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What Is Killing the Prospect of Mideast Peace?

[The Australian] Janet Albrechtsen - To spend a week in Israel is to begin to understand that this country is generations away from peace with the Palestinians. Sunday: A Kassam rocket is launched from northern Gaza into Sderot, an Israeli town within 3 km of the Hamas stronghold. Monday: Three more rockets are fired into Sderot, which has endured thousands of rocket attacks in recent years. The Israeli government has blocked access points to Gaza until the rockets stop. Tuesday: Three more Kassam rockets slam into the fields of the Negev. A young woman, who has lost relatives to the rocket attacks from Gaza, tells me, "We don't count the rockets anymore." Wednesday: Two Kassam rockets land south of Ashkelon, a town well beyond the Gaza border, on the coast towards Tel Aviv. Thursday: The Palestinian Authority runs advertisements in Israeli newspapers detailing Fatah's commitment to a peace plan. It is a meaningless commitment. How can Israel negotiate peace with Palestinian interlocutors in Fatah, who have no control over Gaza, where more than 40% of Palestinians live? An entire generation of Palestinian children is being raised on a full diet of hate education, on jihad and anti-Semitism. This is the long-term hurdle to peace in this generation, and the next. Look at the geography books for Palestinian children that encourage children to see no Israel, books that feature maps of Israel in the colors of the Palestinian flag, and described as Palestine. When the next generation of leaders is taught from childhood that Israel does not exist, how is future negotiation possible? The irony is that this hate education is funded by the West, by countries that pour money into the PA, who use it to glorify terrorism and to twist young minds against Israel, and peace.
2008-11-27 01:00:00
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