ALL WE ARE SAYING IS ‘PEACE HAS NO CHANCE’

(Washington, D.C.): Some illusions die hard.
Perhaps none is more resilient than the belief that
Israel can buy peace with its sworn enemies by reducing
the Jewish State’s ability to defend itself against them.
Even now, in the wake of four heinous terrorist attacks
within nine days against innocent civilians in Jerusalem
and Tel Aviv, some persist in urging Israel to make
further concessions by relinquishing control over
strategic territory.

Those who advocate “keeping the peace process on
track” in this manner generally do so in the belief
that there is an alternative to the murderous Hamas and
other Islamic extremists with whom a genuine peace can be
made. The Center for Security Policy has long disputed
this premise, arguing that the PLO’s Yasser Arafat and
Syria’s Hafez Assad are actively aiding and abetting
terrorism. ⁽¹⁾
Despite compelling evidence the Center and others have
presented to support that assessment, many — including
the U.S. and Israeli governments — have insisted that
Arafat and Assad were reliable “partners for
peace.”

In the wake, however, of the latest attacks on
Israeli, American and other victims in Israel and the
prospect of more to come, however, this crucial issue
must be squarely joined. If, for example, Yasser Arafat
is not simply unable to control Hamas or Islamic
Jihad elements from operating from territory now under
the control of his Palestinian Authority (PA) but is
actually unwilling to do so, then further Israeli
concessions to the PA should be simply out of the
question. In that case, it should go without saying that
the United States must immediately desist from further
efforts aimed at encouraging (to say nothing of pressuring)
Israel to make such concessions.

In this regard, the attached
column published by Cal Thomas in yesterday’s Washington
Times should be required reading. It offers one of
the most chilling indications to date of Arafat’s true
intentions toward Israel. Mr. Thomas cites numerous
press reports as saying that the PA president told a
group of Arab ambassadors meeting in Stockholm on 30
January:

“Within five years we will have 6 to 7
million Arabs living on the West Bank and in
Jerusalem….We plan to eliminate the state of Israel
and establish a Palestinian state. We will make life
unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and
population explosion. Jews will not want to live
among Arabs. I have no use for Jews….We
Palestinians will take over everything, including all
of Jerusalem.”

The Bottom Line

Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres was right to have
declared war, albeit belatedly, on those who have
perpetrated these horrible attacks against his people.
Regrettably, that war will be greatly complicated — if
not doomed to fail — thanks to the safe-havens created
by the territorial concessions already made to Yasser
Arafat at Mr. Peres’ insistence. Matters will made vastly
worse, however, unless the governments of Israel and the
United States finally recognize the PLO-Hamas and
Syria-Iran “good cop-bad cop” routines for the
scam they are: There can be no genuine peace with
terrorists of any stripe. Further appeasement of those
who find it expedient for the moment to present a
relatively benign face to Israel and the West will only
exacerbate the undue risks for peace Israel has already
taken.

(1) See, for example the Center’s Press
Release entitled Leading House Members,
Center’s Fishbein Urge End to Rewarding of Arafat’s
Support for Anti-Israeli Terrorism ( href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=95-P_65″>No. 95-P 65, 21 September
1995) and its Decision Brief entitled You
Can Say That Again: Christopher, Newly Seized With Syrian
Involvement in Terrorism, Sends Warning to Damascus
(No. 95-D 59, 30 August
1995).