(Commentary) Jonathan S. Tobin - This past week Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu offered to pull back military operations from Ramallah and Jericho in the West Bank as a gesture of good will. Yet the Palestinians were not interested. Abbas sometimes pays lip service to a two-state solution. But he either can't or won't make peace because he knows that Palestinian national identity is inextricably tied up with the century-old war on Zionism that regards Israel as an illegitimate entity. That is why his PA and the Fatah Party that controls it continue to treat terrorism against Jews as a heroic endeavor and not even the personal request of the American vice president was enough to make him disavow the latest "martyr" slain while killing an American veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who was visiting Tel Aviv. In January, Isaac Herzog, leader of the opposition Zionist Union party, publicly noted that a two-state solution is impossible for the foreseeable future because the Palestinians won't agree to it. There is now a consensus that stretches across party lines in Israel about the lack of a peace partner. The overwhelming majority of Israelis know that any further land given up to the Palestinians will ultimately become a terror launching pad.
2016-03-16 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive