An Opium Pipe Dream – Meaningful Negotiations with Palestinians!
January 19, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Today’s Islamic Jihad bomber, 22 year old Sami Abdel Hafiz Antar, who detonated himself today as a homicide bomber at a food shop in Tel Aviv, ending his own life and wounding some 30 people, demonstrates the need to quickly finish the security barrier and its 27 controlled gates of entrance. The security barrier cannot absolutely prevent this type of bombing, but it can certainly significantly reduce them, at least to the point of being considered “rare” in the mindset of
the Israeli public.
It is also a fact, that even with a barrier that is less than half finished, it has already significantly reduced the number of bombings on the Israeli side of it.
If Israel has learned nothing else, then they have learned that peace negotiations with the Palestinians are a continuing farce. In order to produce a relative time of “peace and safety,” they must fence in the Palestinians and, not by cooperation, negotiations, or trust, but by force, control the relative “peace and safety” by their own expertise and military power.
The impossibility of ever having even a period of relative “peace and safety,” based on trust, is clearly illustrated in the following article by Scott Shiloh in Arutz Sheva, which indicates that the terrorist group Hamas could receive as much as 50% of the vote in
the Palestinian elections.
Whether the Palestinians and the rest of the nations of the world like it or not, Israel must finish the fence, separate from the Palestinians by a process of forceful unilateral withdrawal, take in the Jewish settlements they can defend on the Israel side of the barrier, and keep the terrorists inside the security barrier/wall/fence by tight security along it, and at its checkpoints.
Settlements deep in the interior of the West Bank must be withdrawn unilaterally.
It is the only way a mindset sense of a relative security can ever be felt among the Jewish population.
BEGIN ARUTZ SHEVA ARTICLE
Hamas Leader: No Recognition, No Negotiation, No Peace
Arutz Sheva
By Scott Shiloh
January 15, 2006
The Hamas terror organization, expected to garner as much as 50% of the vote in the PA parliamentary election scheduled for next week, remains steadfast in its goal of annihilating the Jewish state.
The leader of the group in Gaza, Mahmoud A-Zahar, recently rebutted charges that the Hamas was taking a more pragmatic stance ahead of the PA parliamentary elections, and that it would be willing to recognize Israel within the country’ s pre-1967 boundarie
s.
On January 13, A-Zahar said at a rally in Khan Yunis that the Hamas would not enter into negotiations with Israel in light of the Oslo accords, which he says, after 10 years, proves that negotiations are only an illusion. He declared that the Hamas still holds true to pursuing jihad or holy war with Israel and the liberation of all of Palestine.
A-Zahar went on to negate any form of cooperation with Israel, which he referred to as the “Zionist occupier.” He characterized the Jewish state as “an enemy, not a neighbor, friend, or partner.”
A-Zahar outlined his party’s electoral platform as follows:
• Islam is the source and ultimate authority for the Hamas
• The entire land of Palestine, every inch of it, is the property of
the Islamic and Arabic nation that can never be relinquished.
• The right of return of Palestinian refugees is a legitimate right. Every Palestinian is entitled to decide when and how to return to his homeland.
• Continuation of the struggle (against Israel) in all of its manifestations.
The Hamas leader added that once the elections were over, his party would “instill the significance of the struggle in the minds of our children and teach them that it is forbidden to compromise on any aspect of it.”
A-Zahar’s steadfast approach, appeared to contradict that of Sheikh Mohammed Abu Tir, a Hamas candidate for parliament from Jerusalem. A-Zahar spent much of the last thirty years of his life in Israeli prisons for terror activities stemming from activity in the Hamas’ military wing, Iz Al-Din Al-Kassam.
He was released from prison six months ago and recruited onto the Hamas’ election list.
“The use of the word struggle, in the platform does not necessarily refer to weapons and the use of force,” Abu Tir said.
END ARUTZ SHEVA ARTICLE
The only reason that the Palestinians will come to any negotiating table is to try and change the route of the security barrier/wall/fence to favor them getting more territory.
The route of the fence is still negotiable in some areas. The Palestinians know the Israelis will finish it, so for them to fail to negotiate means loss of land along the barrier.
But as far as ever being able to trust the Palestinians to keep the peace, on a long term basis, is like believing it will snow over the Dead Sea in August, and leave a twelve inch covering on its surface.