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Clarifying The Moral Values For Peace
resident George W. Bush got it right June 24
in saying the Palestinians must give up ter-
rorism and give up the leadership of Yasser
Arafat before they are entitled to a state.
The fact that the Palestinians are not ready to take
either of those steps now does not detract one whit
from the clarity and correctness of the Bush posi-
tion. A meaningful, lasting peace between the
Palestinians and the Israelis must be founded on
reality, not a blind hopefulness that the experience
in the years since Oslo has proved futile.
What Bush said was that the old formula of land
for peace was dead. Now, it must be peace before
land. The burden is on the Palestinians and the Arab
states of the Mideast to change their ways.
Critics have already faulted Bush for not
laying out a specific and detailed plan for
peace. They are mistaken. It is not up to
the president or the Israelis to spend any more time
thrashing around in search of a formula for appeas-
ing Arafat and the goons who surround him.
It is up to the Palestinians to recognize that terror
has bought them so much and no more.
Yes, they have succeeded in making Israel's life
miserable, in dragging down its economy, in slaying
more than 500 of the hated Jews, the majority of
them women and children. They have written an
ugly chapter in the life of the Jewish state. And they
have again made much of the European world
remember their existence.
But, as Bush pointed out, by refusing the hand of
peace that was offered to them, the Palestinians have
inflicted far more harm on themselves. They have lost
three of their own people for each Israeli killed with-
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Dry Bones
out gaining any relief from the Israeli presence.
And the longer the terrorism continues, the
more intrusive the Israeli presence will be.
Terrorism has brought the Palestinians politi-
cal stagnation — a powerless legislature, tooth-
less courts — and economic misery. These will
not be eased by anything except outside invest-
ment and that cannot happen in a land ruled
by thugs and thieves. By being both vicious
and hateful, Palestinians are exhausting the
sympathy that much of the Western world had
felt for them. They are not one step closer to
the goal of eliminating the Jewish state that
many of them privately harbored.
It took some courage on Bush's part
to point out that "Palestinian authori-
ties are encouraging, not opposing
terrorism," since it so flatly contra-
dicts what his State Department maintains. It
took courage to tell the moderate Arab states, as
he did, that they must end the incitement and
stand up against the flow of arms and money
that supports it in the West Bank and Gaza.
It will take even more courage to stand up to
what is coming next, which is bound to include
more terror against Israel and possibly against
American targets. Bush will have to be prepared to stay
the course when the Palestinians "re-elect" Arafat next
year and when the international chorus increases its
hand-wringing lament about the lack of a timetable for
recognition of a Palestinian state.
In the coming months, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon must not use Bush's forcefulness as a green
light to expand settlements or turn necessary short-
The Tactics Of Punishment
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EDIT ORIAL
he Israeli government, understanding correct-
ly that no peace process will be of value now,
is wisely weighing a range of actions to try to
reduce the incessant violence that Palestinians
are waging against Israeli civilians. One tactic it is con-
sidering — long-term reoccupation of the West Bank
areas that have been ceded, under the Oslo Accords, to
Palestinian self-rule — would be a disastrous mistake.
But it is on the right track in considering
expelling from the West Bank the families of
the terrorists who blow up themselves and
.
their Israeli victims.
With virtually all semblance of effective Palestinian
self-rule destroyed by Yasser Arafat's failures to lead and
by the intense Israeli attacks on the Palestinian
Authority government buildings, the West Bank in
particular is rapidly disintegrating into administrative
chaos. The groups already competing for power in a
post-Arafat world are not capable of maintaining any
semblance of responsible government and, in any
event, they are more focused on escalating the intifacia
(uprising) than on helping Palestinians lead better lives.
Asking the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to govern
West Bank communities in this environment would
certainly lead to short-term disasters, like the mistaken
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shelling of a marketplace in Jenin that killed three
youngsters last Friday, and would do nothing to lessen
violence in the long run. Palestinians would be more
convinced than ever that the bombings and other ran-
dom violence are its only tools to shake off the Israeli
presence. The rest of the world would rush to punish
Israel for what it would perceive as a decision to make
the occupation both total and permanent.
As the 20-year experience in South
Lebanon showed, Israel cannot, and should
not, try to have "buffer zones" that intrude
on land to which others have a defensible
claim, as the Palestinians do to at least part of the
West Bank. Israel should limit its IDF incursions to
brief, well-planned actions with clear and immediate
goals. Get in, get a job done and get out.
But Israel needs tools to diminish the will of
young Palestinians to blow themselves up in "mar-
tyrdom" actions. Moving promptly to punish the
families of these bombers could force these deluded
searchers for Paradise to reconsider their plans.
Ordinarily, it is wrong — and fruitless — to punish
the relatives of criminals because they aren't directly
responsible for the criminal acts and, in many cases,
are already suffering deeply. But in the case of the
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term military incursions into long-term land grabs.
And the American Jewish community should not
give up its disagreements with many areas of Bush's
domestic policy just because he is "good on Israel.”
What Bush notably did on June 24 was to clarify
the moral values that will determine American gov-
ernmental action in the Middle East. And those
who do not like it can go drink the waters of the
Jordan River.
❑
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homicide bombers, the perpetrators obviously cannot
be punished further. And the families are often active
supporters of the martyrdoms, at least in principle.
Instead of getting a $10,000 or $25,000 "reward"
from Syria or Iraq, the families should face being
uprooted from the communities where they live and
sent to the refugee camps in Gaza. A few such
enforced exiles, conducted with lots and lots of pub-
licity to be sure the word gets out to the bombers in
waiting, might give them pause. If they knew that the
free ticket to Paradise also meant a long stop in a
Palestinian purgatory for their families, they might
not find the choice of death so glamorously attractive.
Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine and the Al Aksa Martyrs
Brigade might find recruiting bombers more difficult if
families faced real consequences. They could try con-
cealing the identity of bombers, but that would under-
cut the appeal of the public funerals that are now part
of the mystique of the strategy. And Israel could always
move against the families of bombers past.
Punishing the families should not be seen as an act
of vengeance, but rather as a demonstration of Israel's
will to stand up to an abhorrent practice. The securi-
ty fence that Israel is building between itself and the
West Bank may discourage some potential attackers,
but the knowledge of swift punishment for the fami-
lies of criminals might prove even more effective. ❑
6/28
2002
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