betartagaruklogo  

  Join our email list here:
subscribe
unsubscribe
 





VIEW MORE EVENTS >>



Time For Israeli Peaceniks To Get Real

Aaron Klein- Friday 14th Nov 2003



I recently had the opportunity to interview Shlomo Ben Ami, Israel`s foreign minister during the Barak administration. Ben Ami was the chief Israeli negotiator at the Camp David peace summit, where Yasir Arafat turned down an offer of a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank, Gaza and Arab East Jerusalem, and responded with a terrorist war.

For the most part, I was impressed by Ben Ami`s change in attitude after three years of continued violence. But when I asked, half rhetorically, about Arafat`s intentions — whether he thought Arafat is trying to destroy Israel, or ultimately wants peace — I was kind of shocked by the response: "Well, you can never know what is the next stage in [Arafat`s] mind. ..."

Ben Ami went on to explain that he thinks Arafat`s strategy of terrorism is to internationalize the conflict so the Palestinians can be offered a more generous deal brokered by the international community instead of by America, which Arafat views as biased toward Israel.

C`mon. You never know what`s on Arafat`s mind?! Try watching a PLO soccer tournament in which each Palestinian team is named after a suicide bomber. Browse an Arafat-published textbook that teaches about the "Zionist entity in our midst which must be destroyed." Tune into PLO-controlled television to see a moving map of Israel, dripping with blood, change into a beautiful, green "Palestine." Arafat even wears a keffiyeh on his head that is shaped exactly like Israel.

Could Arafat`s intentions — a state to replace Israel, not to live alongside it — be any more obvious?

And if he simply wants to internationalize the conflict, why has Arafat not made any such declaration in exchange for a cease-fire? And what kind of "generous deal" could Arafat possibly hope to extract using the international community that couldn`t have been negotiated with an

incredibly willing Prime Minister Barak and an American president desperate to leave office with an Israeli-Palestinian settlement as his legacy?

If Arafat wanted a state, he would have had one by now. I could appreciate the confusion regarding PLO strategy during the Oslo period, but it`s been three years since Camp David sputtered into the bloodiest terror onslaught the Jewish state has ever faced, and Israel`s peace camp still shows few signs that it understands why.

In fact, just last month former Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, now a private citizen, flew to Geneva where he negotiated an "accord" with former Palestinian minister Yasir Abed Rabbo that basically rehashes Oslo and Camp David — Israeli concessions in exchange for Palestinian promises. Beilin`s efforts were met with the scorn it deserves, both by the Sharon government and by the Israeli public. Some Knesset members went so far as to accuse Beilin and his ilk of committing treason.

Oslo was a beautiful dream and Israel tried everything it could to make it work, but it`s high time to accept the reality of the situation: There is no Palestinian peace partner, and should one ever emerge, things need to be handled much differently, in delicate stages that begin with the absolute crushing of Arafat`s extensive terror apparatus.

And yet the Israeli Left still persists. The peace camp, which brought Arafat back from Tunis and believed so fervently that the PLO would abandon its stated goal of destroying Israel in exchange for a state, has yet to own up to its mistakes, or admit that any fundamental change in direction is necessary.

It actually seems that the strategy of the left is not to reassess at all, but to wait until Ariel Sharon somehow screws up so badly, the voters will have no choice but to turn back to the opposition. Ben Ami basically told me as much: "I think the future of the Labor Party lies in the future of the Sharon government. ... Whenever the [ruling] government sees its powers eroded, this favors the opposition."

In a way, there is something admirable about this attitude. It is reflective of a camp that truly believes in what it stands for and does not just blow with the electoral winds. But Israeli citizens must be given more credit. They will never again delude themselves into believing in final status negotiations until an actual democratically-elected Palestinian governing body really, truly proves over a long period of time that it has abandoned terrorism and is ready for peace.

The Left should have heard this loud and clear in the past two Israeli elections — Ariel Sharon won by landslides and Labor lost almost half its Knesset seats.

With Rabin`s Oslo Accords and Barak`s Camp David attempt now unfortunately in shambles, and with Palestinian intentions as clear as ever, one would think the Israeli Left would finally admit the error of its ways and adopt accordingly. But it hasn`t. And until this happens, the Israeli public will not allow it to become relevant again.

Aaron Klein, former editor of the Yeshiva University undergraduate newspaper, previously conducted interviews with Yasir Arafat, Benjamin Netanyahu and leaders of the Taliban. His account of his experience interviewing members of Osama bin Laden's organization, "My Weekend With the Enemy," appeared in The Jewish Press in 1999.





