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Where Are the Palestinian Concessions for Peace?

(Gatestone Institute) Bassam Tawil - During the past three decades, Israel has made countless concessions to the Palestinians to advance peace and coexistence. In 1993-95, Israel signed the Oslo Accords, giving the Palestinians full security and civilian control over large parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Thousands of PLO members stationed in Arab countries were allowed to move to the West Bank and Gaza. Israel released thousands of Palestinian security prisoners, including many involved in terrorist attacks against Israelis. The Palestinians, however, were never asked by the U.S. and other international parties to make concessions to Israel. The Israeli concessions did not advance the peace process. Instead, they were seen by the Palestinians as a sign of weakness. In recent weeks, talk about a need for Israel to offer new concessions to the Palestinians has resurfaced, as the U.S. pursues its effort to achieve a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Yet the experiences of the past have proved that concessions to the Palestinians do not bring peace. The assumption that the more land you give to the Palestinians, the more peace you get, has proven to be false. The idea of transferring more land to the Palestinians sends a message to the Palestinian Authority that, after it failed to combat terrorism in land under its control, it will be rewarded with even more land. Palestinians would correctly conclude that "terrorism works," providing a further disincentive for the Palestinian Authority to rein in the terror groups. The U.S. should demand that the Palestinians, not Israel, make concessions for peace.
2023-10-05 00:00:00
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