June 14, 2003
WE SET BEFORE YOU THIS DAY LIFE OR DEATH, BLESSING OR CURSE
Hunting Season (David Warren, 6/14/2003)"Roadmap to peace" is ... [a] fatuous [saying].... If a cliché is to be insisted upon, I would choose "fight to the death" to describe the present tussle between Israel and Palestinian terrorism. Both cannot survive....
To Palestinians who want to have a state, and keep their terror militias, the kindest thing that can be said is: "Choose one." For their alternative is, to choose zero....
Mr. Sharon is thus doing Mr. Abbas a favour, which the exigencies of Palestinian politics prevent Mr. Abbas from acknowledging. The Israelis are removing on his behalf a domestic political competitor that he could not possibly remove himself....
Nor is Israel creating an impediment to negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, but rather removing a major impediment -- the organization that has vowed to sabotage them. The Sharon government is meanwhile proceeding with the dismantling of the first 14 "illegal" Jewish settlements, as per "roadmap" agreements. Far from choosing military over diplomatic tactics, Israel continues to use both, and in complementary ways.
Despite his mistaken criticism of the "roadmap to peace" -- indeed, he goes on to praise these "diplomatic tactics" for "complementing" the military actions -- Mr. Warren gets to the heart of the U.S.-Israeli strategy here. The key point has escaped many, for instance David Adesnik of Oxblog, who incredibly supposes that Israel's retaliation against Hamas weakens Abbas. Palestinian society is divided between the terror militias -- Arafat's Fatah and Al Aqsa, Hamas, and the rest -- and the Palestinians who desire a state, freedom, and democracy. Abbas is powerless to resist the militias today, and will not do so; so long as they remain the principal powers in Palestine, the politically savvy Abbas will play the role of Arafat's "good cop." But if Israel destroys or sufficiently damages the terror militias, Abbas may grow strong enough to lead the Palestinians to democracy and peace.
Palestinians, Abbas included, are being walked toward a stark choice between terrorism and peace. The "roadmap to peace" shows Palestinians the alternative of a democratic Palestinian state obtained through peace. The "fight to the death" shows the alternative that awaits terrorists who do not embrace the roadmap: a war of annihilation.
This approach will, if pursued vigorously and consistently, sooner or later bring peace.