(Boston Globe) Andrea Levin - As renewed negotiations get underway between Israelis and Palestinians, it's vital for the success of the endeavor to identify what went wrong in earlier discussions. Secretary of State John Kerry wisely stressed on July 30 the central aim of "ending the conflict" and the "end of claims" against Israel. These are basic tenets of any rational definition of peace and would mean, finally, the end of the drive to remove the Jewish state. They would mean genuine acceptance by Palestinian Arabs of the sovereign rights of a Jewish nation in what is an overwhelmingly Muslim-dominated region. Yet the Palestinian leadership over the two decades since the signing of the landmark Oslo Accords in 1993 has failed to prepare the Palestinian people for peace with their Jewish neighbors. Official Palestinian media regularly glorify terrorist violence, deny Jewish ties to the Land of Israel, denigrate Jews in crude stereotypes, vow expulsion of the Jews, and claim all the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as Palestine. The cycle of indoctrination and violence cannot be broken without the Palestinians' own leadership acting to halt the hatred and declare clearly in Arabic to Arab audiences that Israel and its people have a rightful place in the Middle East. The writer is executive director and president of CAMERA, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.
2013-08-09 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive