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Edit o
' r's Letter
29TH ANNUAL FALL FUNDRAISER
TITLE SPONSOR
FIFTH THIRD BANK
arc
Abbas' Antics
T
he evidence is mounting against America's seem-
ingly unconditional and perpetual monetary gift to
the West Bank government. I can't figure out why
we are giving $800 million in aid this year to the Palestinian
Authority, with no return commitment and accountability for
lasting peace with Israel.
In an Oct. 9 letter to Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Sen. Arlen
Specter, D-Penn., raised the right red
flag. "This support:' he wrote, "ought
to be predicated on at least some level
of assurance that the beneficiaries are
committed to long-term peace."
The Zionist Organization of America
agreed, saying Specter should be
applauded "for making it clear that the
U.S. should finally condition almost
a billion dollars in U.S. aid to the
Palestinian Arabs to compliance of
their agreements and with a real Palestinian Arab movement
toward peace."
It's a condition that will be impossible to achieve because
the Fatah-led P.A. is not, nor has it even been, committed to
peace of any sort, let alone real peace with staying power.
Take it from Mahmoud Abbas, the so-called moderate pres-
ident of the P.A. In Arabic, he told West Bank Arabs that the
P.A. will use "all means" to free remaining Palestinian prison-
ers in Israel. His Oct. 9 pronouncement, in response to Israel's
release of 20 Palestinian prisoners in exchange
for a video proving that Israeli hostage Gilad
Shalit is alive, counters his claims to Western
leaders that the P.A. will settle its conflict with
Israel through bargaining, not violence.
Currently, Israel is holding 11,000 terrorists.
"The P.A. has demanded that Israel release all
of them, including mass murderers and planners
of suicide terror who are serving multiple life
sentences;' confirms Palestinian Media Watch, a
Jerusalem-based watchdog organization.
That's a script for complete and well-orches-
trated incitement.
ed a platform that "includes calls for increased international
pressure on Israel and opposes any normalization of relations
between Israel and Arab states."
Cogent Insight
In a thought-provoking analysis of the war between Israel and
its Palestinian Arab neighbors, Editor Gary Rosenblatt of the
Jewish Week in New York questioned U.S. President Barack
Obama's obsession with an Israeli freeze on settlements in the
West Bank to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and his
conclusion that jumping to final-status negotiations would
bring regional peace: "I write out of frustration, painfully
aware that the first months of the Obama administration's
efforts to achieve progress in the Mideast largely have been a
waste, if not a setback:'
I say "amen:'
Skeptics consider Obama anti-Zionist. My take is that he
doesn't see the big picture in the embattled region — a failing
that American Jewry should wake up to.
In his Oct. 2 column, Rosenblatt, a former editor of the
Detroit Jewish News, also reiterated my long-held suspicion
that the Palestinians believe time is on their side. Where once
Israel felt it could outlast the Palestinians, the Palestinians
now feel that if a two-state solution fails, the inevitable result
would be one state. That's because demographics potentially
mean Arabs in Israel and the Palestinian territories will out-
number Israeli Jews. "A democratic election in Israel would
then result in an Arab victory and the end of the Jewish state,
without a shot being fired," Rosenblatt said. "The
alternative would be a Jewish apartheid state,
which the world would not tolerate:'
How disconcerting are those scenarios? And
how well known are they?
Icy Slope
Gary Rosenblatt is right: "In the end, time is on
no one's side in this conflict; lack of progress is
a step backward toward potential violence and
chaos — all the more reason why the Obama
administration's lack of insight and ingenuity up
to now has been so frustrating:'
And all the more reason why Sen. Specter's
letter merits serious consideration at the State
Putrid Parley
Department. The P. A. has created appearances
Specter, who is Jewish, also took issue with
Editor Gary Rosenblatt
of a more civil society, including a legislature, a
the Fatah General Assembly in August. The
Bethlehem parley was pro-terror with Israel-bashing a central U.S.-trained police force and Mahmoud Abbas in a suit and tie
instead of the bloodthirsty Yasser Arafat. But it's a government
focus. It was a shande in the name of peace. Western lead-
that still glorifies terrorists, still uses "resistance" as a euphe-
ers who don't see through Abbas' thinly veiled attempt to
simultaneously appease both the West and his people through mism for terrorism and still discredits Israel as a Jewish state.
In Bethlehem, for centuries best known as the birthplace
double-speak deserve to be challenged. He's a master at
for Christianity, Chairman Abbas and his Fatah cronies chose
manipulation.
In his letter to Clinton, Specter also cited examples of vitriol to honor and encourage violence and terror against Israel and
Jews. That peace-busting stance would have made Palestinian
against Israel at the anti-Zionist gathering: They included
Authority founding leader Arafat, as charismatic an anti-
"reports that the venue featured posters of children brandish-
Zionist as they come, awfully proud. 1-1
ing weapons, that senior Fatah officials routinely referenced
and glorified perpetrators of terrorism; and, perhaps most
discouraging, that leaders addressing the audience continu-
0 . Should America end or drastically curtail
i— •
ously championed the notion that Palestinians maintain the
C4 P.A. aid?
tn
right to commit violence against Israel."
I— Ca
Z Z Could Arabs really outnumber Jews soon
Specter wondered why Fatah didn't envision the conference
o
as a springboard "to repudiate hateful sentiment and help
O. 0- in Israel?
advance the peace process." Instead, he said, the party adopt-
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October 22 • 2009
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