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U.S. Policy Should Reflect Post-Disengagement Realities
(Jerusalem Post) Saul Singer - It is untenable to expect Israel to wait passively for terror to resume and for the U.S. to be endlessly understanding of Abbas's pleas of weakness. What reason does Abbas have to believe that international patience with him will ever run out, especially when his inaction against terror, far from bringing more pressure, has brought redoubled international calls for support? There comes a point when a weak PA, rather than warranting more support, has become a cover for Hamas and must be cut off from international assistance. Similarly, it is not sensible for the U.S. to blindly continue its policy on settlements as if disengagement had not happened. Sharon can hardly continue to point to Bush's April 2004 letter as endorsing Israeli settlement blocs since, when push comes to shove, the White House is blocking a top Israeli priority - linking the largest "settlement," Ma'aleh Adumim, with Jerusalem, the city it is a suburb of. Israel cannot be expected to only withdraw unilaterally without consolidating control over areas that do not block a Palestinian state and are necessary to adjust the insecure and arbitrary cease-fire lines that triggered the 1967 war. Otherwise, what did Bush mean when he committed, in that same April letter, to "defensible borders" for Israel?