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Tal Ben-Shahar is a Graduate Fellow at Harvard University's Center for Ethics,
and the author of .
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By Tal Ben-Shahar
March 14, 2003
In signing the Oslo Accords, it was the Left - Israeli, European, and American - that brought Yasser Arafat and his terrorist organization to power. Today, with the help of foreign aid, and relying on the European Union and United Nation's staunch support to protect him from being brought to justice by the Israeli government, Arafat continues to murder Israelis, suppress the Palestinian moderates, and escalate the conflict.
Bernard Lewis, eminent historian of the Middle East, notes that in the context of the wars between the Israelis and the Arabs, the unintentional consequence of intervention by international agencies was "not the resolution but rather the conservation of conflict." The current war between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist groups is no exception. The intervention of the UN and the EU - supporting the ideology of the Israeli left that calls for negotiations rather than an all-out military offensive - sustains the conflict and perpetuates the suffering not only of Israelis but of Palestinians as well.
Rather than supporting Israel in its fight against terrorism, the EU and the UN support the Palestinian terrorists. Recently, Charles Tanner, Conservative foreign affairs spokesman in the European Parliament, requested an investigation into allegations that European taxpayers' donations to the Palestinian Authority are being used to fund terrorist activities. The EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten dismissed Tanner's request, saying that he wanted an inquiry into the matter like "a hole in the head" and argued that such probe would be counterproductive in that it would weaken the moderate leaders in the PA: "If we sunder relations with the Palestinian Authority," he added, "it will be very difficult to claim that the EU is playing any kind of role in the Middle East region." By continuing the relations with a terrorist organization, the EU does indeed play a role in the Middle East region: the role of conserving and, worse, further escalating the conflict.
The Left, which has always prided itself on standing up for the downtrodden and oppressed, believes that by supporting a weak PA against a strong Israel it is helping the Palestinian people. This could not be farther from the truth.
To help a corrupt, terrorist regime - such as the PA - whether meek or mighty, is immoral and brings about more suffering for everyone. Replacing the PA, by force if necessary, and insisting on a leadership that educates toward peace rather than teaches its children to become martyrs, a leadership that educates toward coexistence rather than promises its people a Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the (Mediterranean) sea, is better for Israelis and better for Palestinians.
Israel is not the cause of the Palestinian suffering, but a convenient excuse for it. What would the lives of Palestinians be like if Israel did not exist? Living conditions have deteriorated significantly since the PA came to power. Surely before the 1993 Oslo Accords the refugees were miserable, living in camps, under military control, but their lives would not have been better - indeed, were not better - under Arafat's regime.
What the Palestinian people need is not more money pouring into their existing leadership, but, as U.S. President George Bush stated in his policy speech on the Middle East, a "new and different Palestinian leadership." The current regime in the disputed territories must be replaced with a leadership that has the best interest of its people in mind.
The majority of those who are pro-Israel are also pro-Palestinian. There are very few people - from the Right or the Left of the political spectrum - who would not like to see "The New Middle East" that Shimon Peres so romantically speaks off in which Israelis and Arabs coexist peacefully - a Middle East in which everybody wins. The Left's good intentions and sympathy for the underdog, however, are not enough to bring about this vision. If the EU, UN, and the Israeli Left - including Peres and his heir Amram Mitzna - truly care about the wellbeing of the Palestinians, then they must ensure that terrorism is fought relentlessly and that terrorists like Arafat are brought to justice.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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