Only if Israel gives a bit more...

By David M. Weinberg
August 1, 2013
	
Only if Israel conceded more to the Palestinians was there 
a chance of salvaging the peace process.
 
Two decades ago they told us that only if Israel agrees to talk 
directly to the PLO could peace become a possibility, 
despite that organization's monstrous terrorist record. 
Then we were informed that only if we allow the creation 
of the first self-governing authority in Palestinian history, 
in Gaza and Jericho, could peace ensue.

And we said fine - we've had enough of the conflict; 
we will live with this, for the sake of peace.

But the Palestinian Authority could sustain itself, we were 
then told, only if Yasser Arafat got himself a police force 
with tens of thousands of rifles and other military equipment. 
Even when this "police" force and other PA security forces 
mushroomed far beyond the numbers permitted by accords 
with Israel, and even when these "police" fired on IDF soldiers 
and Israeli civilians, we said fine - somehow we will live 
with this. Peace requires us to look the other way.

It was further explained to us that only if we turn a blind eye 
to PA human rights abuses and virulent anti-Semitic propaganda 
could the peace process continue. And we reluctantly swallowed 
our bile and said fine - we will live with this.

Next, it was imperative to give Arafat more land in Judea and 
Samaria. Only if Israel gives him more territory could he 
"solidify his regime," we were told. So Israel signed the 
Oslo II accord, handing over more than 30 percent of the 
West Bank, despite the fact that the PA had failed to live up 
to its original Oslo treaty obligations.

And again we sighed and said fine - we will live with this.

Unfortunately, the PA's commitment to fighting terror 
proved spotty and sporadic.

Pot-shot shootings at Israeli passenger cars and roadside bombing 
attempts became so routine that these ceased to make headlines.

Nevertheless, the "only ifs" continued to pile up. Only if Israel 
continued the process of handing over land to the PA could 
things improve, we were told.

So the Wye River accord was signed, committing Israel to three 
more staged withdrawals: first an additional 13% of territory, 
then another 9%. This put 98% of the Palestinian population of 
the territories under Arafat’s control, along with about 45% of 
the land and some important mountain aquifer resources. 
Some Jewish towns became isolated pockets within Palestinian-
controlled territory. The city of our Patriarchs was handed over 
to the PA, too, with minimalist security arrangements in place for 
the protection of Hebron Jewish residents. Arafat again promised 
to live up to his original treaty obligations.

And sheepishly we said fine - we will live with this, in the hope 
that peace will yet come.

That wasn't enough. Only if Palestinian prisoners were released 
could the peace process prevail, we were told. So as a gesture of 
our goodwill, we began freeing from jail Palestinian security 
offenders "without blood on their hands." Then we released Palestinian 
murderers who had Palestinian blood on their hands. Then we freed 
terrorists whose hands had "indirectly" spilled Jewish blood. 
Then we freed a few terrorists whose hands were indeed smeared 
with Jewish blood. We gritted our teeth and muttered under our breath 
that we have no choice but to live with this.

Keeping the so-called peace process alive also meant turning a 
blind eye to the creeping but clear PA takeover of Jerusalem, 
Israel's "united capital." Only if we did so, could the process continue. 
So we stood by haplessly as the PA built a "parliament" building on 
the borders of Jerusalem; as PA security men became the real 
enforcers in the Old City; and as the Wakf undertook massive illegal 
construction on the Temple Mount, along with purposeful destruction 
of Jewish relics and layers of archaeological history going back 
to Temple times.

It was hard, but we stomached the insult because peace requires compromise.

In the summer of 2000, Arafat started to huff and puff and threaten Israel, 
talking about renewed armed conflict and a unilateral declaration of 
statehood. Again, we were supposed to stifle our indignation for the 
sake of peace. But our forbearance began to wear thin.

We suffered more than two years of terrorist violence and suicide bombings 
before launching Operation Defensive Shield and then beginning to build 
the security fence.

Israel had been pushed too far, and people began to question and 
protest the peace process.

