oints of view >> Send letters to: letters@thejewishnews.com 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;