All day yesterday I kept thinking of my conversation with the late PM Rabin OBM,a few days after they ANNOUNCED Oslo.This conversation is documented in "Journey Through The Minefields"
In answer to my question as to why he resurrected the PLO in Tunis and not wait three years, and deal with local Arabs,he answered:
1 In three years Hizbollah will overcome the Lebanese, and Israel cannot deal with Hizbollah
2 In three years,Hamas will overcome the PLO and Israel can deal with Arafat and not Hamas.
When our small group including Senator Harris Wofford( D-Penn) left the PM we visited with Palestinian leaders in the American Consulate in Jerusalem. In a state of Euphoria,they calmly announced that between then and the actual signing of the Accord they would wipe out Hamas. Because they were not a State, they could get away with such a move without condemnation.(which Israel could not do).
The elections this week prove that Rabin,Peres and Beilin were ( and still are) wrong.
The Hamas are but two heads of a terrorist lifestyle and weltaanschung-both dedicated to destroying Israel.Hamas is more open and less sophisticated in uttering their hate.The PA are corrupt and leaderless.
From day 1 we have never seen an educational campaign by the PA to inculcate the need for a permanent peace and 2 State solution.
We have never seen a single terrorist arrested or disarmed (or extradited as per previous agreements)
We have never seen a single meeting of the anti-incitement committee…and so on
Rabin miscalculated that the PA would succeed-However Arafat never wanted a two State solution.
Combined with their corruption ,the PA were destined to fail once Abbas took over. He is a poor leader, and no less a terrorist than Arafat, even if he never fired a weapon.
I am deeply concerned that that the EU,UN and some left –leaning politicians in this Country, will apply pressure on Olmert and Israel to hold first informal, and then formal talks wth Hamas.
Our task is to keep the pressure on the Administration not to yield to a terror State.Let us be realistic-Oslo and the Road-Map are dead.
SECURITY , SECURITY and fortitude are the key words as Israel must muster strength to face both Hamas and Iran.
