Incitement Is the Obstacle to Peace

Tobin makes it clear that it is a mistake for the West to ignore Arab incitement. He also points out that the West and the Arabs should “accept[s] that Israel has rights in the dispute over Jerusalem and the West Bank rather than just security concerns, as Obama indicated, would be an improvement”. He even takes a swipe at the even handed rhetoric of the West saying it is hypocritical given the fact that it ignores the incitement. I would add to that list the fact that it presses Israel to release prisoners and supports the PA demand that an agreement should be based on the ’67 lines. Furthermore the West aids and abets the PA’s violation of the Oslo Accords when supporting its encroachment of Area C lands. Even handed, my foot. Ted Belman

By Jonathan Tobin, COMMENTARY

During the course of his speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations, President Obama repeated his evenhanded mantra about the Middle East peace process. The short version of it is to say that if you want Israel to survive you also have to support a Palestinian state. Both sides of the conflict have a right to live “in dignity and security” and both sides should be urged to make compromises and accept peace. But the problem with this formulation, which was repeated by many other world leaders at the UN podium, is that it reflects a false moral equivalence between the two sides. That false balance was reflected in the events last weekend that led to the murders of two Israeli soldiers in terrorist incidents.

As the Times of Israel’s David Horovitz wrote yesterday, these were not the acts of isolated extremists trying to undermine the peaceful intentions of Palestinian leaders. Responsibility for one of the murders was taken by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the military wing of the Fatah Party led by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, who was praised by President Obama for engaging in talks with Israel. The PA condemned neither killing. But even if it did issue some statement of regret, it would be pure hypocrisy since such acts are encouraged every day by the PA’s official media and education system which continues to laud terrorism and to treat murders of Jews and Israelis as the duty of every Palestinian.

Yet neither the Obama administration nor anyone at the UN ever bothers to point out that there is only one side in this contract that devotes its resources to inciting hatred and violence against their antagonists: the Palestinians. Until that imbalance is corrected, all the evenhanded rhetoric heard at the UN or anywhere else will be a waste of time.

Even dedicated peace processors like longtime State Department official Dennis Ross have long acknowledged that the principal failure of those pushing the implementation of the Oslo Accords was their decision to ignore Palestinian incitement. Back in the 1990s, discussions of how the Palestinians were laying the groundwork for a new campaign of terrorism was considered irrelevant or a distraction of the big picture in which Israel was being pressured to make more concessions to satisfy the Palestinians. That fatal mistake was Oslo’s undoing. But 20 years after the ecstatic reaction to the signing on the White House Lawn, President Obama is making the same mistake when he and Secretary of State John Kerry ignore the Palestinian campaign of hate.

Anyone who expects peace talks to succeed or to be meaningful when the same party that is supposedly negotiating with Israel is encouraging its people to treat terrorism against Jews as an act of heroism is deluding themselves. Allowing the PA to get away with saying one thing in English to the Western press and another in Arabic in their official media and school texts is a formula that will ensure that the mistakes of Oslo will be repeated.

The path to peace is not as simple as merely saying both sides have rights–though any formulation that accepts that Israel has rights in the dispute over Jerusalem and the West Bank rather than just security concerns, as Obama indicated, would be an improvement. But what is truly necessary is for the West to make it plain to Abbas and the PA that it cannot go on subsidizing terrorists like the Aqsa Brigades or eulogizing them when murderers are released from Israeli jails at the behest of the U.S. So long as that is the rule, it won’t matter what happens in the talks that Kerry has orchestrated with such great effort. Settlements can be negotiated and, as Israel has shown in the past, surrendered in the hope of real peace (a hope that has so far been disappointed). But the conflict will not end so long as the Palestinians and the rest of the Muslim and Arab world think there’s nothing wrong with killing Jews. If President Obama really wants to advance the cause of peace, he should focus on that point the next time he rises to the UN podium.

September 26, 2013 | 28 Comments »

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28 Comments / 28 Comments

  1. Bill Narvey Said:

    Bernard, it is myopic to say:
    it is Israels fault and Israels responsibility; we must stop looking elsewhere.

    Is there any reason to take this statement seriously, or should I accept its ludicrousness without question?

