Anyone can make a fundamental mistake, but how many times do we
have to make the same one? Our “roadmap” to peace in the Middle
East — like the Camp David accords and so many other formulations
before and since — was based on the same mistake. It presumed that
peace could be reached between the Israelis and the Palestinians by
agreement between them alone, without the other nations that are
dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Until our thinking on that
point is corrected, we may as well save our breath, and our
paper.
Colin Powell’s sincere but arrogant insistence that if the
parties didn’t follow the roadmap the only other choice was
bloodshed forevermore ignored the aim of the bloodshed, and the
willingness of the Palestinian terrorists’ Arab backers to fight to
the last drop of Palestinian blood. They see a fatigued Israel that
can eventually be defeated and destroyed. It is time to toss what
little remains of the “roadmap” into the trash, and deal with the
two issues that have to be resolved before any real peace between
Israel and the Palestinians can be even imagined.
The roadmap we imposed, which the Palestinians and the Israelis
sort of bought, was based on the same old mistakes. It presumed
that Abbas would — or even could — make some effort to disarm and
control Hamas, the al-Aqsa “Martyrs” Brigade, Islamic Jihad and
their ilk. It was another remake of the Wizard of Oz, with Mr.
Powell in the role of the Scarecrow, being told to ignore the man
behind the curtain, Yassir Arafat. We did, and Arafat and the other
terrorist godfathers did what they always do. The terror network
and supporters outside Palestine used the “hudna” cease-fire to
re-form and rearm. Last week’s Jerusalem bus bombing is a sign of
what is to come.
I am sure that incidents as bad or worse have happened many
times before, but my worst nightmare never prepared me for this.
The vivid images from this incident were vastly more shocking than
anything I’d seen before. A man giving CPR to an infant. The scene
inside an Israeli ambulance that showed a toddler — its gut torn
open from crotch to breastbone — being attended to frantically by
the medics. It is one thing to see a smoking carcass of a
burned-out car. It is another to see dying children. Those images
should be enough to shock anyone into reality.
Any realistic assessment of the Palestinian matter has to start
from the fact that Palestinian terrorism is not sui
generis. The Palestinians have nothing. With essentially no
economy they live off the kindness of strangers. But the “kindness”
comes with sanguinary strings attached. From Syria, Saudi Arabia,
Iran and Iraq (while Saddam was in power, and perhaps still from
his coffers) quite a lot of money comes in to the West Bank and
Gaza to fund terrorism. If those same funds were put to
constructive use, the Palestinian territories would look like
Beverly Hills rather than the blood-spattered slums we see on the
news everyday.
As I have said more than once, the Arab nations don’t give a
damn about the Palestinians. They are using them as proxies, as
cannon fodder in their never-ending war against Israel. There is no
possibility of peace in the area, far less the Middle East as a
whole, until we face the facts of Yassir Arafat and his bankers.
Last month, I reported
that at least one Western leader — Tony Blair — had the courage
to say something like that openly. Blair, in his speech to
Congress, said that Israel must be accepted and legitimated by the
whole Arab world, and that nations such as Iran and Syria must be
made to understand that the world won’t tolerate their support for
terrorism. It is time that Mr. Bush said the same.
There is no textbook plan to bring about peace between Israel
and its Arab neighbors, any more than there is any easy solution to
Islamic terrorism. But before the Israel-Palestinian conflict can
begin to walk toward peace, we have to deal with some obvious
obstacles. First is Yassir Arafat.
Arafat is still in firm control of the Palestinian Authority.
Just last weekend, he was working to sideline the U.S.-backed
“security chief,” Mohammed Dahlan, and replace him with one Nasser
Yousef, one of his reliable thugs. Mahmoud Abbas — the so-called
Palestinian “prime minister” — has about as much authority as the
grand marshal of the Rose Bowl parade. He cannot — and obviously
will not — deal with terrorists in the West Bank and Gaza while
the real boss, Arafat, is funding and commanding them in the same
loose network they have operated since the latest “Intifada” began.
Arafat is a terrorist, and simply must be forced to leave. The
Israelis have often thought of removing him, and have been
constrained by us and by the fear of being blamed for his death in
any attempt to capture him. Because his bodyguards are probably
more loyal to Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran then they are to him,
his death in any such operation will be blamed on Israel regardless
of whether it is actually responsible. And the terrorism will —
briefly — flare up dramatically, as will the outrage in the U.N.
and the Arab capitals. But that will all subside, because Arafat
is, like the other Palestinians, ultimately expendable. One way or
the other, Arafat has to go. No Palestinian leader will be able to
make peace while he is on the scene.
The second obvious obstacle is the other nations that fund and
support Palestinian terrorism against Israel. In order to win our
own war against terrorism, we must soon confront these nations. It
is they who are funding, arming and manning the terror brigades
that are attacking our forces in Iraq. It is they who are leading
the effort to spread terrorism throughout the Islamic world. These
are facts, and the longer we ignore them, the longer our own war
against terrorism — and their war against us — will go on.
If Israel decided to take military action against Syria for its
sponsorship of the Hezbollah terrorists and take the fight all the
way to Damascus, it would be doing our job. We should not shun
Israel’s help, and we should shield it as best we can from
retaliation both military and diplomatic.
If there were some way to bring these nations — Iran, Syria,
Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and others — to the negotiating table and
make some treaty to abolish terrorism, it would be our best hope,
and our first priority. But terrorism cannot be talked out of
existence. If we have learned anything since before 9-11, it is
that terrorism cannot be contained, it must be defeated. We play
the terrorists’ game by putting one “roadmap” to peace in place of
another. Until we deal with the two underlying problems no amount
of American patience and influence — and no amount of American and
Israeli blood — will satisfy them. Mr. Blair said we need a “new
dispensation” for the Middle East. In plain old American, that
means redrawing the Middle East map. Unless this is done, the
bloodshed in Iraq and in Israel will not stop. And neither will the
terrorists’ war on us.
