(New York Sun) Editorial - Palestinian Arabs and their European, Saudi, and Iranian henchmen are already plotting Israel's next retreat. "Today Gaza, tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem," say the signs funded by the UN. America can play a constructive role after Israel leaves Gaza by avoiding the error the Clinton administration made of investing all its capital in one Arab strongman. The answer is going to have to come from mosques and schools that don't preach hate, from independent Palestinian Arab newspapers and radio stations that don't preach hate, from Palestinian Arab courts that are impartial and fair. It is going to have to come from neighboring Arab states like Jordan and Egypt making their own strides toward freedom and democracy and only then playing a constructive role with the West Bank and Gaza, respectively. Under any solution, Israel will have to have defensible borders. The challenge for Washington in the coming months and years will not be to wrest more territorial concessions out of Israel, but to wrest a free and democratic society out of the Palestinian Arabs.
2005-08-19 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive