The Oslo Accords foundered on the rock of Arafat.
No, the Oslo Accords were killed by the Israeli right-wing. They never accepted Oslo. Even as talks were going on - at the very inception. Netanyahu was opposed - strongly opposed to the very idea of Oslo Accords. As soon as Rabin was murdered by the Israeli right-wing dingbats, the road was clear for them to torpedo the OA. The U.S. was pushing for Israel to keep OA alive, and Netanyahu would pay that lip service in the U.S. His true colors came out very quickly, culminating in the disgrace of the Wye Agreements, which he immediately broke - and all the Israeli apologists immediately made the excuse that Netanyahu had no choice, because he had to defend himself from the right. There were extremely few attacks from Palestinians during that time, a time that was simply used by the Israel to steal land with impunity - and so the Palestinians reached the conclusion that peacefully waiting for justice from Israel is like looking for a meal of fried snowballs - only armed struggle remained. The right wing in Israel has great allies in the extremists on the Palestinian side. They need each other.
If Rabin had lived, they would have foundered all the sooner; for Rabin was a strong leader who did not need to pretend things were working when they were not. Rabin was also a hard-headed general, you forget that.
I don't believe it. Hamas and the Palestinian extremists feared Rabin much more than Netanyahu. They new that Rabin was serious about peace - while they could count on Netanyahu to keep their "dream" alive, to stoke the hatred. They were right, of course.
Rabin is on record as having said on many occasions - there are no alternatives to a peace process, and there is no military solution. Yes, Rabin was a hard-headed general. That was a good thing - it immunized him from the kinds of stupid charges that dog Peres... which is why he had to be killed by the right wing - they had no way of saying "Rabin is soft". And Rabin was intelligent - something sorely lacking in Netanyahu, Sharon and the other dingbats on the right. Rabin was not a "softie" - he of the "broken bones" intifada fame. He could crack down - but he LEARNED. He learned through FIRST HAND experience that there is no military solution, and the peace process was the only way, and Arafat the best partner available with the requisite legitimacy and ability to deliver. It wasn't going to be easy. There were many knotty issues, and it would have taken time, with inevitable sabotage by extremists on BOTH sides. But it could have worked - the Palestinian population was overwhelmingly in favor of the peace process and willing to accept Israel as a peaceful neighbor in pre-67 borders - there were many polls to that effect. It could have worked, and would have worked eventually. But it was killed by the bullets that killed Rabin.
The "hard core" of PIJ and Hamas is all of them.
That is simply not the case. Even the leadership of Hamas has said that they were willing to suspend their struggle if Israel withdraws to pre-67. Repeatedly. Yes, many also said that would be a "strategic" pause, and struggle would resume 10 years later regardless. But they have a certain extremist constituency (small minority) to answer to - and that's whom they address with the "resume" struggle part. It is simply not realistic to imagine that after 10 years of peace and building of the Palestinian state, suddenly people would have the apettite for renewed chaos and terror with all that implies for BOTH sides. So, I believe in the end, even the Hamas would live with Israel pre-67. No doubt, as I said before, there are some nut-jobs who are serious about pushing Israel into the sea - but they are thankfully not a large number, and can be isolated - in any case, I'd rather deal with only the inevitable few who have little support even in their own society, than with huge numbers of Palestinians inflamed by legitimate claims. And regardless of the PIJ leadership - even if every one of them was the devil incarnate - I still makes sense to deprive them of recruits, and the overwhelming majority of those recruits go to the PIJ because the PIJ and Islamicists are the only organizations OFFICIALLY committed to the liberation of Palestine by all means necessary (unlike the PA that's been stupidly rendered toothless by Israel). Deprive them of that excuse - withdraw to pre-67, and you'll see the number of recruits to the PIJ and Hamas drop precipitously. You'll only be left with a few nut-jobs - then let the PIJ leadership go blow themselves up instead of sending young men and women forth.
As for the settlers in the olive groves, you do realize that the settlers are fighting Jews who are picking with the Palestinians?
Do you really believe some of the nonsense you post? On the small chance that you are interested in really understanding the issues rather than simply pushing Debka style disinformation, I appeal to you to do some basic research. The absurdity of imagining that somehow the settlers don't commit crimes against Palestinians SIMPLY TO REMOVE them from the land is really too much in today's world where information flow cannot be stopped. We can easily dig up links upon links for all this - why maintain positions that have zero plausibility and call into question your credibility? No nation is devoid of extremists doing truly evil things, and Israel is no different - don't expend your credibility in a futile attempt to maintain obvious absurdities. This is a larger point than the particulars of settler crimes. Think about what is to be gained by looking at the facts squarely rather than through a prism of Debka disinformation. You cannot create policies that succeed if you operate on falsehoods.
Think about the end game. Do you really, really think that the Palestinians can ever possibly live with settlers outside of pre-67 borders? Do you really, really believe that they can be beaten into submission, and that there is a military solution that lets Israel keep their ill-gotten goods? Do you really think that the Palestinians/Arabs/Muslims will forever only have access to primitive bombs that are easily countered with helicopters and tanks? Do you really think that the way to settle this is endless ever escalating war, rather than a peaceful resolution based on negotiation and removal of root causes (pre-67 borders)? Do you really think that Israel can prosper in total international isolation - today it has only the U.S. on its side (and not as far as the settlements either)? Do you really think that eventually the U.S. public opinion will not turn against Israel, just as world opinion did eventually? Again - think about the end game. What is truly best for Israel? |
