The indefatigable Shimon Peres stated recently that Fateh/PLO is the only element of the PA that is capable of confronting terrorism. In order to create Palestinian motivation to combat terrorism, he further said, living conditions for the residents of the territories must be improved and a political horizon must be presented. The very next day, Fateh issued Communique No. 1 urging increased armed attacks. The very next day.
Even a cursory review of the Fateh website reveals that they support terror. This is yet another example of the blindness of the promoters of the Oslo Process. The underlying premise of Peres, Yossi Beilin and Uri Savir is avoidance of the realities of Palestinian society.
Reviewing the past nine years of "Oslo", the conclusions are fairly simple. Yassir Arafat and his fellow negotiators never intended to seek a compromise in any form, qualitative or quantitative. Their expectations were that all of the territories administered by Israel would become a Palestinian state and in all likelihood, Peres, Beilin and Savir most probably knew that fact. That they have never apologized nor expressed any form of contrition for the way the Palestinians have reneged on the process is an indication that they were fully aware of what they were doing: creating a Palestinian state that would ultimately replace Israel. They may have sought to disguise the outcome of the process but Peres, Beilin, et al., knew from the outset that it was a straight line from "Gaza-Jericho First" to "And Last, Israel".
Palestinian society, ever since the Mandate days, has proven incapable of defending itself from fanatic nationalists and extreme religious rabble-rousers. Although their economic status has improved, their education level has increased and their ability to receive up-to-date and reliable communications is quite modernized, the behavior of the majority of Arabs today living the territories is unchanged. Just as they were manipulated and exploited by Haj Amin El-Husseini, just as they were convinced to support the gangs of Sheikh Izz A-Din Al-Qassam and Fawzi al-Qawaqji during the 1930s and just as they were active during the main fedayeen period of 1951-56, the Palestinian peasant and city-dweller has let himself be fodder for irrational violence.
Too many mosques are hotbeds of terror and too many imams espouse violence. The theology of the Jew as ?dhimmi?, a barely tolerated minority, is not reconciled with the fact that the Jew has returned to his homeland. Even the Quran itself approves of the Jews? return, as it is written there: "Dwell securely in the Promised Land" (17:104) and "O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has assigned unto you" (5:20-21). Too often the message is barely disguised anti-Semitism in which the characteristics of the Jews include mischievousness (Mufsidun), a people bearing the curse of Allah and being a nation of indignity and disobedience. The phenomenon of homicidal suicide bombers will not be erased by improved living conditions but by ideological detoxification.
D-Day is fast approaching for Yassir Arafat and the Palestinian leadership. It is the responsibility of those countries that pressured Israel to accept the Oslo process to now pressure the Palestinian Authority. They must be made to understand that either they change direction or they will lose all ability of ever achieving any of the goals they set for themselves over 40 years ago. D-Day for Arafat is that day when he adopts a four-pronged program of denouncing, disarming, disbanding and democratizing.
Denounce: Arafat must denounce, publicly and unequivocally, the use of terror. His incitement over the airwaves, in school textbooks and through the ?narrative history? that has glorified the terrorists of yesteryear, must stop. He must assert his authority to counter the trend that he himself encouraged.
Disarm: Arafat must disarm those he has supplied with weapons legally, via the Oslo Accords, and illegally, via ships such as the Karine A. He must take away what he distributed, recount what he has stockpiled under supervision and then limit the arms to a small number of security personnel engaged in anti-terror operations. The international community has to insist on full demilitarization.
Disband: Arafat must then disband the dissident gangs he has tolerated for his own purposes. The Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, the Tanzim etc., must be dissolved.
Democratize: Arafat must democratize his regime, reform his administration and apply rules of equality and accountability. He must halt the embezzlement of donor states' funds. He must stop the abuse of human and civil rights. He needs to establish an independent judiciary and transparency of the actions of government officials.
Will this day ever come? I doubt it. Arafat never intended that there be peace. He has proven to be incapable of tolerating any aspect of Zionism. But that is not the point. This D-Day plan is the yardstick that Israel and its supporters must insist that Arafat and his successors measure up to. This is the plan that our friends in the U.S. Congress and in other civilized countries should be urged to adopt. As Jews, we should never allow for a double standard, especially one that permits our enemy to act with impunity.
Arafat's D-Day will be a day of deliverance as well.
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Yisrael Medad is a longtime political activist. He lives in Shilo.