Defend Israel Now

As we go to press, it appears that yet another handshake ceremony will take place on the White House lawn, uniting Israelis and Palestinians in a new interim agreement. Although the Review sympathizes with efforts to find an equitable peace, we consider it imperative to consider the history of Yassir Arafat’s promises starting with the original ceremony on the White House lawn in September of 1993. The same day as Arafat’s historic handshake with the late Yitzhak Rabin, he appeared on Jordanian television. There, he described his peace pact with the Israelis as similar to Mohammed’s treaty with the Koreish (an Arab tribe). For those unfamiliar with Arabian history, Mohammed broke his word a few years later, and slaughtered everyone in the tribe. Ever since that fateful day, Israeli-Palestinian relations have followed a predictable pattern. Israel exchanges territory for Arafat’s promises, Arafat continues to incite violence, Hamas responds with a terrorist attack, the U.S. expresses sympathy, but reminds Israel not to let terror interfere with the “peace process,” and Israel once again exchanges more territory for the same unfulfilled promises.

Consider the central promises Yassir Arafat agreed to in the latest agreement: amending the PLO Charter to remove anti-Israel references and controlling terrorism. These are identical to his commitments under the original Oslo Accords, Oslo II, and the Hebron Accords. Today, Israel has agreed to turn over 27% of the West Bank and 98% of the Palestinian population to Arafat’s control. On the other hand, Arafat has yet to fulfill the first commitment he made five years ago: in 30 of its 33 chapters, the PLO Covenant still calls for the destruction of Israel. Not only that, but he continues to flagrantly violate the Accords in a multitude of other ways; by, among other things, turning official Palestinian Authority media into a mouthpiece for violent propaganda (a recent television broadcast featured elementary schoolchildren singing about how they all wanted to grow up to become suicide bombers). Whenever Palestinian violence becomes excessive and the U.S. pressures him to “crack down,” Arafat responds with Captain Renault's famous line from Casablanca “Round up the usual suspects,” arrests a few terrorists, and then releases them a few weeks later when the pressure dies down. As recently as last month, the Palestinian Authority hired twenty-five more Hamas terrorists as “policemen,” in addition to 9 “policemen” currently wanted by Israel for terrorism, four of them for killing Americans.

As the recent talks at the Wye Plantation proved, what we have is not a “peace process,” but an appeasement process. Every time Israel is reluctant to cede more land (in light of Arafat’s broken promises), Arafat threatens war (such as the Tunnel Riots), or, most recently, declaring independence. This leads the U.S. to pressure Israel to give further concessions, restarting the vicious cycle described above. What Israel does not get is security, or peace. As peace negotiations are reaching their endgame, the U.S. must shift its focus from pressuring Israel to accede to Arafat’s whims, to ensuring that Palestinians faithfully observe their commitments.

We must unequivocally stand by our ally when she demands extradition of terrorists, a permanent crackdown on Hamas, and an end to Palestinian propaganda. Furthermore, we insist that before Israel makes another concession, Arafat must follow through on his first promise: changing the PLO Charter. Only then will the peace agreements amount to more than pieces of paper. Only then will a stable peace be built and preserved. Otherwise we fear the current agreements will too closely resemble Neville Chaimberlain’s claim to have achieved “Peace in our time.” MR

This article was published in the 28 October 1998 edition of The Michigan Review (Volume 17, Number 3).
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