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Palestinian Terrorism Will Not Be Stopped by Palestinian Statehood

(Jerusalem Post) Amb. Mark Regev - 14 people were killed in Palestinian terror attacks over the first two months of 2023. The common denominator of all the explanations to justify these attacks is that terrorism is a response to the absence of a political horizon. Unfortunately, this ostensibly logical proposition has been tested in a real-world laboratory, and the results were far from encouraging. When the Oslo Accords were signed at the White House in 1993, they undoubtedly established a clear political horizon. Palestinian rule was initially established in Gaza and Jericho, and later expanded to the West Bank, where the PA receiving full control over area A, where most Palestinians live. By the end of 1995, the IDF had completed its pullout of all the West Bank's major cities, except Hebron. Despite this, the first months of 1996 witnessed an explosion of murderous Palestinian suicide bombings. A Feb. 25 attack murdered 26; a March 3 bombing left 19 fatalities; and a March 4 attack left 16 dead. Today, when Palestinians contend that terrorism stems from the absence of a political horizon, they assume the world will blame Israel. It is conveniently forgotten that it was the Palestinians who said "no" at Camp David in 2000, torpedoed Clinton's parameters, dismissed Ehud Olmert's 2008 peace plan, and refused to sign John Kerry's 2014 framework. If the lack of a political horizon is cited to justify terrorism, the Palestinians should recall the story of the boy who murders his parents, only to demand mercy for being an orphan. The writer, formerly an adviser to the prime minister and former Israeli Ambassador to the UK, is chair of the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy at Reichman University.
2023-03-16 00:00:00
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