Clinton’s ‘Fanatic’ Pursuit Of Mideast ‘Peace Process’ Is Endangering Israel, U.S. Regional interests

(Washington, D.C.): Author and philosopher George Santayana once defined a fanatic as
someone “who redoubles his effort upon losing sight of his goal.” If ever there were an example
of such fanaticism, it is the multi-billion dollar fund-raising event the Clinton Administration is
holding today in Washington to underwrite the launch of a Palestinian state.

To be sure, no one on the Clinton team (with the notable exception of the First Lady href=”#N_1_”>⁽¹⁾) has
openly acknowledged that it is now U.S. policy to welcome and underwrite the creation of the
28th Arab state in the Middle East. The fact remains, however, that the Palestinian Authority’s
Yasser Arafat continues to assert — most recently before an Arab-American Institute audience in
Virginia — that he will formally declare by 14 May 1999 an independent, sovereign state with
Jerusalem as its capital. And the Administration refuses to contradict or in any other way
discourage this expectation.

Instead, the U.S. and other international donors talk glibly about needing to invest in the
Palestinian Authority to “keep the peace process on track” — and ignore the
corruption that has
wasted previous grants to the PA.⁽²⁾ The reality, though, is
that spending vast amounts of tax
dollars (perhaps as much as $900 million from the U.S. alone) to advance Palestinian
independence is more likely to produce a deadly train wreck than the stated goal of
this “process”:
a durable peace.

What a Palestinian State Portends

After all, such a state will inevitably give rise to a safe-haven for terrorism
(or worse). It will be
run by a government — whether under Arafat or Hamas — that makes no secret of its intention to
liberate what the Arabs consider to be the rest of Palestine (namely, pre-1967
Israel).⁽³⁾ And this
Palestinian state’s internationally recognized borders will greatly increase the
costs associated
with any prophylactic Israeli action against it.

Add to the mix potentially millions of “refugees” induced to exercise their
“right of return” to a
land many have never known and the prospect of hugely intensified competition for
limited water
resources (some 30% of Israel’s drinking water comes from aquifers in the West Bank’s
highlands), and the prospects for peace diminish further.

What is more, the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan — whose future is already
clouded by the
ruling monarch’s struggle with cancer — will be destabilized, if not imperilled, by the aspirations
of its majority Palestinian population to be annexed to their own state. And nations,
from Egypt
to Syria to Iraq and Iran, that
have until now seen the war option against Israel as foreclosed
may find in the Palestinian state irresistible opportunities for alliances and renewed aggression.

The Bottom Line

The present exercise is reminiscent of the story about the man who is asked how he’s doing as
he
passes the 20th floor of a skyscraper from which he has fallen and responds, “So far, so good.” It
makes no more sense to be redoubling efforts that will produce a Palestinian state on the basis of
the Clinton team’s fanatic enthusiasm for the so-called “peace process” than it would to re-up the
free-falling man’s life insurance policy.

The United States should not be intensifying, to say nothing of underwriting,
Palestinian
ambitions for a state that will threaten the equities of America’s most important friend and most
reliable ally in a strategically vital part of the world. At best, such funds will be largely wasted.
At worst, they will contribute to conditions inimical to peace with security for Israel — the
objective U.S. Middle East policy is ostensibly intended to serve.

– 30 –

1. See Center Decision Brief entitled
Bibi’s Choice: Allow The Palestinians To Acquire A
Real — And Threatening — State Or Just A ‘State Of Mind’ ( href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=98-D_126″>No. 98-D 126, 9 July 1998).

2. Today’s Washington Times prominently features a
report published in the London Sunday
Times yesterday disclosing that some $20 million provided to the PA by the European
Union for
“inexpensive housing for poor and overcrowded areas” has, instead, gone for “luxury apartments
for supporters of…Yasser Arafat.” According to the report, “about 90% of the apartments went
to Arafat loyalists.” An EU audit found that the money — as has frequently been the case with
foreign aid to the PA — was spent “without any economic controls and is not recoverable.”

3. See Center Decision Brief entitled
Clinton Legacy Watch #24: An Odious Ultimatum to
Israel (No. 98-D 78, 6 May 1998).