August 8, 2003
WASHINGTON -- The State Department is proposing that the United States
play hardball with Israel -- reducing badly needed loan guarantees -- if
it proceeds with the barrier it is erecting between Israeli and Palestinian
populations. With this, the State Department joins the latest Palestinian
propaganda ploy -- inverting cause and effect, and making the fence the
issue, rather than the terrorism that made the fence necessary.
The Israelis are not happy with the fence. They love the land as much
as the Palestinians, and scarring it with any barrier is so painful to
Israelis that for years they resisted the idea. The reason they finally
decided to build it is that they could no longer in good conscience refrain
from taking the one step that could prevent Palestinian suicide bombers
from sneaking into Israel to blow up innocents.
This is not speculation. There have been nearly 100 Palestinian suicide
bombings. All the terrorists came from the West Bank, where the barrier
is being built. Not a single one has come from Gaza. Why? Because there
already is a fence separating Gaza from Israel.
``The fence would not even be a factor if it were not for the violence
in the last few years,'' writes former chief U.S. Middle East negotiator
Dennis Ross. ``Truth be told, those responsible for the fence are Hamas,
Islamic Jihad, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.''
In America, we build stretches of fence along the Mexican border to
prevent foreigners from coming in to take jobs. It takes a lot of audacity
to demand that Israel stop building a fence whose purpose is to prevent
foreigners from coming in to commit mass murder.
As part of the propaganda campaign against the barrier, it has been
called a wall. In fact, it is a fence, with electronics on either side
to prevent infiltrators. It is wall-like for only about a tenth of its
length -- in just two places, both along the Trans-Israel Highway. Why?
Because Palestinian gunmen had been shooting from Palestinian territory
onto the highway and killing innocent Israelis.
In America, barrier walls are built along highways to keep neighbors
from being inconvenienced by the noise. In Israel, barrier walls are built
along highways to prevent passengers from being killed by bullets. Yet
the State Department wants to sanction Israel for building a defensive
barrier designed to prevent motorists from being shot while transiting
inside Israel itself.
What is scandalous about the State Department joining this Palestinian
propaganda campaign is that State has for months been campaigning to implement
its ``road map'' for peace, published on April 30. It has three phases.
We are now in Phase I.
In which phase is Israel supposed to stop work on the fence? In none.
There is nothing in the road map about the fence. In any phase.
In Phase I, Israel is supposed to dismantle settlement outposts, which
it has begun doing. Ultimately, Israel is required to freeze old settlements,
which it is prepared to do when the Palestinians fulfill their part of
Phase I. And what is that?
The road map is explicit: The Palestinians must begin ``sustained,
targeted, and effective operations aimed at ... dismantlement of terrorist
capabilities and infrastructure.'' They have done none of this. None. A
three-month truce has been declared. But Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud
Abbas has not just delayed cracking down on the terrorist apparatus, he
has said that he will not do so at all because of fear of a Palestinian
civil war.
How has the State Department reacted to this open reneging on the Palestinians'
central obligation in Phase I? At first, it said it would simply give Abbas
a short time to begin dismantling the terrorist infrastructure. Now it
appears quite satisfied with a temporary truce that allows Hamas and the
other terrorists to rearm and regroup, and that can and will be broken
at the time and place of their choosing.
This is a direct contradiction of the road map. It is a contradiction
of the central requirement of Palestinian compliance. It is a contradiction
of the Middle East policy announced by President Bush in his June 24, 2002,
speech that promised the Palestinians their own independent state -- but
only if they first ceased the violence and dismantled the violence machine.
The State Department is ignoring, indeed excusing, Palestinian violation
of their central obligation under Phase I of the road map. At the very
same time, State is threatening Israel with sanctions over a fence that
is nowhere mentioned in the road map.
This kind of amnesia and one-sidedness is not new. We have been here
before. It was called Oslo. And we know how it ended.
http://www.townhall.com
08/08/2003
Rusian version