May 24, 2003

It's recently been reported that certain U.S. "officials" (translate as State Department) are concerned that in acknowledging Israeli concerns regarding the 'road map,' new disputes with the Arabs may surface. This is true. Palestinian Arabs and their European, Russian, United Nations, and other supporters--including Arabist friends in Foggy Bottom-- are looking for a virtual resurrection of the Oslo debacle. In Oslo I, the more Israel tangibly gave, the more it bled. Without President Bush's assurances that this will not again be the case, Sharon--or any other leader--could not accept this so-called new plan for peace.

Let's get something straight right from the start. Israeli checkpoints, travel restrictions, and other measures which cause inconvenience and problems for Arabs were eggs laid and hatched as a result of Arab rejectionist hens. Camp David 2000 and Taba clearly showed that occupation and settlements were not the problem...the existence of a viable Israel, regardless of size, was and still is. Arabs continue to kill not to end "occupation"--unless one understands that to mean Tel Aviv as well as Hebron--but to end Israel.

While it has been stated a thousand times, it must be repeated yet again. Arabs blow up Jewish innocents on buses, in pizza parlors, teen night clubs, etc. because, in too many Arab eyes, no Jew living in a Jewish state is innocent. How dare Israeli Jews, half of whom were refugees themselves from "Arab " lands (where they were known as kelbi yahudi--"Jew Dogs"), want in one miniscule state what Arabs have conquered and forcibly Arabized for themselves in twenty-two others. They reject an independent Kurdish state , Berber state, Black African Sudanese state, etc. for the same reasons... a belief that only Arabs have the right to rule lands where many different peoples have historically lived and live.

There is no moral equivalency between those who murder and those who try to prevent themselves from being murdered. And that's what Israel's reservations over the roadmap are basically all about. After 911, the United States didn't negotiate with al-Qaida or the Taliban. It sent in B-52 and B-1 bombers to do the "negotiating"...with bunker buster and daisy cutter bombs. Yet the world expects Israel to constantly watch its people blown to bits. Al-Qaida had its gripes with America too, but that didn't lead us to seek "accommodation" with those who butchered our own people.

Before anything can be done to ease up on the measures Israel has taken to try to limit Arab terrorism, the Arabs themselves must control those who deliberately disembowel, maim, and incinerate Jews. No other nation would demand less.

There's no mistaking which came first in this case. As long as Arab hens continue business as usual, misery for their own people will hatch from the eggs that are laid.