Turning words into deeds
At the London conference, Israel was ritually asked for unspecified actions "to live up to its obligations." But Israel has withdrawn its military forces, released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, announced the withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, and renewed the political dialogue. What more do the Palestinians want? Israelis may be willing to take their hats off for Abu Mazen, but they will not take their heads off.
It is understandable that Israelis have decided to exclude Islamic Jihad from the cease-fire and go after its leaders. But their efforts are complicated by the fact that another group, Hezbollah, is sponsoring most of the terrorist activity in the West Bank. Like Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah has headquarters in Lebanon and Damascus and is, thus, less susceptible to Israeli pressure. Supported by Iran and Syria, Hezbollah recently increased the bounty for spilling Jewish blood from $5,000 to $20,000. That's hardly what one would call progress.
Abu Mazen must be made to understand that the ceasefire will collapse if his policy is limited to depending on the goodwill of extreme militants. Israelis know the extremists will take up terrorism again unless they see that Abu Mazen is willing to enforce the cease-fire in full measure. The Israelis will watch how Abu Mazen consolidates his security services and wait to see whether he really uses them against the terrorists.
Everything good that is happening in the Middle East will be at risk if the terrorists launch more attacks, because Israelis will then have no alternative but to retaliate. If that happens, the whole peace process will unravel.
There is no way of knowing how much time Abu Mazen has to translate words into deeds. Yasser Arafat had the opportunity but not the will. If Abu Mazen has the will but not the capacity, the result will be exactly the same.
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