  2. yamit82 Said:

    you know how to convince him to agree

    Not this cowboy, John Russell looks like TX grand-father. and a little like TX,especially when one say new fridge or a Ram truck or Escalade.

  3. @ honeybee:

    Thanks , chronic strep infection in the legs. 4-6 times a year.

    I’m sure if you were really dead set on a new fridge, you know how to convince him to agree.

  4. @ honeybee:

    Been doing it for years but this time I slept too long with fever and it exploded. Took a plastic shelf with it. Think I’ll buy a new fridge soon.

  5. honeybee Said:

    Depends on who scrubs your back. Had asthma attack,full of drugs.

    I am to see you can think for your self..[an put a coke in a freezer],,I know better then that!!! I also know better then to carry an over ripe watermellon in a car trunk,,but Iam just a silly woman

    Been doing it for years but this time I slept too long with fever and it exploded. Took a plastic shelf with it. Think I’ll buy a new fridge soon.

  6. honeybee Said:

    Depends on who scrubs your back. Had asthma attack,full of drugs.

    I have recurring strep infection in my legs. Managed to avoid high fever this time.honeybee Said:

    I am to see you can think for your self..[an put a coke in a freezer],,I know better then that!!! I also know better then to carry an over ripe watermellon in a car trunk,,but Iam just a silly woman

    Been doing it for years but this time I slept too long with fever and it exploded. Took a plastic shelf with it. Think I’ll buy a new fridge soon.

  7. honeybee Said:

    Depends on who scrubs your back. Had asthma attack,full of drugs.

    I have recurring strep infection in my legs. Managed to avoid high fever this time.

  8. honeybee Said:

    Depends on who scrubs your back. Had asthma attack,full of drugs.

    Me too since Sat. I have recurring strep infection in my legs. Managed to avoid high fever this time.

  9. Bernard, it is myopic to say:

    it is Israels fault and Israels responsibility; we must stop looking elsewhere.

    I figured you would know better, but then again, I understand your frustration that probably prompted that comment.

  10. NormanF Said:

    Netanyahu has decided he can live with it and also parley with Arabs who hate every Jew on earth at the same time, too!

    Don’t know about tomorrow, but so far the results aren’t bad: all the enemies in chaos and tied up, hamas leashed and screwed, egypt kicking hamas butt, gadaffi no longer supporting anything,egypt busy fighting hamas and sinai terrorists, syria tied up with defending itself, hezbullah spread thin in syria and lebanon, iraq jihadis fighting each other,Jihadis in syria asking for Israels help, GCC looking for Israels help. Israel is always faced with war but the diagnosis is that Israel would be in a better position today than yesterday. tomorrow is always another day but don’t forget to count todays blessings.

  11. yamit82 Said:

    A Clear message re: Iran

    great song. I think the GCC watched this video and got the message regarding Israel in the news. I think they realize they are the prime piece of meat ready to be eaten. Also, west worried about its oil supply from the gulf states? Perhaps that is why the Israel pal negotiations(9 months, 6 left).

  12. Bill Narvey Said:

    Netanyahu during is address to the joint session of congress in 2011 did dare to say that J & S rightly belonged to Israel, but Israel would be very generous towards to the Palestinians in relinquishing Israel’s rights to J & S in favor of them, if the a real, stable and enduring TSS peace agreement could be reached.

    therefore, he claimed and relinquished in the same statement. HMMM????? the claim appears to have been “lost” in the shuffle, disappeared, gpne, non existent; just as it was in the moment before he made the claim and the moment after he made the claim. I would call it a non claim, as if I never heard it. the moment came and went and it was as always.
    My point was simply that if Israel does not claim it then why expect anyone else to mention it. you bring up one sentence in a momentary passing, how does that change what I said? My point remains the same: it is Israels fault and Israels responsibility; we must stop looking elsewhere.

  13. “Such conflict no doubt would have led to bitter acrimony between Israel and the U.S. and Israel could have seen a weakening of U.S. support for Israel in any number of ways.”

    Have you not been watching the news? Do you understand what John Kerry is now asking of the State of Israel? Please define “U.S. support for Israel in any number of ways.”

