Dr. Aaron Lerner is co-founder of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict. imra@netvision.net.il
Olmert-Rice-Abbas continue to defy reality
By Dr. Aaron Lerner
September 21, 2007 Bookmark to del.icio.us
Reality check: as Israeli security forces scoured the Ein Beit Ilme refugee camp in Nablus in a race against time to capture Hamas terrorists about to carry out a devastating suicide bombing that could murder scores of Israelis, "moderate" Palestinian "peace partner" Mahmoud Abbas demanded that Israel halt the operation.
"We have asserted also on the utmost importance for stopping the Palestinians of invasions and arrests, the last of which was the invasion of the city of Nablus and its refugee camps." Abbas declared at his joint press conference today with Secretary Condoleezza Rice.
Fortunately, Israel ignored the call and so Yusuf Nadi is spending tonight being interrogated by Israeli security authorities instead of in Paradise with 72 virgins.
That's the reality of the situation.
This evening Prime Minister Ehud Olmert defended his decision to abandon the Israeli position that Palestinian security compliance is a prerequisite to final status talks.
He argued that there was no time to waste waiting for Palestinian compliance while reassuring the meeting of Kadima members that Israel would predicate implementation of a deal on Palestinian compliance.
But there is absolutely no reason to believe him.
The very same arguments for waiving Palestinian compliance today will apply should an agreement be reached.
His apologists will explain that Abbas has to show his people concrete achievements -- not just a piece of paper -- while ongoing terror is handled by the old "enemies of peace/friends of peace" spin.
The end-result could very well be a sovereign Palestinian terror state. A monstrous mistake magnitudes more difficult to rectify than the failed experiment known as "Oslo".
What, indeed, is the reason for this terrible rush to exploit the so-called "window of opportunity" for the implementation of reckless and dangerous policy?
Are the egos really so big in Washington that the very stability of the neighborhood is worth sacrificing in return for a possible shot at a paragraph in the history books?
Or is this charade the cost we must pay in support of a scheme to stop Iran?
Just this Tuesday Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah warned America in a press release against thinking that efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict would be rewarded by cooperation by the GCC members on other fronts.
Oops.
It is not too late to stop the madness.
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