(FrontPageMagazine) Alan M. Dershowitz - Despite earnest efforts by President Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian President Abbas, it will be extremely difficult for a final peaceful resolution to be achieved between Israel and the Palestinians in the near future. The major obstacle to peace is the international community which has emboldened Arab leaders into believing that Israel can be delegitimated and weakened through international pressure, and that if the Palestinians hold out long enough, they can end Israel's existence as a Jewish state accepted by the international community. Delay, it is believed, will help the Palestinians get a better deal, perhaps even preserving their so-called right of return - a "right" no Israeli government could ever accept. The Palestinian Authority, led by Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad, is escalating its demands, now demanding more than what it was offered by Prime Minister Barak in 2000-2001. And it is offering considerably less in return. Back then, the PA could have offered Israel real peace on all of its borders. Today, peace with the PA will not bring peace with Hamas in Gaza. In recent discussions in Israel, the issue of the Palestinians was clearly secondary to the threat posed by a nuclear-armed Iran. Unless that threat is eliminated, or considerably delayed, many Israelis believe that they have little to gain from a partial peace with the Palestinians.
2010-08-20 08:50:52Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive