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Israel Doesn't Need to Be Pushed to Seek Peace

[Doha Debates] Dore Gold - The Doha Debates, held this year on March 25 at Georgetown University in Washington, discussed whether "It's Time for the U.S. to Get Tough on Israel." People who put forward the proposition that it's time to get tough with Israel assume that somehow if that happens and Israel is pressured, you will reduce the flames of radical Islamic rage, affecting organizations like al-Qaeda. But is that really true? When was al-Qaeda formed? Was it formed in 1948 when Israel was established? No. Was it formed in 1967 when Israel captured Jerusalem? No. Was it formed during the 1973 Yom Kippur War? No. Al-Qaeda was formed in 1989 after the Soviet Union was defeated in Afghanistan and had absolutely nothing to do with Israel. Those who believe in getting tough with Israel also contend that muscular American pressure is necessary for Israel to make the first move in the peace process. But when Menachem Begin, the Prime Minister of Israel, launched the peace process with Egypt, he sent Moshe Dayan to Morocco to meet with Anwar Sadat's representative without telling the United States. And when Yitzhak Rabin began the Oslo track, it was done without any pressure from the United States. Israel has taken enormous risks for peace since 1993. It signed the Oslo Agreement. It thought that Yasser Arafat was the Nelson Mandela of the Palestinians, and was willing to jettison armed struggle. We lost over a thousand innocent Israeli civilians to suicide bombings that emanated from territories under Arafat's jurisdiction. Ariel Sharon unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but instead of creating the basis for a Palestinian state, we got an increase in rocket attacks against Israel by 500%. The central problem of the Middle East is a nuclear Iran, it isn't Israel.
2009-04-10 06:00:00
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