03 June '13..
Peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinians could be signed on paper, but as long as the Palestinians still educate their youth to hate Israelis, the peace "will blow up in our faces," Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon said Monday.
Giving a security assessment briefing at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, his first as defense minister, Ya'alon also said that the Palestinian Authority's threats to walk away from the two-state solution should not be taken seriously, as it was also not in their interests to land up with a binational state.
"The crux of the matter is education in the Palestinian Authority, and if I open a PA textbook and see that Israel doesn't appear on the map, or that Tel Aviv is designated as a settlement, and when a 3-year-old boy is brought up to admire suicide bombers -- you can sign any agreement and in the end it will blow up in your face," Ya'alon said. "All that fuss over the idea that if the Palestinians throw away their keys, that the PA will collapse? The Palestinians don't want that to happen. It's the same as far as a binational state. They also have no interest in that happening."
Speaking about prospects for peace with the Palestinians, Ya'alon said that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was touring around the region with the intention of giving a boost to the diplomatic process.
"At this stage, the Palestinian side is making it difficult for them to engage," Ya'alon said.
"We're ready to begin the process immediately without preconditions, and discuss all the issues, just not those concerning territory. We don't want to rule the Palestinians. We're ready to advance the diplomatic process, which [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas is avoiding by setting preconditions. We are unwilling to pay a price just for them to come to the table. As long as what is being discussed is territory, Abbas is interested. As long as we're not interested in entering talks based entirely on territory, he's doing his best to avoid [the diplomatic process]. I supported the Oslo [accords], but the second I saw that our very existence was in question, I started to have doubts."
Ya'alon said the terror threat in Judea and Samaria was very real, and what was staving it off was the IDF's freedom to act.
"Since April last year, we've seen Palestinians go out onto the streets, initially against the economic situation, and corruption in the PA. Only later did they direct it against us," Ya'alon said. "There is a particularly severe phenomenon, and that's stone throwing and incendiary attacks. IDF Central Command has bolstered its troops, and has deployed more quality forces. The IDF's function is to deal with these violent phenomena, and that's what's going to happen."
As for Israel's image abroad, Ya'alon said, "We are being attacked over the issue of [West Bank] settlements. If we're talking about peace and coexistence, why are the Palestinians demanding territory free of Jews? We can come up with a lot of ideas, so I suggest we don't focus only the settlements."
Meanwhile, a senior U.S. official disputed the notion that Kerry was naive and said the Obama administration was prepared to abandon the effort if it judged that the Israelis and Palestinians were not serious about pursuing peace.
"That's what shows he's not naive," said the official of Kerry's willingness to pull back if he did not see both sides as ready. "There's too many things going on in the world ... You could bang your head on this for years and years and years."
Meanwhile, Abbas told Saudi newspaper Al-Watan that the PA "would not return to negotiations" unless Israel agreed to a settlement freeze and accepted a two-state solution based on pre-1967 borders. He said Israeli intransigence on this issue was preventing the diplomatic process from moving forward.
The PA president told Al-Watan he was committed to east Jerusalem -- captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War -- as the future capital of the Palestinian state, and that there was "no room to compromise" on this.
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=9725
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