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Call Off the Paris Conference

(Israel Hayom) Rafael L. Bardaji and Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp - Peace between Israelis and Palestinians does not need more plans or conferences such as the one to be held in Paris on Jan. 15. What it does require are two truly committed parties ready to negotiate. For a few years now, those responsible in the Palestinian Authority have chosen not to sit down and negotiate with the Israeli government. Instead, they have launched a unilateral campaign to have the international community impose recognition as a sovereign state without their having to make the typical concessions that negotiations entail. The real problem is that the Palestinians don't want to give an inch of what the Israelis want, namely, that they recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people. To demand that Israel renounce any claim to the Western Wall and other places at the heart of Judaism is not just historical nonsense, it is the wrong move. It would be good if the participants in Paris would demand that Palestinian leaders end their campaigns and indoctrination against Israel and assume once and for all that Israel was created as the homeland of the Jewish people and that it will continue to be so. The sooner they accept that, the better. Moreover, to isolate Israel means losing perhaps the best ally the West has to deal with the jihadist threat. Israelis have been enduring the threat firsthand for decades and have developed a system to deal with it. Other countries can learn a lot from that system. Rafael L. Bardaji, executive director of the Friends of Israel Initiative, is a former national security adviser to the Spanish government. Col. Richard Kemp is the former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan.
2017-01-13 00:00:00
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