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| By Israel Insider staff November 5, 2007 |
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| US Secretary of State Rice lays down the law to a servile Olmert (Flash90) |
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Rice, speaking at the Remarks at the Saban Forum Dinner, named after the Israeli-born, Hollywood resident creator of Mutant Ninja Turtles, warned that Israel had to help out Mahmoud Abbas by giving him a State, or be blamed for what would follow: "if we do not act now to show the Palestinians a way forward, others will show them a way forward....My fear is that if Palestinian reformers cannot deliver on the hope of an independent state, then the moderate center could collapse forever and the next generation of Palestinians could become lost souls of unbridled extremism."
Rice, in her public address, was her charming best, remarking on "what a great pleasure it is to be back here in Israel. It seems like yesterday -- actually, maybe it was just yesterday that I was here. But seriously...." She continued: "I love visiting this great country and I remember coming here for the first time a number of years ago and I said at that time and I still believe that it was like coming home to a place that I had never been."
She lauded "my good friend and your great leader, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert" and even "the extraordinary efforts of the Clinton Administration" -- but pointed out that previous efforts at "bring peace negotiations had collapsed" and led to an intensification of violence. But shw stresses that in 2001 as in 1967 "Israel occupied the future Palestine and Palestinian leadership was complicit in terror."
She spoke about the "different approach" of the Bush Administration to test the Palestinian leadership through the "Road Map," insisting that: "in our view, the security of the democratic Jewish state ultimately requires the creation of a responsible Palestinian state." She admitted that "I know that many people, perhaps many of you, think that our focus on democracy might have been a bit naive and I've heard, 'Well, it backfired with Hamas' election.' Well, let me say, categorically, I disagree with that conclusion. The leaders of Hamas always had the power to affect decisions of war and peace. What they never had was the responsibility for exercising that power and that is what democracy gave them."
Rice viewed what followed as a success story for Abbas and the Palestinian Authority. "The Palestinians then held Hamas accountable for the first time and so did the international community. We confronted Hamas with the very choice it had always refused to make: you can be a political party or you can be a terrorist group, but you cannot be both. The leaders of Hamas have unfortunately made their choice and they've chosen the path of violence. And the international community has remained united around the only responsible policy: isolating Hamas until it is ready to choose peace."
Her optimism for the leader of the West Bank enclave was unbounded. "That violent extremism of Hamas stands in stark contrast to the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, the legitimately elected president of all Palestinians, who won a clear mandate to seek peace with Israel. President Abbas and his government are demonstrating that they are real partners for peace. Ahmed Qurei and Foreign Minister Livni are negotiating seriously and in good faith. And President Abbas is showing that he and his government have the will to fight terrorism and govern effectively even if they do not always have the capacity. This is a clarifying choice for the Palestinian people between the path of peace and the path of violence. Responsible Palestinians still face great challenges. They need our support. They deserve our support."
Ignoring Israeli public opinion polls that show majority opposition to a Palestinian state and additional land concessions to the Palestinians, Rice asserted that "Most Israelis now believe that a peaceful Palestinian state is in the national interest of Israel and that true security requires finding a way to end the conflict and with it, the occupation that began in 1967."
Rice also imagined non-existent public support for peace with Israel among Palestinian Arabs, who have consistently favored armed struggle, including suicide bombing, to eliminate Israel, not coexist with the. "Most Palestinians believe that Israel will always be their neighbor and most believe that no Palestinian state will ever be born through violence. And among the Arab states, as they recently made clear in reaffirming the Arab League Peace Initiative, the question now is not whether Israel should exist, but on what terms to make peace with Israel."
This assumption, too, does not seem to be validated by the facts, since the Arab League Peace Initiative seems to predicate acceptance of Israel on ultimative terms whose realization -- such as the acceptance of Palestinian "refugees" and their descendants -- that would spell the end of the Jewish state in short order.
