The great Israeli statesman, Abba Eban, once said about the
Palestinians that they “have never missed an opportunity
to miss an opportunity.” He was so right.
At Camp David in July 2002, Yasir Arafat rejected then Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s offer of Palestinian statehood
in more than 90 percent of the West Bank and in Gaza with Jerusalem
serving as a joint Israeli-Palestinian capital. That offer was
viewed by most Israelis and many supporters of Israel around the
world as far too generous. It is an offer that should have been
accepted and, in all probability, will never be made again and
shouldn’t.
Arafat’s reason for rejecting Barak’s proposal was
that it required the Palestinian Authority to accept a provision
that ended any expectation or right of Palestinians to return
to any part of Israel from which they had fled in 1948. He said
at the time that if he had agreed to that provision, he would
have been assassinated. He was probably right to fear that fate.
Now, nearly a year and a half after his death, Hamas has defeated
Fatah, Arafat’s party, by a margin of nearly two to one.
Since the Intifada began in 2000, Hamas has been responsible for
the deaths of hundreds of Israelis at the hands of suicide bombers.
Hamas is committed to the goal of one Palestinian state “from
the river [Jordan] to the sea [Mediterranean]” and seeks
to eradicate the Jewish state of Israel.
The exiled political head of Hamas, Khaled Meshal, now in Syria,
said after the election, according to The New York Times,
“Hamas would not ‘submit to pressure to recognize
Israel because the occupation is illegitimate and we will not
abandon our rights’ nor would it disarm, but would work
to create a unified Palestinian army” under its direction…and
Meshal “defended attacks on Israeli civilians.”
The charter of Hamas says of historic Palestine “no one
can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it.”
That charter calls for “rais[ing] the banner of Allah over
every inch of Palestine.” The Times’ analysis
reports “[The charter] calls for the elimination of Israel
and Jews from Islamic holy land and portrays the Jews as evil…It
describes the struggle against the Jews as a religious obligation
for every Muslim.”
What are the options for the Israelis? One would be to join
with those who say that Hamas doesn’t really mean it. The
apologists cite the corruption of Fatah as an excuse for Hamas’
win in a democratic election and claim that Hamas will moderate
over time, as it adjusts to governing. That’s what many
Jews and Christians in Germany and elsewhere said of Adolf Hitler
and the Nazis. In those days, while trying to accommodate Hitler,
apologists cited the Versailles treaty and its onerous provisions
for reparations as excuses for the electoral success of Hitler
who came to power lawfully in a democratic election.
Many Palestinians, like Iranians led by current President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and other Islamic fanatics, support the statement
of Osama bin Laden’s second in command, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
who said of Jews, Christians, Hindus and others, “I vow
by the One who raised the seven layers to Heaven (i.e. Allah)
and who has beheaded tyrants that the leader of America has been
thoroughly humiliated. Our heroes have defended this place. They
have entered legend. Killing the infidels is our religion, slaughtering
them is our religion, until they convert to Islam or pay us tribute.”
Israel and the rest of the world should take these fanatics
at their word, just as Mein Kampf foretold Hitler’s
plan for Europe, the Jews and the world. The Islamic fanatics
whose views are often described as fascist -- and there are hundreds
of millions of them -- have launched a war of civilizations: Islam
against the West. This war will continue for a long time to come.
In the minds of Islamic fanatics, Israel and the U.S. are at the
top of the list of nations they see as standing in their way to
victory.
The Times in its news analysis of January 30th, reported
that, “At a conference in October titled, ‘The World
Without Zionism’ …[the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]
effectively called for wiping not just Israel off the map, but
America too. ‘Many have tried to disperse disappointment
in this struggle between the Islamic world and the infidels,’
he said. ‘They say it is not possible to have a world without
the United States and Zionism. But you know that this is a possible
goal and slogan.’”
The Times reported on the same day that in Baghdad,
“Bombs exploded Sunday outside four Christian churches and
the office of the Vatican envoy, killing 3 people and wounding
at least 15, in a rare and seemingly coordinated set of attacks
on Iraq’s dwindling Christian community.” The fanatics
see most of the nations in Europe and elsewhere ultimately buckling
and pleading for peace at any price. Europe will soon be tested
when it is asked to continue to give the Hamas Palestinian regime
millions of dollars in subsidies, most of which will be used to
pay the salaries of those supporting or individually intending
to commit terrorist attacks against Israel now, and later throughout
in the world. Will they pay that tribute? I believe they will.
The only realistic option for Israel is not to negotiate with
the Palestinians unless and until the Palestinians in Gaza, where
they have self rule, form a new government that arrests terrorists,
disarms the population and proves that it has accepted the two-state
solution. Its good faith must be evidenced not simply by words
and by eliminating murderous covenants from their charter. It
must be established by actions, and the passage of time proving
the bona fides of those actions and words.
On the first occasion of an attack on Israel by Hamas, Israeli
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has promised a response of great
magnitude. In my judgment, that is exactly what is required. If
Europe had reacted that way when Hitler marched into the Rhineland
in 1936, he would never have marched into Poland in 1939 and begun
World War II which exacted death tolls of an estimated more than
60 million people throughout the world. The Hamas victory has
brought us to a moment of truth. The question is, will there be
appeasement and a return to the era of Neville Chamberlain, or
will the nations of the world stand up to the Islamic terrorists
and defeat them, as Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt
did the Nazis and Japanese.
Ed
Koch is the former Mayor of New York City.
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