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P. David Hornik P. David Hornik is a freelance writer and translator living in Jerusalem whose work has appeared in many Israeli, Jewish, and political publications. Reach him at:
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By P. David Hornik
December 21, 2004
The common denominator of the road map and other notions of Israeli-Palestinian peace is Israeli land concessions. Although the territory between the Jordan and the Mediterranean is only fifty miles wide, such visions assume that Israel and a sovereign Arab entity will coexist comfortably in this small space. President Bush says he's determined to bring this about during his current term.
Not so long ago, before the Oslo era, the word "demilitarized" was automatically attached to the phrase "Palestinian state" by all those, including Israeli left-wingers and foreign liberals, who favored that option in good faith. They readily conceded that an armed Palestinian state abutting Israeli population centers would be too dangerous for Israel.
Today, though, the Palestinian Authority is already heavily militarized, well beyond what the various Oslo agreements stipulated, and no one seriously believes that in the process of attaining statehood it would disarm itself.
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It will be enough for them to fire one rocket every two weeks into Ra'anana or Kfar Saba and one rocket every few weeks into Jerusalem to make life unbearable for all Israelis."
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Ya'acov Amidror
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Anyone who today seriously considers the "two-state solution" and genuinely has Israel's best interests at heart will want to have a look at a new website, Weapon Survey, which gives an overview of the already-existing weapons in the Palestinian Authority and the illegal ways in which many of them were brought there. The site also gives daily coverage of what are in fact ongoing, daily incidents of armed Palestinian attacks on Israeli communities and soldiers, as well as references to more extensive, expert discussions of weaponry and security.
Today, Israelis in most parts of Israel live with the threat of suicide bombings that occur in public places like buses and restaurants. Even when living with such a threat, there is still some sense of control over one's life -- one can choose where to go and where not to (less so if one depends on public transportation).
But a threat of missiles and rockets (which can and have landed anywhere including private homes) fired from the West Bank into Israeli towns and cities would be a different matter. As Dore Gold has noted: "The militarization of Palestinian-controlled areas [in the West Bank] could pose a strategic threat to Israel, and not just the kind of small-scale tactical problem that Israel has confronted throughout its history." As Maj.-Gen. (res.) Ya'acov Amidror points out: "The Palestinians don't even need to fire off that many [Qassams] to completely change the fabric of life in the country. It will be enough for them to fire one rocket every two weeks into Ra'anana or Kfar Saba and one rocket every few weeks into Jerusalem to make life unbearable for all Israelis."
Among other things, Weapon Survey gives you an overview of the missiles, rockets, and mortars already possessed by the Palestinian Authority and the uses they're already making of them.
It also explains how, even in a period when Israel ostensibly had military control of the areas, the Palestinians have been able to heavily arm themselves with smuggled weapons. Even with Israeli soldiers patrolling the Philadelphi Route, the border between Gaza and the Sinai, the Palestinians have used an extensive tunnel network to smuggle RPG rockets and launchers, explosives, Kalashnikov rifles, and other weaponry into the Strip, with key Egyptian cooperation.
Most alarmingly, Weapon Survey gives details about the chemical and biological weaponry that has already been developed, smuggled into, and used against Israel by the PA. An armed, hostile Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza would pose more than a threat of making Israeli life unbearable with missile attacks; it would pose a threat to Israel's survival itself.
Most of us are not weapons experts, but, on the other hand, we're attracted by visions of peace and amity. The facts on the ground are often less appealing than the pictures painted by statesmen and optimistic advocates. "Goodwill" becomes questionable if it persistently ignores troubling, alarming facts of the kind that Weapon Survey makes available.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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