|
Israfax
November 9, 2000/5761 - Volume XII, Number
230
 ISRAFAX
EDITORIAL
Oslo is Dead, Long Live Israel
Frederick Krantz
The Oslo Accords, terminally ill
for some time, are now officially dead, buried by Yasser Arafat and his
Tanzim. And Ehud Barak, strutting about Camp David just a few weeks ago
and offering Arafat a tasty package of "unheard of concessions",
is also on his last legs, under 30% in public approval and desperately
seeking Ariel Sharon's assent to a national unity government.
Bill Clinton, it turns out, despite the last-gasp
Sharm el-Sheik meeting, is also a dead duck. He will have neither another
dramatic photo op on the White House lawn, nor a Nobel peace prize to
crown his "legacy".
We can probably expect an "embattled"
Arafat to proclaim his vaunted Palestinian state, perhaps on November
15, the anniversary of his first proclamation, and to have it approved
by the Arab League, the UN General Assembly, and those high-minded Security
Council members, France, Britain, Russia, and China.
Meanwhile, many former Peace Now supporters are
doing tshuvah. They had rushed in great dudgeon to term any critics, anyone
daring to point out that Arafat never honored even one clause of the Oslo
Accords, "right-wingers" or, worse, "fascists". Some,
like U.S. Labor Zionist head Menahem Rosensaft, or former Israeli Foreign
Ministry director and Hebrew U. professor Shlomo Avineri, are now out-Likuding
the Likud in their issuance of Oslo death-certificates.
Amidst scenes redolent of 1947-48, Israel is
at war. Arafat unleashed it, and through it all the silence of Israel's
chosen one, her "indispensable" peace partner, has been deafening.
The important thing about the current crisis is whether, amidst the gnashing
of teeth and beating of breasts, we really will learn anything from it.
What is there to learn? Let me list the ways:
- A Jewish state cannot make peace with an
antisemitic murderer. When Menahem Begin said Arafat was the post-1945
figure to come closest to Hitler's anti-Jewish blood-lust, he spoke
a simple truth. Arafat wants the status quo ante 1947, that is, the
destruction of the Jewish state (which means, haverim, the killing of
Jews).
- You do not give advantageous terms to someone
sworn to destroy you. Oslo was signed in 1993 despite the fact that
Arafat had not set aside his notorious "Covenant", with its
denial of the existence of the Jewish people and of the legitimacy of
Israel. (And, despite some PR gestures, the PLO's "Covenant"
still stands.)
- What your enemies say (repeatedly, and not
only in Arabic) matters. Arafat repeatedly affirmed the PLO "conquest
by stages" plan, combining negotiating and fighting. He consistently
advertized his ultimate plan to conquer "Jerusalem" (not,
note, "East Jerualem"). He repeatedly denied the existence
of the Temple on the Temple Mount, thus denying the Jewish legitimacy
of the Jewish state and capitol.
- What your enemy does, does matter. You do
not continue a "peace process" in which your interlocutor
violates every tenet of the agreement he initially signed. From refusing
to extradite to Israel terrorist criminals to maintaining the virulent
antisemitic content of his media to violating Oslo's limits on the size
and arms of his "police", Arafat thumbed his nose at Israel
and its U.S. backers for years, and got away with it.
- You do not give quids without receiving quos.
Netanyahu was elected in 1996 on this principle ("reciprocity",
remember?) and then-under immense U.S. pressure-proceeded to give away
a quid (Hebron).
- You do not arm and finance your enemy. Israel
is being attacked with guns she supplied, and to this very moment continues,
incredibly, to give Arafat millions of dollars in taxes collected from
Palestinian day-laborers in Israel.
- Never put all your eggs into the U.S. basket,
however important it is. The U.S. always has its eye on Arab oil-it
will not alienate the Saudis, and-despite embargoes-it uses Iranian
and Iraqi oil as well. The U.S. abstention on the UN condemnation of
Israel was despicable (Canada's support for it was worse); always remember
the helicopters air lifting Americans from Saigon.
