Time for a reality check
Repeating the past? How long Abu Mazen can maintain this balancing act, maintaining two faces, one to his own side and one to the West, we cannot say. His election may be perceived in the West as giving Abu Mazen a certain mandate for moderation, but it is critical that nobody--in the West or in Israel--should be under any illusions about his character and the constraints on him. What cannot be wished away is the culture that glorifies terrorists. Abu Mazen must be held responsible for ending the propagation of hatreds. Failure to hold the Palestinian leadership accountable now would be to simply repeat the wishful thinking and missteps of the Clinton administration.
Yes, it's true that peace must be made with one's adversaries, not one's friends, but it cannot be made if the adversaries do not want to make peace with you. As British Prime Minister Tony Blair put it, "Israel wants one thing . . . a Palestinian state that [is] democratic and not a security threat" to itself. Increased western aid will improve the economy of the West Bank, but it will not end the deeply held ideological and religious force of rejectionism that has long fueled Palestinian terrorists. Europeans, of course, will put as much pressure as they can on Washington to engage with Israel, which means forcing Israel back to the cease-fire positions at the end of the 1948-49 war, with the abandonment of major population centers Israelis have built as buffers to vulnerable frontiers. The Bush administration knows better, and no Israeli prime minister or chief of staff since the 1967 war has ever doubted that the long-term security of Israel is incompatible with the return to the 1948 armistice lines. Nor can Israelis depend for their defense on guarantees by other countries, especially Europe, whose leaders, as Henry Kissinger put it, "could not be relied on to understand the nuances of Israel's security" --never mind assuming a European public willing to make major sacrifices on behalf of Israel's security.
The Bush administration should focus on what is realistic. First, press the Palestinians for real reform at home to expand the rule of law, consolidate their security services, and root out the corruption so that western aid begins to build a self-sustaining economy and not cosset a corrupt elite. Next, Abu Mazen should be pressed to clean up the vile texts in Palestinian schools and media. Why should we subsidize hatred? The subsidies from the United States and Europe are put to such perverted uses, as Arafat once acknowledged in an unusual moment of candor.
The administration must also work to gain European and Arab support for the joint efforts of Israelis and Palestinians to make the successor government in Gaza--after Israel withdraws its army and its citizens--an example of responsible, orderly, and peaceful self-rule. In this way the Gaza experience might become a template for what could happen, over time, in the West Bank. Above all, what the West--especially America--must not do is indulge in self-deception and repeat the mistakes of the past--not if it wants something more than a photo opportunity that ultimately leads to further conflict and loss of life.
The Palestinians deserve peace and the opportunity to live in a democracy as much as the Israelis do. The Palestinians also deserve leaders who are accountable. But progress for the Palestinians is incompatible with a culture of hatred in which every public platform, every mosque, every educational program is used for exhortations to destroy Israel. Which is why, sadly, the poisonous legacy of Arafat may take a generation to excise. And why, in the Middle East, it is wise to remember that hope is a good breakfast but a very poor supper.
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