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Howard Galganov manages the Promar Media Group, an advertising agency that specializes in the hospitality industry. He was the host of a popular Montreal radio talk show and a cofounder of the Quebec Political Action Committee (QPAC) that promoted equal citizenship for Quebec's minorities. He now lives with his wife on a small horse farm in southeastern Ontario. More articles by Galganov and information about his book, Bastards can be found on his .
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By Howard Galganov
February 16, 2005
When rockets and mortars fell on Israel one day last week (and again today), the Palestinian Authority and the rest of the world asked Israel not to respond. They would take care of it.
This is the same line spoken from the beginning of the Oslo Accords in 1993, as Israel was expected to hand over territory to the Palestinian Authority and pull back their troops while under fire.
Don't worry Israel: the Palestinian Authority will take care of it.
That turned out not to be true. The Palestinian Authority didn't take care of it then. And they will not -- sufficiently -- take care of it now.
Despite Yasser Arafat and the same Palestinians who are still in power, Israel played by the rules while Palestinian "militants" murdered Jews nonetheless. And during this debacle, the world demanded that Israel show restraint.
No matter what Mahmoud Abbas says about wanting peace, and how much he smiles as he shakes the hand of Ariel Sharon; the truth is that he and virtually every other Middle Eastern Arab wants Israel dead.
He accepts peace with Israel not because he wants to, but because Ariel Sharon has left him no other choice.
When Prime Minister Sharon responded to Palestinian TERROR with a fusillade of retribution and preventative military strikes, the murdering Palestinians yelled foul. But to their tremendous shock, the usual suspects didn't really listen.
When the Israelis placed Yasser Arafat in a jail (Ramallah) of his own making, Arafat and the do-nothing do-gooders yelled foul. But no one really cared. Most world bodies paid lip-service. But not more than that.
And when the Israelis started to build the Security Barrier to keep the Palestinians out, much of the world yelled foul. But this time it was the Israelis who didn't care.
And when Ariel Sharon decided to disengage unilaterally from all of Gaza and some of the West Bank, the Palestinians lost their most legitimate reason to complain.
Unlike the rest of the world which was content watching this Middle Eastern disgrace as Jews continued to be murdered, Israel had enough and did what a responsible nation should do.
Israel fought back. And that's why Mahmoud Abbas smiles when he shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Abbas has no other choice.
Arafat's legacy and the sycophants who surrounded him (Abbas included) is one of civil disaster. He created a monster where his society was built on violence and corruption.
His idea of education was to teach Palestinian children how to hate with every fiber in their young bodies.
Arafat also created a para-military system of gun-lords under his orchestrated monetary thumb, where no one ruled everything, and everyone ruled something.
And even though he's dead and gone, his putrid legacy lives on.
The hate is still there in the children and adults he so effectively indoctrinated. The gun-lords are still fighting to maintain their turf. And the infrastructure he allowed to disintegrate is not getting any better.
At best, Abbas will have a Palestine ruled by gangsters and thugs he will barely be able to control.
At worst, he will face a civil war, not because of anything Israel has done or will do, but rather, because hatred of the Israeli "occupiers" will no longer be the glue that will keep this horrid Palestinian concoction together.
Abbas and the Palestinians ran out of highway in their fight against the Jews of Israel. And now they will have to govern the barbarians of their own making. And a new fight will begin.
If Abbas steps in and attacks the Palestinian attackers of Israel, he will become a target of Palestinian murderers himself. If he does not step in, Israel will just continue building the "Wall" while they start killing Palestinian TERRORISTS again.
My money is on civil war.
I see the Palestinians fighting amongst each other. I see Gaza becoming a war zone where the Egyptians might step in because the Palestinian Authority will not be able to. I see the West Bank making some kind of accommodation with Israel. And I see the Palestinians who are presently living in "refugee" camps remaining perpetual cannon fodder for the "cause".
For Israel; there will be limited continuing violence from the Palestinians since the Palestinians will be too busy fighting each other. The entire territory that might become Palestine will continue to be an international poverty center. And the world will eventually lose interest in the plight of the Palestinians and what they want.
Israel will be fine with what will transpire from the handshake with Mahmoud Abbas, because the Israelis know who they are dealing with and what the Palestinian Authority has to deal with as well.
Israel has survived against the greatest odds, not because the Israelis have been lucky. But because the Israelis have been vigilant and have learned from their mistakes.
The Israelis will not make the same mistake with Mahmoud Abbas in 2005 at Sharm El Sheik, as they did with Yasser Arafat in 1993 at Oslo.
And where the world always pointed a finger at the Israelis for the shortcomings of the Palestinians, that finger will now be pointing at the Palestinians where it should have always been pointed.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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