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Paula R. Stern is the Founder and Documentation Manager of , a technical writing company. More of her articles can be found on her .
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By Paula R. Stern
February 16, 2004
Israel has had a hard time over the years explaining its political position and its need to focus on security. Often we are told, give land, make concessions and then there will be peace. What we have understood for many years, the world still fails to comprehend. The true character of the Palestinian leadership is expressed in its Arabic broadcasts to its people, rather than the polite, peaceful words they mouth in English.
Look how they want peace, claim the Europeans. Arafat is calling you his partners and begging you to make the "peace of the brave." Trust us, offer the Americans, follow the roadmap and it will get you to a final settlement. After more than 50 years, this time the Arabs will meet you at the negotiation table and end the conflict.
Words, we try to explain, just words. The truth is in the buses that are blown up, in the graves we dig each week. Even releasing real footage, taken in the minutes after a bomb explosion does not seem to have impressed the world. They have yet to understand that the real Palestinian goal is in the mortars they launch every day, each day, almost without fail. It is in the rocks that they throw, in the bullets they shoot at us. It is in the teachings of their children, the sermons of their religious leaders, the hatred broadcast in their newspapers and television programs and the continued calls for more violence.
It isn't often the Palestinians trust the stupidity of the world enough to speak from their hearts. So, they speak in English of peace, of negotiations, of the poor Palestinians only wanting what is rightfully theirs, of the need for work and the world believes. And, at the same time, in Arabic, they speak of Jihad and Shahid, holy wars and martyrdom. They promise their youth glory at the end of the bomb. Eternal life achieved through the murder of the enemy.
The world is lulled into believing that you can equate the intentional murder of bus passengers with the targeting of a terrorist mastermind, or with the accidental deaths that sometimes occur during a military operation. True history is forgotten as the world ignores the injustice of targeting civilians and the Palestinians rewrite history with misinformation and lies.
They never refer to their refusal to accept the Partition Plan of 1947 that would have given them a state on more land than they say they will accept now. Nothing is said of Camp David, when Arafat walked away from an offer of 97% of the land and launched the bloodiest three years in our history or of the vast sums of money donated to the Palestinian people and diverted to the pockets of the Palestinian leadership.
For years now, Israel's best efforts at publicizing its position regarding peace and security were lost behind a language problem. Israeli representatives spoke in poor English and failed to successfully use the single most important tool available: Arabic transmissions that praised death and violence even as the very same leaders were lying to the world in English.
For years now, Israelis have been asking themselves these simple questions: How do you make peace with a people willing to send a young mother to blow herself up, leaving behind her two young children? Can you possibly speak to a culture willing to stone two young boys to death? What hope is there when you have to talk to a people willing to focus their gun sights on the head of a ten-month-old baby and pull the trigger? Is it possible to understand the demented thinking of someone who enters a restaurant and takes the time to intentionally position himself between two families before exploding?
This is our message, an internal one that occupies our minds and disturbs our hearts. But this is not a message that the world can understand. They believe that if we offer the Palestinians a solution, these attacks will stop. They answer our concerns by avoiding them. Better not to think that there might not be answers, no real and true road to peace.
The world forgets the mother who murdered as quickly as they forget the mother who was murdered. The education of the boy who would be led to suicide is regretful, but does not hold lasting attention. The world loses interest in the children we have buried, the couple who died moments after finding out she was expecting twins, the father of two-month-old triplets, the man who had just celebrated his son's wedding the night before and the doctor who was buried with his daughter on what would have been her wedding day.
The Palestinians have lost children too, the world insists. Yes, they have. But again, we point out, the circle is not truly a circle because they chose this road we travel. Our targets are the gunmen who hide among their own civilian population, while their targets are our citizens who have nowhere to hide. But again, we have lost the interest of the world. They are tired of this conflict, as if Israelis are not. Solve it, they urge. Or we will, they threaten.
And now, out of the mouths of terrorists, comes the truth in all languages. It is the truth as we have known it, said in a language the world might, perhaps, finally understand. Senior Hamas spokesman Abdel Aziz Rantisi has made an offer to Israel. He wants Israel to withdraw from parts of Jerusalem, all of Gaza and all of the West Bank. We are to give up the Golan Heights and release all prisoners. And, if Israel will meet all of the Palestinian demands, Hamas will grant us a ceasefire. An end to suicide bombings. A cessation of violence. But only a figment of their imagination, another attempt to fool the world. It is a temporary cease-fire they offer. One that will last up to 10 years of peace but, Rantisi assures us, "not more than 10 years."
So, in 10 years time or less, weakened by borders we cannot defend, our capitol once again divided, with Syria once again towering over our northern cities, and a million Palestinians massing on the border of Gaza, we will be revisited with buses blowing up, cafes being bombed, and our cities again subjected to daily mortar attacks. This is the truth behind the Palestinian goals. A temporary solution until their final solution is achieved.
Rantisi understands that the Palestinians are not strong enough to destroy Israel in battle... yet. If we give all that we have been asked to give, it will not be enough and in less than 10 years, we will find ourselves where we are now, only weaker. Out of the mouths of terrorists, in a language the world can understand, comes the truth... if only the world will listen.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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