither one has carried them out. For instance, Israel has agreed to freeze settlement activity in the "Road Map" and has never, to this day, acted to carry out that promise. Through reliance on the undeniably dishonest broker, America, Israel has also managed to ensure that demands are placed upon the Palestinians, many of which seem to be at the very least poorly thought out, if not maliciously designed to ensure that Israel could maintain the appearance of pursuing a solution while actually working feverishly to make one more difficult. For example, the PA was to prevent all violence against Israel. While this does sound fair and sensible at face value, the reality is that such a requiremenmt is akin to telling the LAPD that they must prevent any and all gang activity and should a single shooting, robbery, drug deal, or other crime be commited, the deal had been broken. Of course, Israel also places restrictions on the poorly funded security forces and frequently treats them as hostile enemies, making certain that it would be impossible for the Palestinian Authority to reign in terrorists. Evenm mighty Hezbollah could not stop a few rockets from being fired from Lebanon durin the Gaza Massacre, despite the great political danger such attacks placed on the Hezbollah leaders. My point here is that the appearance of Israel working toward peace is just that - an appearance. Israel is either run by some of the stupidest people ever born or actively tries to undermine the peace process: I don't know which. The U.S. repeatedly warned Israel that Hamas would win the Gaza election if it was carried out at that time, but Israel pushed ahead anyway. I said at the time that Sharon was trying to turn Gaza into a terrorist haven in order to make further progress toward a two-state solution nearly impossible - Look what happened. Sharon is the same man who intentionally visited a sacred Muslim shrine, knowing that it would infuriate the palestinians, thus starting the second intifadah, which he used to propel himself into the PM's office. Peace is not his thing.

Anyway, if you look with a bit of healthy skepticism and an analytical mind, you'll see that Hamas' and Fatah's provacative statements have an ulterior motive: They are meant to attract the support of a Palestinian people who have no faith in the possibility of peace, no trust for Israel after so many broken promises, and who have been oppressed and persecuted for 60 years but a brutal regime of militant Jewish extremists. The people of the West Bank and Gaza have been victimized and traumatized no less than the holocaust survivors and they will not vote for a party which advocates wholesale capitulation to the occupier and selling out the Palestinian people simply to stop the rain of American-made high-tech precision munitions fired by cowards from aircraft flying far above the range of anti-aircraft weapons. Ask yourself this question: How would you feel about capitulating to a group which stole the land of your forefathers, treats your people like animals, and has no qualms about murdering 20 or thirty innocent civilians because it might save a few of their own SOLDIERS? Don't just accept what you're told. Think deep and hard and try to understand the situation in terms of the reality of human experience rather than the sterile, black and white world of conceptual ideals and labels like "good," "evil," "terrorist," "freedom fighter," and so on. Both sides will use words and concepts to advance their cause because they know that definitions and concepts can hide the messy complexity of the real world and cover up the stark reality of immeasurable human suffering.

Israel has accepted the Arab initiative as a possible point of discussion, not as a take it or leave it obligation presented by the Arabs. Both Prime Minister Barak and Prime Minister Olmert presented the Palestinian Arabs with a statehood offer. They never even received a counteroffer from the other side. Israel is not standing in the Palestinians way to a better future. Both sides have to work together to make peace happen. Israel has shown in the past it is willing to make unprecedented concessions to bring it about. The Jewish State is still waiting for a partner. As long as the Palestinians keep saying "no" to statehood, no Israeli Jew feels obligated to commit national suicide for them.