(U.S. News) Mortimer B. Zuckerman - Expect nothing to come out of the continued push by the West for negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel. Why? Because diplomacy has come to a dead end. Terrorism has supplanted reason and even self-interest. What is at stake now is not the shape of a future Palestinian state. It is the existence of Israel. As the Kenya outrage shows, the right of Jews everywhere to live in peace is under siege. It bewilders Israelis that so much of the world tolerates and even excuses the terrorism they face each day. It is to his everlasting credit that President Bush sees clearly the stakes of this conflict and has the courage to speak plainly about it. How can anyone continue to believe there is the slightest possibility of good-faith negotiation until the terrorism is ended? This performance standard, established by President Bush in his June 24 speech on the Middle East, must become the official position of the quartet made up of the UN, EU, Russia, and our own State Department.
2002-12-09 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive