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How This Summit Could be Different

(Jerusalem Post) Editorial - * How is this summit different from previous summits? Two reasons: the death of Arafat and general Palestinian exhaustion. Yet there are some lessons from past hopeful moments that should be learned to help ensure that this one is not squandered. * The first is that it is not enough to let the terrorists take a break, while leaving intact the moral and physical infrastructure that supports them. We cannot expect any cease-fire to hold if thousands of terrorists retain their weapons and are free to decide at any moment that it is time to renew attacks against Israel. These terrorists will not be stopped by throwing money at the Palestinian Authority, or by "helping Abu Mazen" by releasing prisoners. * It is difficult to see how the release of killers captured by Israel would advance the process. The issue is not so much one of which have "blood on their hands" and which do not (presumably not for lack of trying). More fundamentally, it is a question of whether Israel should be releasing prisoners when no action has yet been taken to ensure that terror will not resume. * The Palestinians claim it is Israel that must gain their trust by such prisoner releases. But time after time, Israel has trusted the Palestinians and taken risks, only to have those gestures thrown back in our faces with another round of terror. * Based on experience, yet contrary to the international conventional wisdom, premature Israeli concessions lead not to the beginning of a peace process but to the end of Palestinian compliance with their commitments.
2005-02-08 00:00:00
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