But Rice insists that Israel and the Palestinian Authority have a great deal in common and an interest in banding together, this despite clear indications that Abbas intends as soon as possible to mend fences with Hamas. "Indeed, the rise of violent extremism has created a fundamentally new strategic alignment in the Middle East: responsible states that were once rivals now see that they may share a common interest in combating a common threat and that a moderate Palestinian state can be a bulwark against that threat. The time has now come for all Arab states to demonstrate to their people and to the world that they are ready to be active partners for peace, peace with Israel, that they believe Israel has a permanent home in the Middle East and the peace that they seek is greater than just the absence of war."
One would hope for her sake that Rice is not holding her breath. She insists, however, her belief that "we have a real opportunity now to advance the establishment of a peaceful Palestinian state." She declares: "We can succeed; failure is simply not an option."
She proceeds to list a litany of failures under her Administration's watch: "In Hamas' coup in Gaza, in Hezbollah's war in Lebanon, and in the rise of an aggressive Iranian regime, we see that violent extremism is evolving in new and much more threatening ways. Violent extremism is not a threat only to the people of one nation or one race or one religion, but to everyone in the Middle East who seeks peace and a life of modernity with dignity. Responsible leaders and citizens are under attack all across this region. They are being assassinated in Lebanon. They are being murdered in Iraq. And they are being pressured in the Palestinian territories by the violent actions of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and their abhorrent sponsors."
Rice waxes hopeful that the extremists will cause the relatively moderates to band together. "Because of the threat of violent extremism, the two-state solution is, frankly, more urgent now than ever. Responsible Palestinian leaders are genuinely committed to fighting terrorism and building a democratic state, but they are overcoming a crippling legacy of misrule. These are tall orders and the Palestinians need partners. They need a realistic prospect of statehood and we need to help Palestinian reformers show that they can deliver on this hope; for as we read in Proverbs, 'Where there is no vision, the people perish.'"
Ultimately, she says, it is up to Israel to give the Palestinians what she thinks they deserve, as it is Israel's fault if she continues the status quo that, she claims, is responsible for radicalizing youth, not just Palestinians but Muslims everywhere, as opposed to the Islamic ideology. "And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my fear, that if we do not act now to show the Palestinians a way forward, others will show them a way forward. If the Palestinians are losing hope, especially among the young, we have a great danger before us. The prolonged experience of deprivation and humiliation can radicalize even normal people. We've all heard the stories and we've read the reports.
"But what is different now and far more dangerous is the context. There are other stories, after all, being told and being written out there today: the stories of violent extremists, of Iranian-backed radicals, and of al-Qaida. They prey for these violent -- the prey for these violent extremists is the Palestinian youth, those who have known little else than intifada, occupation, and daily lives of trial. My fear is that if Palestinian reformers cannot deliver on the hope of an independent state, then the moderate center could collapse forever and the next generation of Palestinians could become lost souls of unbridled extremism."
Rice closed her speech by referring to a story about how the expulsion of Jews from their homes was a good and necessary thing for Israel, ignoring all that has happened since: "Ariel Sharon once told me a story. It was before the disengagement from Gaza. He told me that he went out to talk with Israeli settlers because he, of course, had been the father of the settler movement. He went to one family and explained to them why it was important to share the land and this man, the head of the family, said, "Let me show you something," and he showed Sharon the mezuzah above their house and he said, "You personally put that above our house. You personally told us that this was good for Israel, for us to settle here, and now you tell us that we have to leave for the good of Israel." Sharon was deeply pained by that. I could see it when he told me the story. But that is what great leaders do. They make hard decisions confidently for the sake of peace."
Rice, for one, is confident about the Palestinians. "Israelis have waited too long for the security that will come living side by side with a peaceful and democratic neighbor. Palestinians have waited too long for the dignity that will come with an independent state. We have all waited too long for peace and we should wait no longer. I believe that most Israelis want to end the occupation and that most Arab states and most Palestinians want to end the conflict. And I believe that we have two democratic leaders in Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas who know that the best way to serve their citizens is to build a basis for peace."
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