RUTHFULLY YOURS

Peace for the Palestinians means no Israel and the right to commit pogroms against non-Muslims, as in any Arab society.

How do I know this? First, because when, a few years ago, Mahmoud Abbas started keeping part of the PLO’s agreements with Israel, his popularity with the Palestinians dropped to 2 percent. To avoid going to the chopping block at the hands of his own people, Abbas immediately stopped keeping any part of signed agreements.

These violations include terrorism (Palestinian Authority policemen many times opened fire on Israeli civilians); not confiscating illegal arms and disarming and disbanding militias; not extraditing suspected terrorists to Israel; incitement to violence; breaking the promise to locate all PA offices and ministries exclusively in areas under its jurisdiction (i.e., not in Jerusalem); recruiting terrorists to serve in the PA police; exceeding the limits on the number of PA police; and the failure to amend the PLO’s genocidal Palestinian National Covenant – despite the votes by the Palestinian National Council in Gaza in 1996 and 1998.

Noncompliance with signed agreements: 100%.

The council’s meeting in 1998 almost certainly lacked a quorum (no attendance was taken); non-members participated in the show of hands; many members were prevented by the PA from attending; no one counted the votes; contradictory lists of the purportedly canceled articles of the covenant calling for Israel’s destruction were given to US president Bill Clinton and British prime minister Tony Blair; and a committee appointed to draft a new text of the covenant within six months never met.

The covenant, or charter as it is often called, has not been changed. PA cabinet ministers have confirmed this on several occasions.

And second, because the various terrorist organizations – the PA, Fatah, etc. – have made it clear they will never renounce the so-called “right of return” for the descendants of Arabs who left the Land of Israel, or recognize Israel, in any borders, as a Jewish state. Either refusal means eternal war – no matter what pieces of paper may be signed.

This means that any concessions by Israel will only yield more bloodshed. Making terrorists strong is no way to reduce terrorism.

So what should Israel do? Persevere, “hang tough.” Insist on our existence as a people and as a state.

The concessions made under the Oslo process, made without receiving peace in return, only mean there is no possibility that the Arabs of the Land of Israel will make peace with us anytime soon. Why should they? We keep giving them more, in return for nothing real. Only after we have stopped making what are in reality unilateral concessions to terrorists, for a long time, would there be a chance for peace. Try it, and check back in a generation.

There are many who say, “The situation is intolerable. We must have peace. We should give up the entire West Bank, and east Jerusalem. Then, we’ll get peace. Or if we don’t get peace, if terrorism increases – as it certainly would – then at least the world would be on our side,” or we would feel better about ourselves, or some other such product of wishful thinking would materialize.

This is dangerous childishness.

Some problems have no solution. Suicide is not the answer. Neither is self-mutilation.

When the Arabs want peace, there will be peace. Until then, we should do our best to live happy lives, and stay strong.

The writer is a member of The Jerusalem Post editorial staff.