But the "only if" syndrome still held sway. Only if Israel conceded 
more to the Palestinians was there a chance of salvaging the peace process.

So at Camp David in 2000, Taba in 2001, and 2008 in Jerusalem, 
Israeli leaders presented offers of statehood that would have given the 
Palestinians a state in virtually all of the West Bank, Gaza and eastern 
Jerusalem. But PA rejected these offers, arguing that only if we gave 
them 100% of everything they were demanding might they be willing 
to continue talking to us.

In 2009, the Palestinians set impossible and outrageous preconditions 
for entering any peace talks with Israel. Only if Israel conceded every 
point of contention such as borders and settlements in advance of 
the talks: a state on all of the pre-1967 territories with only "possible 
minor and mutually agreed upon land swaps of equal size and value": 
the "right of return to Israel for refugees as specified in the Arab 
Peace Initiative,"; and so forth and so on - could talks resume.

In 2012, Mahmoud Abbas sought to turn the established framework 
for peace upsidedown; to get his statehood "declared" by the 
international community without having to compromise with Israel; 
to claim the end result of the "peace process" without having to 
engage in any process.

Abbas went before the UN General Assembly and called upon 
the international community to "compel the government of Israel 
to respect the Geneva Conventions" and "impose a solution" (a Palestinian state) 
on Israel. He accused Israel of numerous crimes, including ethnic cleansing, 
terrorism, racism, inciting religious conflict, apartheid, house demolitions, 
dispossession, imprisoning “soldiers of freedom,” and settlement colonization.

He threatened to "criminalize and penalize Israel's presence as an 
occupying power in all of the occupied Palestinian territory" through the 
International Criminal Court.

The UN then "recognized" some sort of virtual PA state, 
against Israel's objections.

Abbas, of course, stuck by his refusal to enter direct and unconditional 
peace talks with Israel.

Yet the international community insisted that it was incumbent on 
Israel to keep the hopes of peace alive. Only if Israel transferred 
hundreds of millions of shekels to prop up the Palestinian economy, 
initiated and encouraged international development projects in the PA, 
backed PA requests for mega-loans and grants from the IMF and 
other donor countries, and more, would peace be possible. 
So Israel did all these things. And the world? It continued to demand 
additional Israeli gestures and concessions and withdrawals to prop up 
the PA and the "process."

This year, US President Obama arrived to lecture Israel on "justice" 
for the Palestinians and the need for Israelis to "demand" that their 
leaders push harder for peace.

Only if Israel "ends the occupation," Obama said, would our future be secure.

And what about renewed peace talks? Well, only if Israel implements 
a de facto (although undeclared) freeze on settlement expansion, 
agrees to discuss borders that essentially begin from the Green Line 
(while weakly denying this to be the case), and authorizes in advance 
a massive release of hardcore Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jail 
- only then could talks commence. So Prime Minister Netanyahu 
agreed to these Palestinian preconditions and American dictates, 
for the sake of peace.

What happened then? Well, last night I had a dream. And in this dream, 
this is what happened. An Israeli backlash developed.

The People of Israel awoke from its slumber and said: Enough! 
One million Israelis turned out for a mass rally in Tel Aviv to declare 
that no amount of Palestinian threats or violence, nor any degree of 
international pressure, would succeed in pushing us beyond our 
security red lines or strip us of our national and religious treasures.

We'll settle with the Palestinians, Israelis overwhelmingly declared, 
only if there will be no return to the 1967 borders or anything 
resembling them; only if an accord protects most Israeli cities in 
Judea and Samaria; only if the PA renounces its demand to flood Israel 
with refugees; only if Israel maintains sovereignty in Jerusalem; 
only if Hamas is neutered, and both Gaza and the West Bank are 
demilitarized; and only if peace education replaces anti-Semitic 
incitement in the PA. Only if the Palestinians truly show they 
want to live in peace with Israel.

And faced with a determined Israeli consensus, the PA sued for 
peace on reasonable terms, and quiet reigned in the Land of Israel.

If only this were true....