VIEW MORE ARTICLES >>

 



Search article archive:

Israeli government surrenders to terrorism.. again By David Shalom with Betar UK - 16th Jul 08

What is a proportionate response? By Tom Carew - 5th Mar 08

Extortion Payout to Arab Mafia By Steven Shamrak - 6th Jan 08

On dialogue between Jews and Muslims By Isi Leibler - 1st Jan 08

Wake up call - Time to stop Annapolis Madness By David Shalom - 19th Nov 07

The Enemy Within By David Shalom - 8th Aug 07

Boycott Anglo Jewry By Jeremy Rosen - 22nd Jul 07

The Internal Fighting Between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza By Leon Ruskin - 27th Jun 07

A day in the life of Hebrew University By Angela Bertz - 6th Jun 07

In the Trenches: Why the British journalists union boycotts Israel By David Harris - 20th Apr 07

British journalists union boycott motion reflects deep animosity towards Israel By Chas Newkey Burden - 20th Apr 07

Weakness fosters anti-Semitism By ISI LEIBLER - 6th Nov 06

The media war against Israel By Melanie Philips - 5th Sep 06

The Civilian Casualties Are Aweful, But Israel Is Fighting For Its Existence By Richard Littlejohn - 4th Aug 06

Evidence mounts that Qana collapse and deaths were staged. By Reuven Koret - 31st Jul 06

Seeing Through The Fog Of War, The Truth... By Bernard J. Shapiro - 30th Jul 06

Why Israels Reaction to Hezbollah is Right By Matthias Küntzel - 28th Jul 06

Hezbollah, The war against Israel By Melanie Phillips - 27th Jul 06

Lunatic, Terrorist, Suicide Society By Amnon Dankner, Editor of Maariv Newspaper - 29th Jun 06

Those who celebrate death By Michael Freund - 16th May 06

Terror and Peace By Dori Gamliel - 1st Mar 06

Why the Hamas Victory is a Good Thing By Steven Plaut - 30th Jan 06

Two faces of an old bully By Shmuel Katz - 2nd Jan 06

Why Syria Welcomed David Duke By Dr. Rafael Medoff - 3rd Dec 05

The Right Strategy By Caroline Glick - 21st Oct 05

The Deliverance of Israel By Caleb Corbin - 15th Oct 05

Hold Palestinians accountable for Gaza synagogues destruction By Jerusalem Post - 14th Sep 05

Speech at Duke University by a Lebanese Christian By Brigitte Gabriel - 9th Sep 05

Was Arafat a Homosexual that died of Aids-UPDATED By Yaniv - 8th Sep 05

The End of Myhtology By Caroline Glick - 27th Aug 05

Is "Disengagement" promoting security, democracy and the economy? By Yoram Ettinger - 16th Aug 05

Ethnic Cleansing By Joseph Farah - 5th Aug 05

Does Corruption Drive Israeli Disengagement? By Rachel Neuwirth - 1st Aug 05

Where Now for the National Camp? By David Shalom - 20th Jul 05

The Beginning of the Reckoning By Caroline Glick - 17th Jul 05

'Orange fever' strikes Israel, Campaign colors country to stop Gaza evacuation By Aaron Klein - 13th Jul 05

The Israelification of Europe By Mark Steyn - 13th Jul 05

The BBC discovers ‘terrorism,’ briefly By Tom Gross - 12th Jul 05

The Lynch Against the Maoz Yam Hotel By Nadia Matar - 6th Jul 05

Disengaged from Reality By David Shalom - 6th Jul 05

Ariel Sharon - A coward for prime minister By Caroline Glick - 23rd Jun 05

A bolshevik state comes to Israel? By Israel Hanukoglu / Betar/ Women in Green - 19th May 05

This Year, Free Men? By Avi Hyman - 26th Apr 05

A dying lion that can still do harm/Britain's slide into self-destruction By Caroline Glick - 25th Apr 05

Pollard's freedom and our freedom By Caroline Glick - 24th Apr 05

BETAR joins fight for Gush Katif By Betar - 12th Apr 05

What Bush doesn't understand By Dr. Ron Breiman - 12th Apr 05

The Temple Mount Secret By Boris Shusteff - 11th Apr 05

Betar fights PLO on Oxford street By Betar-Tagar UK - 3rd Apr 05

Our World: The Holocaust Fetish By Caroline Glick - 2nd Apr 05


VIEW MORE ARTICLES >>

All Graphics Text, Control Management System Copyright Betar Tagar UK 2002 - Website Designers