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Below are excerpts from two opposing viewpoints from JNS.org .
Editorial
Point
A Culture Of Hate Mars Peace Talks
A
mid the political stirrings sur-
rounding the distinct possibility
of renewed formal peace talks
between the Israelis and Palestinians lies the
hatred of Israel and Jews that permeates
Palestinian culture.
Palestinians continue to be pelted with
anti-Zionist and anti-West propaganda that
preaches Jews are vile and Israel lies
within "Palestine," which isn't yet
a United Nations-recognized
Palestinian state. Theirs is
a culturally and politically
corrupt society where
landmarks and events
are named in honor of
Palestinian terrorists.
Worse, Palestinian children
are relentlessly taught to hate
Jews at home, in school and in
music videos, all part of the broader,
government-sanctioned demonizing of Jews
in mosques, speeches, newspapers and broad-
casts.
Revived negotiations, welcome as they
would be, would tackle such final-status
issues as borders, security, settlements,
refugees, Jerusalem, holy places and water
rights. But the fragile process has no chance
of success if Israel's supposed peace partner,
the Palestinian Authority (P.A.), which gov-
erns much of the West Bank, allows as official
policy the dissemination of hate messages to
impressionable kids — the generations that
include future Palestinian leaders.
Just last month, Israel-based Palestinian
Media Watch (PMW) released a video from
P.A. TV that should send shivers up the spine
of every civilized person. In the video, two lit-
tle girls are asked to recite a poem, based on
Islamic tradition, that describes Jews as the
"most evil among creations, barbaric mon-
keys, wretched pigs" and condemns them to
"humiliation and hardship." The poem further
teaches that Jerusalem is not for Jews — that
Jerusalem "vomits" the Jews, who are said to
be "filth" and "impure."
Compounding this wretched indoctrina-
tion of hate, which shatters the innocence of
childhood, was the July 28 announcement
about Israel's Cabinet vote to release 104
Palestinian prisoners over nine months as a
good-faith negotiating gesture. That's a huge
concession given Israel can't get the
P.A. to acknowledge as a precondi-
tion Israel's right to exist as a
Jewish state with secure, safe
borders.
Certainly, the P.A. must
stop the orchestrated pro-
nouncements that Jews
are "Allah's enemies" and
defilers of the Koran, Islam's
holiest book. Such a drumbeat
threatens any peaceful coexistence,
should it somehow arise within the tense
territory between Jerusalem and Ramallah.
Incitement has been a central P.A. tenet
going back to the terror-marred presidency
of Yasser Arafat, who also led the Palestine
Liberation Organization. Today, P.A. President
Mahmoud Abbas leads the PLO, which still
insists Israel is an illegitimate state that has
no right to exist. Abbas' PLO ties may not kill
new peace talks, but they will hinder them
under a cloud of suspicion and motive.
Israel has urged the P.A. to change its cul-
ture of hate; yet unless the civilized world
adds a chorus of support to that plea, this
disingenuous way of life will remain a con-
stant. We've already lost at least one genera-
tion of young Palestinians, who have been
brought up to embrace "vengeance and lib-
eration" to destroy "the Zionist's soul."
Any peace accord would be hollow if not
rooted in a dramatic upheaval of Palestinian
society away from a strategic pattern of
demonizing Zionism and despising Jews by
the Fatah-led government of the Palestinian
Authority. ❑
Greenberg's View
The (non-) negotiating table
30
August 8 • 2013
JN
steve@greenberg-arteomp
No Alternative To
Two-State Solution
T
he two-state premise
ognizing the chance to fulfill the
for resolving the Israeli-
Zionist vision of a Jewish state
Palestinian conflict goes
in the Land of Israel. Tragically
back to the very foundation of
for the Palestinian people, their
the State of Israel.
leaders and the Arab
The United Nations
world at large objected
Partition Plan of
to the very idea of a
1947 divided British-
Jewish state within any
ruled Mandatory
borders and opted for
ft
f . tp/
Palestine into two
war against the Jews
separate entities, one
to abort partition. The
Jewish, one Arab.
Arab defeat doomed
The plan recognized
the Palestinian half
that the land between
of the two-state plan.
.1i1•_,
the Jordan River and
Two Arab states went
Kenneth
Mediterranean Sea
further to snuff out that
Bandler
must be shared, a
vision, as Egypt occu-
American
principle at the core
pied Gaza and Jordan
Jewish
of current efforts
annexed the West Bank.
Committee
to achieve, through
Israel's dramatic
bilateral negotiations,
victory in June 1967
a permanent peace based on two
against Arab countries intent
states for two peoples.
on destroying it left Israel in
Even though many Zionists
control of Sinai, Gaza, the Golan
had originally sought Jewish
Heights, the West Bank and
sovereignty over the entire
east Jerusalem. While there
land, David Ben-Gurion wisely
were those who vocally urged
acceded to the compromise, rec-
maintaining control over all of
Counterpoint
Palestinian State
Won't Bring Peace
w
e all want the
Clinton and endorsed by Prime
Arab war against
Minister Ehud Barak; and in 2008
Israel to be finally
an offer of 98 percent of the West
resolved. But is establishing a
Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and bil-
Palestinian state the
lions in aid from Prime
answer? Not when
Minister Ehud Olmert.
the Palestinians' goal
These rejections
is Israel's destruc-
clearly and painfully
tion, as opposed to
show that statehood is
a Palestinian state
not the Palestinians'
living in peace with
goal. American Jews
Israel.
understand this. A
Every opportu-
recent American
nity the Palestinians
Jewish Committee poll
L
had to establish a
shows that 76 percent
state was rejected
of U.S. Jews believe
Morton A.
because it meant
the Palestinians' goal
Klein
accepting Israel. The
is Israel's destruction,
Zionist
offers they rejected
Organization and only 38 percent
included a 1937 Peel
support a state.
of America
Commission proposal
The president of the
of a state on 95 per-
Palestinian Authority
cent of territory what is today all
(PA.), Mahmoud Abbas, makes
of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza; his hatred toward Jews and the
in 1947 a division of the land
Jewish state clear. He and other
into Jewish and Arab states (U.N.
P.A. officials proclaim the racist,
Resolution 181); in 2000 the offer
anti-Semitic statement that no
of 97 percent of the West Bank,
Jews will be permitted to live in
all of Gaza and eastern Jerusalem
a Palestinian state, and that he
made by U.S. President Bill
"do(es) not accept a Jewish state;