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Obstacles to Peace

[New York Jewish Week] Gary Rosenblatt - Given recent highly public and blunt statements about the need for Israel to halt all settlement activity, the Obama administration is going to be pressuring the Jerusalem government in the coming months. More disturbing is that the Palestinians get a pass on their commitment to stop terror while the pressure is brought to bear on Israel on the details of a settlement freeze. Most disturbing is the willful blindness to two key facts. One is that the Palestinian Authority has virtually no Palestinian authority. Even if Abbas wanted to make peace with Israel, it would be meaningless because Hamas, the Iranian-backed terror group, controls Gaza and has its designs on the West Bank as well. But the diplomats, having no solution to this dilemma, choose to focus on bolstering Abbas, as if that would make a real difference. The even more basic fact that no one wants to confront is that Palestinian determination to destroy the Jewish state precedes 1967 and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. To this day, no Palestinian leader has stated clearly that there is legitimacy to a Jewish state in the region. Though Netanyahu and every other Israeli political leader calls for living in peace with the Palestinians, no mention is made of the other half of the equation.
2009-06-05 06:00:00
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