  14. yamit82 Said:

    The Peace negotiations are a distraction and a diversion from the the real issue in our region and the world:

    A Clear message re: Iran
    The day After

    Between Iran and Jew-hating Arabs, pick your poison. My dear friend Yamit, do you prefer the rope or hemlock?

  15. yamit82 Said:

    The only solution

    The World after Iran gets the Bomb

    Netanyahu has decided he can live with it and also parley with Arabs who hate every Jew on earth at the same time, too!

  16. Bernard, Netanyahu during is address to the joint session of congress in 2011 did dare to say that J & S rightly belonged to Israel, but Israel would be very generous towards to the Palestinians in relinquishing Israel’s rights to J & S in favor of them, if the a real, stable and enduring TSS peace agreement could be reached.

    Netanyahu has since reverted to couching Israel’s position in terms of security.

    If Netanyahu and prior Israeli leaders had pushed the position that Israel had the superior claim at law to all of J & S, it would have directly contradicted the Palestinian position which would infuriate them and make it impossible to have any peace discussions and it would further put Israel in direct conflict with the U.S. position advocated by Obama and past presidents that aligns with the Palestinian claims.

    Such conflict no doubt would have led to bitter acrimony between Israel and the U.S. and Israel could have seen a weakening of U.S. support for Israel in any number of ways.

    Israel, framing her position only in terms of security is thus playing it safe to ensure as much U.S. support as possible.

  17. saying both sides have rights–though any formulation that accepts that Israel has rights in the dispute over Jerusalem and the West Bank rather than just security concerns, as Obama indicated, would be an improvement.

    I have never heard a GOI proclaim that Israel has rights over the west bank other than security so why would any one else? I wonder if we will ever hear Israel make such a proclamation?

  18. ‘Elders’ urge Myanmar to address religious strife
    http://news.yahoo.com/elders-urge-myanmar-address-religious-strife-104047496.html

    Jimmy Carter and two other former world leaders who are part of a group known as “The Elders” wrapped up a visit to Myanmar on Thursday with calls to address Buddhist-led violence against minority Muslims and end impunity for the perpetrators.

    a good example of a topsy-turvy world; this indicates who has bought the low life pieces of shit who have appointed themselves as “Elders”. The world is replete with daily muslim, head choppings,throat slitting,honor,killings,etc. and they have taken a plane to complain about what: one of the isolated world anti muslim events??? A group of with less credibility than carnival barkers. Carter is the lead whore. Fat bank accounts all.

  19. “But the problem with this formulation, which was repeated by many other world leaders at the UN podium, is that it reflects a false moral equivalence between the two sides.”

    Exactly. Well said. The enemies of the Jewish people (those who demand that Israel’s Jews play nice with those who intend to murder every living Jew in the Middle East) have no intention of ever acknowledging publicly the barbarity of the Muslim population of the Middle East. You can’t talk to a shotgun. And to read this crap again and again, as if someday some Einstein is going to invent the magic formula for “peace in the Middle East” and harmony between Jew and Muslim. Not going to happen. How do you befriend someone who is dedicated from the time they are born to hating you? There is no denouement to this dilemma, never will be so long as Islam remains the preponderant religion in the Middle East. So long as these idiots follow the anti-Jewish tenets of this fucked up ideology there will remain a chasm of [Muslim] hatred between Jew and Muslim. This imbroglio (so long as the world regards Jew and Muslim as moral equivalents) provides for lots of incentive for journalists and pundits, but that’s all it does. It does not get any better. It does not get any more salubrious, no matter how many articles are written on the subject. Personally, I am so tired of this bullshit discussion and the “peace talks” that have been going on for how long now. All this chatter is a waste of the world’s time because you have one side who are totally fucking retarded and the other side the most intelligent people on the face of the Earth, and the “intellectuals” of the world trying to make a healthy mix of them. Not going to work, ever.

    The only chance there is at healing this wound in the Earth is to kick these fucking Islamic flagellants out of Israel and be done with them. Enough of this noise the journalists and the politicians pretend is actually going somewhere. It’s going nowhere. “Without a vision the people perish.”