President Bush, who recently told the world that we must end terrorist states, is now laying the groundwork to create yet another terrorist state. He is promoting a Middle East “Road Map” that would bring about the creation of a “provisional” Palestinian Arab State next year. This proposal sends a wrong and dangerous message to the terrorists who are murdering innocent Israelis in buses and cafees. It tells them that their massacres reap political dividends - that the more Jews they kill, the more the United States will seek to meet their demands.

Does the administration really believe that giving a sovereign state to the Palestinian will create a civilized democracy rather than a new terrorist state? Sovereignty does not necessarily put an end to terrorism. It only strengthens the existing pro-terrorist culture to wreak even more havoc. Iraq, Iran, Libya, and Syria are sovereign states; yet sovereignty has not turned them into civilized democracies.

No wonder the Israeli public is strongly opposed to creating a Palestinian Arab state. A recent ZOA-commissioned poll by the respected Hanoch Smith Institute found 68% of Israeli Jews believe that “regardless of the size or strength of a Palestinian state, if one is established it will constitute a threat to the State of Israel”; and only 9% of Israeli Jews believe creating a Palestinian Arab state would reduce the Arab states’ threat to Israel.

Lets look at the Palestinian Arab’s record. During the past 25 months, they have carried out thousands of terrorist attacks against Israel, murdering over 600 Israelis and maiming many more. Most of the attacks - including many of the recent suicide bombings - are being carried out by forces under Yasir Arafat’s control: Fatah, Force 17, and the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s own police and security officers. Israel has made public numerous documents proving that the PA pays for and orders the murder of Jews.

The PA has not disarmed or outlawed terrorist groups; it has not seized their tens of thousands of illegal weapons or shut down their bomb factories; it has not honored any of Israel’s 45 requests for the extradition of terrorists. It has not closed down the terrorist’s training camps. It has rewarded with terrorists with jobs in the PA police force. In short, the PA has actively collaborated with and sheltered the terrorists. It has also created an entire culture of anti-Jewish hatred in its official media, schools, summer camps, sermons by PA-appointed clergy, and speeches by PA representatives.

A Palestinian Arab state would be a mini-Iraq, sharing a long border with Israel, flanking the areas that contain 70% of Israel’s population, including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa - plenty of tempting targets for cross-border attacks. The attackers could then slip back into “Palestinian,” where they would find refuge behind the protective border of a sovereign state.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 22nd, 2002 and is filed under opinion.