(Jerusalem Post) Barry Rubin - The Palestinian leadership, abetted by many Western governments, has now torn up every agreement it made with Israel. In 1993, Israel signed an agreement with the PLO to make peace in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Yet by essentially unilaterally declaring the existence of an Arab Palestine, the world has abrogated that agreement. The Palestinian side prevented the accord from succeeding by permitting and carrying out continuing terrorism and rejecting Israeli offers for a Palestinian state with its capital in east Jerusalem at the 2000 Camp David summit. Now, by endorsing the current move, the West has rewarded the party that refused to make peace and rewarded the side that rejected the offer of a state and pursued violence instead, cheering the murder of Israeli civilians. They have removed the framework on the basis of which Israel made numerous risky concessions including letting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians enter the West Bank and Gaza; establish a government; obtain billions of dollars; create military organizations that have been used to attack Israel; and establish schools which teach and call for Israel's destruction. What has diplomacy taught us? That the other side will not keep commitments and those guaranteeing those commitments will not keep their word to do so. The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.
2012-12-12 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive