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Telling It Like It Is

(National Review) Max Singer - Telling the truth to Arab governments is the best way for the U.S. to pursue peace, and it also meets the needs of the current U.S. fight against militant Islam. The U.S. should say clearly: Israel is a legitimate state based on law and justice. The Jewish people have ancient roots in Palestine. The League of Nations established the international authority for a Jewish homeland in Palestine - and its decision was formally endorsed by the U.S. and never superseded by the UN. UN Security Council Resolution 242 does not require that Israel relinquish all territory acquired in 1967. Israel is not occupying Palestinian land. It is occupying disputed territory to which it has a substantial claim and which was never under Palestinian sovereignty, while trying in good faith to negotiate about the disposition of that land as required by Resolution 242. Israeli neighborhoods and settlements in Jerusalem and the disputed territories are not illegal. Palestinian refugees do not have a "right of return." The Arab interpretation of UN General Assembly Resolution 194 is incorrect. They must be resettled like all other refugees in the world. Jerusalem as a city is central to Israel and to Judaism. The claims and interests of Palestinians and Israel in Jerusalem are profoundly asymmetric. The deliberate killings of innocent Israelis is terrorism. The Palestinian/Arab definition that anything done to "resist occupation" is not terrorism undercuts the fight against international terrorism. The only hope for peace is to compel the Arab world to give up its illegitimate weapons: terrorism and the denial of resettlement to Palestinian refugees.
2002-11-21 00:00:00
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