Give Hamas a chance
Let the Arabs choose their leaders without Israeli interference
U.S. President George W. Bush, in an attempt to lend support to Ariel Sharon, is not shy about getting involved in the domestic politics of “sovereign” Israel. He will stop at nothing, short of actually voting, to ensure Ariel Sharon is reelected prime minister and continues his policy of surrendering the heart of Israel.
Similarly, during the 1996 election campaign President Bill Clinton boorishly sided with Shimon Peres, as the terrible implications of “Oslo peace” began to become clear and the chances that the architect of Oslo would beat Benjamin Netanyahu waned.
Foreign involvement of this kind is out of line, and should be rejected out of hand by anyone who considers democracy important.
Following the American model
The exact same model – foreign involvement to dictate the results of elections that are supposed to be free and democratic – is the background for Israel’s official involvement with “democratic” elections scheduled for January in the Palestinian Terror Authority.
Here, the flawed Oslo approach, according to which we can strengthen and arm the good terrorists of the Palestinian “security” apparatus to fight the bad terrorists - the ones with no uniforms connected to terrorist groups, has been given new currency.
The debate going on nowadays in Israel is taken straight from Oslo. Once again, Israel - this time, under the leadership of Ariel Sharon and his partner Shimon Peres – is discussing options for strengthening a leader of the very same Authority, a body that is officially recognized by the Israeli government as a sponsor of terrorism, to take on his domestic enemies.
Once again, Jerusalem is considering arming the Palestinians, freeing murderers, both ones with blood on their hands and ones that technically have clean hands only because their bullets missed their intended targets.
Once again, Israel is taking steps against terror groups – a job that was supposed to be done by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and by former Chairman Yasser Arafat before him. But neither was, or is, willing to fight his terrorist brothers.
Burying our head
Israel once again prefers to bury its collective head in the sand and believe the Palestinian Authority represents the Arab residents of Judea and Samaria, and it is a good idea and possible to reach agreement and co-existence with it.
Israel once again is ignoring the fact that a vast majority of Judean and Samarian Arabs view terrorism as an appropriate tool that brings them political and military victories, and therefore intends to give terrorism their support on election day.
Israel is trying to forcibly prove it’s got a partner, at a time when voters across the “security” fence say clearly what their aims are.
The basis for the disengagement program and the security fence were to give them a chance to run their own affairs: Palestinians over there, Israelis here.
But Israeli involvement in “their” democratic process, and to bring about the election of the party most of “them” don’t support, proves that the disengagement was intended mainly to kick Jews out of their homes.
More than that, Israel continues to conduct its political and economic affairs as if there never was disengagement.
Israel is currently marking 32 years of a mistaken concept, an idea that gave rise to the Yom Kippur War. But Israel never learns a lesson, and goes over and over for mistaken ideas. This time, the concept disintegrated into the Oslo War.
The relative quiet at the moment is the quiet between the storms, not the quiet afterwards.
Whoever really wants true democracy, rather than Democracy Inc., must let the “Palestinian people” make their own choice. Then, we can all argue about who we are facing.
Then, perhaps the tired Jews will understand that peace and a Palestinian state west of the Jordan are a contradiction in terms.
Mahmoud Abbas’ grasp on Israel’s crutches and on Israel’s spear is not actual, not reasonable – and not democratic.
Dr. Ron Breiman is the head of Professors for a Strong Israel
