THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 50, February 22, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
A PATHETIC "PEACE PROCESS"
By Amos N. Guiora & Asaf Romirowsky
THE ISRAELI-ARAB CONFLICT: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN "PEACE PROCESS"? FAILURE
OF GAZA & THE WEST BANK TO DEVELOP INTO A VIABLE PALESTINIAN POLITICAL & ECONOMIC ENTITY -- THE ROLE OF
YASSER ARAFAT IN CREATING THE CURRENT MESS IN PALESTINIAN SOCIETY -- THE ROLE OF MAHMOUD ABBAS -- THE
ROLE OF HAMAS -- VICTIMHOOD & THE FAILURE TO ACHIEVE A TWO-STATE SOLUTION TO THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN
CONFLICT
FULL STORY:
In 1993, after the Oslo peace accords, the Palestinian Liberation Organization was transformed into the Palestinian Authority.
The PA was to assume governing responsibilities for the Palestinian people, the first step toward statehood.
The dream of joining the family of nations was tangible.
What went wrong? In reality, Yasser Arafat continued to foster the status quo victim message of Palestinian oppression as
the direct result of Israeli occupation and Western (primarily U.S.) indifference, if not acquiescence -- despite the fact that
the PA had responsibility for civil affairs and security in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.
Arafat's message: Assume no responsibility, blame someone else. Rather than focus on establishing a viable political and
economic entity, corruption ruled. Nothing was built. It was a masterful missing of an opportunity.
Did Israel always do the right thing by the Palestinians? Absolutely not -- significant mistakes were made by successive
governments. But, in accordance with Oslo, they did launch a campaign to prepare Israelis for the reality of peace,
something we never saw in Palestinian society.
Fast-forward three years after Arafat's death, with the United States now trying to broker a resolution on a very bleak
landscape.
Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas, has never managed to get out of Arafat's shadow. Abbas is perceived as nothing but
a vestige of the old guard. No surprise that Hamas emerged victorious in the 2006 legislative elections. The PA's
institutionalized corruption provided Hamas with the formula for victory.
Throw out the party of corruption, elect the party of "integrity and honesty." The result is an ineffectual two-headed entity:
Abbas, weak and incapable, is PA president; Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, is the head of a party that has
engaged the PA in civil war and calls for the destruction of Israel.
Were Abbas seriously concerned about the Palestinian people, he would be working to reform the PA. Working with the
United States, Europe, Arab regimes, and Israel to provide better social programs would drive a stake through Hamas.
But, to be a true reformer, any Palestinian leader will have to accept Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinian people must
understand this. Whether Abbas is capable of doing so is an open question. Continuing to play the victim card is a lot
easier than picking up the trash.
In order to have a real two-state solution, the Palestinians will have to take responsibility.
And that leads us to Hamas. By blowing open the border between Gaza and Egypt, allowing Gazans to buy food and other
basic amenities in Egypt, Hamas succeeded in embarrassing three different regimes.
The episode was a superb political and media maneuver, allowing Hamas to come out with the upper hand. Israel was
portrayed as the "prison guard" controlling Gaza (while Israelis are the targets of daily Hamas missile attacks), the PA was
seen as a government that can't feed its people and Egyptian President Mubarak was at a loss how to respond to the
hundreds of thousands of Gazans flooding Egypt and then how to seal the border.
Where does that leave the Israeli-Palestinian process? As long as Hamas calls the shots both in Gaza and along the
Gaza-Egypt border, the threat to Israel will escalate. The danger of weapons smuggled into Gaza from Egypt is real and of
extraordinary concern to Israeli decision-makers.
Abbas has been talking to the Israelis, but his weakness enables Hamas, again, to be seen as triumphant. After all, Hamas
has effectively addressed the need for food and cohesion.
But the most important issue is strategic, not tactical. Where does all this lead to? It's not "Who won today?" but "How is
tomorrow served?" The answer will tell us who's really in charge.
It appears that the most the Palestinians can expect from their leadership (Hamas or Fatah) is a continuation of the colossally
failed Arafat system. Yet another leader too hesitant -- or not brave enough -- to take a different path, to actually lead.
Is victimology to be institutionalized? Are corrupt ways going to be the PA's eternal legacy? Will shortterm tactics guide the
PA and Hamas, not to mention continued shelling of Israeli towns?
Who's the boss? Who knows?
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Amos N. Guiora, 1985 graduate from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and currently Professor of Law at the
S. J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, teaches courses in Criminal Law, National Security Law, Religion and
Terrorism, and Global Perspectives on Counterterrorism. Professor Guiora writes and lectures extensively on issues regarding
the legal aspects of counterterrorism, the financing of terrorism, global perspectives on counterterrorism, international law
and morality in armed conflict, and educating Israeli Defense Forces commanders and soldiers on international law and
morality.
Asaf Romirowsky is an associate fellow at the Middle East Forum and the Manager of Israel & Middle East Affairs for the
Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
The foregoing article by Amos N. Guiora and Asaf Romirowsky was originally published in the Philadelphia Daily
News, February 21, 2008, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/1857)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
February 21, 2008
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity