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Oslo
Redux - Another "Historic" Opportunity We Should Miss
by Naomi Ragen (February 4, 2005)
Caught in a bind of misconception and
delusion, the government of Israel signed agreements that resulted in the death
of a thousand civilians, and injuries to thousands more.
In the beginning, when the bombings first started, we were told that we would
proceed anyway, and not let the terrorists acts interrupt this "historic
opportunity" for peace. Again and again, we were told Arafat wasn't behind these
acts, so it was okay to honor agreements with him even as our children died in
the streets.
Each time there was a terrorist attack, I asked myself: have they had enough
yet? Enough self-delusion? And when nothing was changed, I knew the answer was
no. They needed more convincing. More dead.
And here we are, after everything we've been through, and it seems the answer to
"have they had enough yet" is still no.
Mr. Sharon is now planning a giant "good-will gesture" to the new government of
Abu Mazen, who demands that the jails let out the terrorists caught and jailed
at so much risk to our soldiers lives. And Mr. Sharon has agreed to release 900.
He's agreed to open the checkpoints. He's agreed to give over five West Bank
cities to the Palestinian Authority, Jericho first. All this in anticipation of
the "historic opportunity" of a meeting with Mubarak, King Abdullah and Abu
Mazen next week.
All of these things have been tried. Cities turned over to the Palestinian
Authority became bomb factories, and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in Jenin
alone trying to undo this "good will gesture." We tried opening the jails, and
the prisoners, freed, went back to the only life they knew, killing Israelis.
We tried opening checkpoints, and what we got were suicide
bombers in our pizza parlors.
Today, a 15 year-old Palestinian was caught near Nablus with a four-kilo suicide
belt. Grenades were thrown in Gaza at a military patrol, injuring two IDF
soldiers. The rocket attacks continue unabated at Gush Katif.
Nothing has changed in the Palestinian Authority. And apparently
nothing has changed in the self-delusion of our new coalition government.
As a citizen of Israel who voted with the majority of Israelis to remove Mr.
Peres and his Oslo junkies from power, it is with a sense of deep betrayal and
bitterness that I see my government preparing us for the next round of
slaughter, preparing once again to "experiment" with "historic opportunities" to
get another thousand Jews murdered.
What my government should be doing now is demanding all illegal weapons be
handed over, as the British government demanded of the IRA, and the Americans
did in Fallujah. It should be dismantling terror networks and demanding good
will gestures from the Palestinians to convince Israelis they can now be
trusted. One of these gestures could be the shutting down of the hate-filled
television and radio stations. Removing the hate-filled textbooks from the
classrooms. Demanding the turning over of all Hamas operatives. Instead, it does
none of these things, because once again we are in a fake peace process that
consists of one-sided Israeli concessions in exchange for more lame, baseless
generalities about cease-fires.
Yes, a historic opportunity indeed to make the same fatal mistakes again. And
when, I ask myself, will it finally be enough?
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