Photo Credit:
The list of PA violations of Oslo goes on and on. There is the incontestable failure to prevent incitement (codified at Annex 1, Art. II, 35); harassment of suspected former collaborators (codified at Art. XVI); failure to provide information on Israeli MIAs (codified at Art. XXVIII of the Interim Agreement and at Art. XIX of the Gaza-Jericho Agreement); the failure to change the PLO Covenant (codified at Art. XXXII), a failure that means that the PA (let alone Hamas) has still not renounced its intent to annihilate the Jewish State; the abuse of human rights and the rule of law (codified at Art. XIX); the failure to control PApolice activity in eastern Jerusalem (codified at Annex I of both agreements – the Gaza-Jericho Accord and the Interim Agreement – which carefully delineate the areas in which the Palestinian security forces may operate).
There are other PA/Hamas violations of Oslo – any one of which could comprise an entire magazine article. They include unilaterally halting security cooperation with Israel in contradiction to Art. II (2) of Annex I to the Oslo Accords; failing to coordinate movement of Palestinian police (under Art. V (6) of Annex I to Oslo 2; the movement of Palestinian policemen between Area A and Area B, or in Area C, must be coordinated in advance with Israeli security officials; detaining Israeli citizens (according to Art. XI (4d) of Annex I to the Oslo Accord: “Israelis shall under no circumstances be apprehended or placed in custody or prison by Palestinian authorities.”); failing to enforce restrictions on Visitor’s Permits (under Art. 28 (13b) of Annex III to the Oslo 2 Accords, “The Palestinian side will notify Israel of any extension.”); and constructing, without authorization, a Gaza strip sea port and the Dahaniye airport (the first in violation of Art. XIV (4) of Annex I to the Oslo 2 Accords – the second in violation of Art. XIII (3) of Annex I to the Oslo 2 Accords).
Generally, both Israeli and Arab proponents of “peace” feel that, for Israel, the Oslo agreements and Road Map represent a pretty good bargain. Ignoring the entire history of genocide against Jews that led to Israel’s statehood in the first place, they neglect to consider that this “bargain” will ultimately involve nothing less than another Jewish Diaspora. But there is no more contrived component of the pro-Peace Process argument than this one: Accommodation (surrender) to the Palestinians opens the way to subsequent peace treaties with Syria and Lebanon. Along with peace treaties already signed with Egypt and Jordan, these new agreements will leave Israel in a state of peace – for the very first time – with all its immediate neighbors. However, looking at (1) the aforementioned map of Palestine (which incorporates the current State of Israel), (2) the aforelisted PA/Hamas violations of Oslo – especially the refusal even to abrogate a codification of genocidal intent – and (3) the incessant Arab and Islamic calls for Jihad, is there any reason to believe that Israel’s enemies will now subordinate their overriding doctrinal and religious expectations to the diametrically opposite expectations of international law?
Advertisement
There is no greater power in all world politics, especially in the Islamic Middle East, than power over death.
More precisely, regarding these doctrinal and religious expectations, it will be helpful to consider the following hadith, an Arabic term which refers to the oral tradition by means of which sayings or deeds attributed to the Prophet Mohammed have been handed down to Muslim believers: “Verily, the word of God teaches us, and we implicitly believe it, that for a Muslim to kill a Jew, or for him to be killed by a Jew, ensures him an immediate entry into Heaven and into the august presence of God Almighty.”
Have Israeli and American supporters of the current Road Map forgotten that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had defended his 1979 Treaty with Israel in the Arab world by identifying it as no more than a tactical expedient? President Sadat claimed that the Treaty was “founded upon Islamic rules, because it arises from a position of strength, after the holy war and victory Egypt achieved on 10th Ramadan 1393″(October 1973). Generally overlooked, the Treaty provides a legally permissible rationale for abrogation by Egypt. A minute to Article VI, paragraph 5, of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty stipulates: “It is agreed to by the Parties that there is no assertion that this Treaty prevails over other Treaties or agreements, or that other Treaties or agreements prevail over this Treaty.”
In keeping with standard practice throughout the Arab/Islamic world, Al Da’wa, The Mission, a prominent Islamic publication, has identified the status of Israel with the status of the individual Jew. Here, as we have noted earlier about authoritative Arab/Islamic views in general, Israel is merely rendered as the Jew in macrocosm: “The race (sic) is corrupt at the root, full of duplicity, and the Muslims have everything to lose in seeking to deal with them; they must be exterminated.”
Following are some earlier statements by senior PA officials, all of which were flagrantly anti-Jewish, and several of which incorporated sordid anti-Jewish stereotypes. They complement the earlier-cited Arab/Islamic quotations about Jews and Judaism: (1) “Five Zionist Jews are running the policy of the United States in the Middle East: Madeleine Albright, William Cohen, Dennis Ross, Miller and Martin Indyk. It is not possible that the American nation, which consists of 250 million people (sic), can not find anyone other than five Zionist Jews to conduct the peace process with the Palestinians.” PA Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein, Yediot Ahronot, April 13, 1997 (2) “We are fighting and struggling with an enemy who is Shylock. We must know that he is Shylock.” Othman Abu Gharbiya, PA Chairman Arafat’s Adviser on National Political Guidance, in a radio interview, Voice of Palestine, March 15, 1997 (3) “The Jewish lobby is working very hard to jeopardize the process.” Former PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, in an interview, BeirutDaily Star, March 25, 1997, Agence France Presse, March 26, 1997 (4) “Israeli authorities…infected by injection 300 Palestinian children with the HIV virus during the years of the intifada.” Palestinian representative Nabil Ramlawi at a session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Jerusalem Post, March 17 1997.
The theme of Palestine as the predestined grave of Israel, and of the Jews in general, is a persistent motif in Arab/Islamic orientations toward Israel. Here, the following claim, made more than a generation ago by Dr. Yahya al-Rakhawi in Al-Akhbar, the organ of Egypt’s Liberal Party, is still typical: “When the State of Israel was established and was recognized by many, in both East and West, one of the reasons for this recognition was the desire of the people in the East and West to get rid of as many as possible of the representatives of that human error known as the Jews. Behind this motive was another, secret purpose: to concentrate them in one place, so that it would be easier to strike at the right moment.”
Neither strategically nor jurisprudentially are war and genocide mutually exclusive. Certain of Israel’s Islamic enemies are now making preparations for just such a strike. Principal among these, of course, is the Islamic Republic of Iran. To assist in these exterminatory preparations, an ongoing war of terror and attrition against the Jewish State is laying the foundations for the eventually planned war of annihilation.
Although it may no longer be possible for Israel to entirely prevent such a war, a war that could involve various forms of unconventional weapons, the government of Israel may still diminish expected harms by recalling the true history of Arab-Israeli conflict and by finally extricating their beleaguered country from the inevitably lethal consequences of Oslo and the Road Map.
LOUIS RENÉ BERES (Ph.D., Princeton, 1971) lectures and publishes widely on Israeli and US foreign and military policies. He is Strategic and Military Affairs columnist for The Jewish Press.
Advertisement