- Recognize when your hopes become illusions,
and give them up. It should have been clear years ago that Oslo was
a misconceived, and then failed, policy. Had that fact been honestly
confronted, there would be no crisis today.
- As in real estate, so in security-location
is everything. 1992, before Oslo, was more secure than 2000, after Oslo.
Go back to 1992.
- You do not keep failed leaders in power.
Dayan and Golda Meir went after 1973; Peres fell to Palestinian terror
bombings, Netanyahu to lack of confidence in his honesty. Barak's suddenly
radical peace policy, which threatened the unity of Jerusalem, failed
at Camp David, and his handling of the current crisis has since been,
at best, erratic. Any unity government must at best be a temporary stop-gap,
to be followed by elections and a new prime minister.
Who will replace Barak? Israel desparately needs
a genuine leader. My vote is for Natan Sharansky, who seems the only major,
principled figure on the horizon capable of rising to true greatness and
statesmanship. In any case, Israel's next prime minister must not harbor
illusions about a revived peace process with Arafat.
As Shlomo Avineri put it, "What should be
done with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process? There is only one solution:
Abandon it". In time, over years, if a new status quo and a new and
truly moderate Palestinian leadership emerges and leads to renewed contacts,
and if it is in Israel's clear self-interest to proceed, this time on
a realistic basis, with negotiations, so be it.
Let us, out of the current crisis, rededicate
ourselves to the wall-to-wall pro-Israel Zionist unity lost in the divisive
rush to, and from, Oslo. Israel, the center of the Jewish people, will
prevail, not because of the IDF's strength alone, but because of our shared
Jewish determination, and our willed Zionist unity and belief in the justice,
and necessity, of our cause. Am Yisrael chai!
(Prof. Krantz is Editor of ISRAFAX and Director
of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research)
Top
of the Page
FOCUS: OSLO LYNCHED, END OF AN ERA
PM Ehud Barak: Israel's Compromises
and Limits
(Jerusalem Post Interview by Herb Keinon and
Jeff Barak, Oct. 2)
"...[I]f there is an agreement
it will include an end to the conflict, permanent borders for Israel recognized
by the world, 80 percent of the settlers in Judea and Samaria under Israeli
sovereignty...security arrangements principally along the eastern border,
and Jerusalem bigger than ever since [the days of] King David-with a solid
Jewish majority for generations, united under our sovereignty, and recognized
by the world as the capital of Israel...
"I will not sign an agreement that
harm[s] the country's security, unity, or what is sacred to it. If there
will be an agreement, I am convinced that it will be very painful, because
I am very emotionally tied to every rock and hill in all of Eretz Yisrael...will
pass [through a referendum] with a sweeping majority...We will not transfer
[the Temple Mount] to any Palestinian or Muslim body..."
Acting FM Shlomo Ben-Ami on the PA's Release
of Hamas Prisoners
(Jerusalem, Oct. 10)
"...I am not aware that the PA abides by articles in our joint agreements,
such as, for example, the obligation to renounce violence and terror,
and take all measures necessary to prevent acts of violence and terror
against Israel...
"Recently they have released Hamas
militants...from jail, and Israel is concerned today about the threat
of possible acts of terrorism...
"The same should be said about the
Tanzim organization...a Fatah grassroots group that, according to the
agreement signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, should
be disarmed and disciplined. [Instead] it is one of the major groups perpetrating
violent activities that require the response of the IDF...
"Some of the leaders who visited
us in recent days told us: Maybe Arafat wants to control the territories,
but he is incapable. The only answer one can give to this is, if he is
incapable of controlling violence in his territory, what kind of a partner
is he?...Who will guarantee to us that tomorrow, after we have an agreement,
and there is a Palestinian state, that agreements will be respected other
than the way you saw the agreements so far have been respected?..."
Acting FM Shlomo Ben-Ami Following
the Lynching in Ramallah
(Tel Aviv, Oct. 12)
"[The Palestinians today displayed]
contempt for human life. This is not how partners for peace behave...This
is not how civilized people behave...The desire for peace...cannot co-exist
with violence of the kind that Arafat has initiated in the recent weeks.
There is no self-respecting sovereign state that can conduct a peace process,
when its supposed partner deliberately releases known terrorists and breaks
all the rules of political behavior. Responsibility rests squarely with
Arafat...
PM Barak Interview
With Christiane Amanpour
(CNN, October 12)
Amanpour: PM Barak, you have just
finished saying that this was a limited action, that you did not target
PA President Yasser Arafat. But...Israel has never taken this extensive
action against the Palestinians. How do you expect them to react?
Barak: We had [this morning] a lynch[ing] of
three Israeli reservist soldiers; people came from the home and were lynched,
then mutilated and burned. It's something that no government on Earth
could accept...Understand that we are living in the Middle East, not in
North America and not the Midwest, and this is a place where you cannot
expect anyone to respect you, you cannot expect your own people to trust
you if cannot respond to such an event. And we responded in a very focused
manner...
Amanpour: Nobody would condone what you described
as the lynching... But...the last two weeks...the majority of the people
who have been killed--nearly 100 people--are Palestinians.
Barak: Christiane...It's like you have lost today at the near Aden port
four sailors and some, maybe 12, that disappeared. When you try to ask
yourself, what's that, is it something offensive that the vessel had done?
It's nonsense. Butchering is the intention of terrorists, to take the
life of Americans since you are standing firm for freedom and against
terror. And that's exactly what the world expects the leaders of the free
world to do...
Amanpour: If you call a national unity government,
peace is dead, isn't it?...
Barak: ...I don't think that Likud or right-wing Israel is against the
peace. They might have certain differences of opinion with us about...how
to approach it...but they're not anti-peace...in my judgment, they are
a 100 percent OK, kosher, for a national unity government in Israel to
push peace if Arafat is ready. But if he's not ready, let's face the reality,
tell the truth and move forward...."
PM Ehud Barak
on the Sharm "Truce" Declaration
(Jerusalem, Oct. 17)
"US President Bill Clinton today
presented the Sharm declaration which gives expression to the obligation
of all sides to end the violence, calm the situation on the ground immediately
and restore regional stability...
"As obligated
thereby, upon my return to the country, I ordered the security forces
to do everything required to implement the Sharm declaration and contact
their American and Palestinian counterparts in order to act jointly to
achieve this goal forthwith...I would like to emphasize that the IDF and
Israel Police will take great care to halt the violence and prevent additional
loss of life..."
Foreign Ministry
On Arab Summit
(Jerusalem, Oct. 22)
"...The decisions of the Arab
Summit in Cairo place responsibility for the recent events and the damage
to the peace process exclusively on Israel, in a total distortion of reality
and in utter disregard for Israeli's far-reaching readiness to move towards
an agreement.
"Israel totally
rejects the idea of the establishment of an international commission of
inquiry under the aegis of the U.N. and the stationing of an international
force in the territories...
"The decisions of the Arab Summit which call for a freeze of the
multilateral talks and of cooperation with Israel...do not assist but
rather hinder the efforts to establish a comprehensive and lasting peace
in our region..."
PM Barak on Peace Process "Time-Out"
(Jerusalem, Oct. 22)
"The Sharm understandings are not being upheld by the Palestinian
side. There are preparations for attacks, public incitement, continued
mass demonstrations, shooting incidents...Released terrorists are not
being detained...
"[I]t seems
that the Palestinians have...turned towards violence in order to try and
internationalize the process and secure international support for the
establishment of their state without agreement with Israel. After the
Arab summit, and in light of its results, we will have to call a time-out,
the goal of which will be to reassess the diplomatic process in light
of the events of recent weeks...
"I will strive
to expand the government in the direction of a national emergency government.
I have no doubt that [such] a government will strive towards an Israeli-Palestinian
peace, even if there are differences of emphasis and nuance..."
Top
of the Page
|
     
|
