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Ryan Jones is a Gentile believer from the United States who has lived and worked in Israel for the past six years. He is the News Editor of .
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By Ryan Jones
July 2, 2003
Courtesy of Jerusalem Newswire.
As PA officials and Palestinian terrorist factions make a public show of their efforts to reach an agreement to suspend attacks against Israelis, most in Israel, including the government, view the whole performance with indifference.
Outsiders would think that Israel would be clamoring for any opportunity to curb terrorist atrocities - temporary or not. And this is precisely what the Palestinians would have them think, thus painting the Israeli government as a recalcitrant enemy of peace over its apparent apathy towards the truce.
Understanding not only the true nature of a hudna, but also the terms of the deal currently being kicked around is vital to understanding why Israelis know it has failed before even going into effect.
As has been explained in numerous articles over the past several weeks, the Islamic concept of hudna is not a favorable one for Israel, as it presents the threat of renewed large-scale bloodshed in the near future.
Hudna is an ancient Arabic term used commonly by the followers of Islam over the centuries to denote a temporary truce called by the weaker party in order to garner additional strength for a future offensive. Hardly the kind of deal Israel was looking for.
But the concept of hudna aside, the conditions of the PA-brokered terrorist ceasefire are so preposterous that an Israel in its right mind would never be able to meet them. And the Palestinians know this.
In return for a pause in murderous attacks against Jewish men, women and children, the various Palestinian factions are demanding a complete cessation of preemptive and retaliatory Israeli military actions - including arrests - against terrorist forces and the release of all Palestinian security prisoners.
Some groups have added the guarantee of Yasser Arafat's freedom of movement to the list.
Several deadly factions, including Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' own Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades, say they don't like the idea of a ceasefire at all, and vowed to continue attacking Israelis.
An official with the Hamas terrorist organization admitted that a majority of members from the groups that have signed on to the deal are opposed to any kind of truce, and would likely attempt to carry out more attacks - agreement or no agreement.
In other words, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Fatah demand that Israel refrain from targeting Palestinian terrorists, despite the knowledge that cells throughout the area are going to use the phony truce to slaughter more Israelis.
And rest assured, as soon as Israel does take action against some Arab madman preparing to butcher innocent Jewish civilians, Hamas and Co. will be quick to declare the ceasefire dead due to Israel's failure to meet its terms.
This, along with the demand to release all Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons, is the deal's built-in self-destruct switch, ensuring the ceasefire will fail, and providing the opportunity to blame Israel for it.
Israel cannot abandon the security of its people, and the Palestinians won't promise to stop terror until it does.
This knowledge is what led one Israeli government official to comment over the weekend that the PA terrorist ceasefire "is not worth the paper it's written on."
There is a reason nations like the United States maintain of policy of not negotiating with terrorists - their terms will always be an invitation for more bloodshed.
That, and the fact that negotiations only encourage terrorism by suggesting weakness.
The PA's insistence on negotiating with the terrorist organizations is outside the bounds of its signed agreements with Israel, including the Road Map.
Israel has every right to demand the Palestinians meet their obligation to disarm and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure once and for all.
Israel also has every right to crush the terrorist infrastructure itself if the PA fails to do so; the blood of a nation cries out for nothing less.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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