by Bassam Tawil
June 2, 2017
The West suffers under a major misconception concerning
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: that "goodwill gestures" and
territorial concessions on the part of Israel boost the prospects of peace in
the Middle East. The facts, however, suggest that precisely the opposite is
true.
Last week, Israel's Channel 10 television station reported that the U.S. administration was pushing Israel
to transfer parts of Area C -- areas under full Israeli security and civilian
control in the West Bank -- to the control of Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian
Authority (PA). According to the report, the U.S. believes that the transfer of
the territory to the PA would be a "goodwill step" towards the
Palestinians, paving the way for the revival of the stalled peace process with
Israel.
This assumption, of course, has already proven wrong.
The experiences of the past few decades have shown clearly that Israeli
concessions have always sent the wrong message to the Palestinians.
- Here is what is being said on the Palestinian street: Today Israel runs away from the West Bank or the Gaza Strip; tomorrow Israel will run away from Ashkelon, then from Tel Aviv and from there to the sea, and we have achieved our goal of destroying Israel. Therefore, we need to continue attacking Israel.
- As with the Gaza Strip, the withdrawal from Lebanon taught the Palestinians that terrorism could drive Israelis out of their country.
- Never have the
Palestinians given Israel credit for its goodwill steps. On the contrary,
they scoff at these moves and describe them as "cosmetic
changes". The Palestinian line is that Israel's steps are
"insufficient" and "unhelpful." Its concessions are
regarded as gestures of a terrified people and as the rightful reward for
terrorism. Far from satiating the appetite of the terrorists, such steps
prompt them to step up their attacks against Israelis.
No comments:
Post a Comment