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Before Blaming Israel for Everything

[Cox News Service/Minneapolis Star Tribune] Tom Teepen - British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former President Jimmy Carter all declare that fixing the Muslim Middle East requires fixing the Israeli-Palestinian mess. But what's awry in the Middle East would still be awry if the UN had never created Israel. First Jews and then Israel have throughout provided the excuse used by the Middle East's satrapies, strongman states, and oil baronies for their failure to compose the region in the interests of the people who live there. A Palestinian-Israeli deal has lain to hand ever since the UN partitioned the old British Mandate in 1947. Arabs instead choose the romantic "armed struggle" over any Palestinian state whose creation doesn't kill off Israel. The last three Israeli prime ministers have supported the creation of a Palestinian state. But Israel withdrew from Lebanon and Gaza and got, in return, a terrorist Hizballah ministate in Lebanon and a terrorist Hamas government in Gaza. In the unlikely event that movement toward a broad Mideast bargain can be set in motion, it will be time to start asking Palestinians the question that always seems to be asked only of Israelis: What are you willing to do for peace?
2006-12-08 01:00:00
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