(Gatestone Institute) Bassam Tawil - More than 30 years ago, the Israeli government was convinced to sign the Oslo Accord with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), headed by Yasser Arafat. The assumption was that if you bring Arafat's PLO from the Arab countries to Gaza and the West Bank and help them create a government and police force, the Palestinians would renounce terrorism and give up their dream of destroying Israel. However, the Palestinian Authority, established in 1994, had no intention of making peace with Israel, and still has not. Instead of preparing the Palestinians for peace and recognition of Israel's right to exist, Arafat and his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, launched a huge campaign to delegitimize Israel and demonize Jews. Palestinian leaders continue to praise terrorists as "martyrs" and "heroes" and pay monthly salaries to their families. Under both Arafat and Abbas, Palestinian terror groups including Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad thrived and formed armies in the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian leaders did nothing to stop the terrorists. The Israeli pullout from Gaza in 2005, to enable the Palestinians to create a Dubai on the Mediterranean, instead enabled Hamas and other terror groups to turn the enclave into a huge base for Jihad (holy war) against Israel. Many Palestinians viewed the withdrawal as an Israeli display of weakness and retreat in the face of rockets and suicide bombings. The thinking among the Palestinians became, "Oh, it's working! So let's do it more!" The pullout from Gaza only gave the terrorists more confidence and fueled their desire to pursue Jihad against Israel.
2024-09-12 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive