The mess of our making

Arlene Kushner
Israel Opinion/Ynet
11 May '10

In honor of Yom Yerushalayim, a very special video - Jerusalem Day: Reflections by Rabbi Yisrael Ariel

The picture is not pretty with regard to the “proximity talks,” and there is cause only for pessimism. We must ask ourselves how we got into this situation — which evolved over decades, with various Israeli governments having made some disastrous mistakes — and how we find our way out.

The first mistake was in 1967, when we acquired control of Judea, Samaria and Gaza and did not annex these areas (although ultimately we placed eastern Jerusalem and the Golan under civil law). The Arabs in Judea and Samaria expected to be sent packing. After all, that is what Jordan did to us in 1949, when they made the areas they acquired Judenrein. But, no, big sports that we were, we said, stay...

Then jump to 1993, when we made the next disastrous mistake in signing on to Oslo, which committed us to negotiating a final status for the Palestinian Arabs living in Judea and Samaria, and Gaza. Actually this was one long series of disastrous mistakes, melded together.

What we did was to concede, in theory, some notion of the right of the Palestinian Arabs to live on part of our land - or to claim part as theirs. We had embraced the "land for peace" concept, which turned out to be a farce.

Incredibly - because they were thought to be the ones who had ultimate influence and could wage peace - the terrorists of the PLO were brought by the Rabin government from Tunis to Jericho and Gaza, and ultimately Ramallah. But “peace” was not their agenda.

As interaction via Oslo progressed, we cut the Arabs slack repeatedly: not actually holding them to their commit¬ments, but sailing along as if they had honored them. The issue of incitement, which is front page news these days, serves as example.

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