Israel Matzav

Celebrating Grandma

Saul Singer has an article in yesterday's JPost that is mostly about the 'Palestinian' media's reaction to the suicide grandma from last week. The only thing I disagreed with was Singer's claim that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's offer to the 'Palestinians' was "smart diplomatically, since it is crazy for Israel to look like it is gumming up the works when Hamas cannot even accept Israel's right to exist." Those who want to see that Israel is not the obstacle saw it without Olmert's offer, while no offer other than for us to "start swimming" will help those who do not want to see that Israel is not the obstacle to 'peace.'

But I'm linking this article because of its ending, because it raises a very valid point: the Arabs have succeeded into turning this conflict into one between Israel and the 'Palestinians' while the Arab role in the conflict continues to be ignored.

The problem is that Olmert's proposal deals with only one side of the coin: It demonstrates that Israel is not an obstacle, but remains silent about what is.

It is no longer enough to say to the world that the Palestinians must stop terror. It should be obvious that the Palestinians cannot alone extricate themselves from their suicide spiral. Nor can the sweetest of offers by Israel.

The Arab states, by contrast, if they were pressed by the US and Europe to take concrete steps toward normalization with Israel and defusing the refugee issue, could tip the balance among Palestinians toward true moderation. But why should the US, let alone Europe, demand that the Arab states lead the way toward peace if Israel is not making such demands, or even stating the problem?

Offering the Palestinians a state is not, by itself, a peace plan because the lack of a state is not the cause of the war. There will be no real movement toward peace, let alone peace itself, before the international community holds the Arab world accountable for its refusal to accept Israel's right to exist - a refusal that is still largely intact even in the two Arab nations that have signed peace treaties with us.

Israel must call on the Arab states to reject plans to flood Israel with Palestinians, to shut down anti-Semitic attacks, allow people-to-people contacts, exchange high-level visits and crack down on financial and material support for radical movements.

Why should the US, let alone Europe, make demands of the Arab states if Israel does not?

Of course, Singer is correct. The world should be demanding that the Arab countries make themselves part of the solution rather than the perpetuators of the problem. And Israel should be the first to demand that. For the record, the 'Saudi initiative' doesn't deal with this issue: it expects Israel to absorb all of the 'refugees' and allow itself to be demographically overrun. But don't expect to see Israel demanding anything anytime soon.... Olmert, Peretz and Livni are still fiddling.... And Israel is still burning....

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:46 PM