Aleynu

What it the Palestinians are not serious about peace? March 20, 2011

March 14, 2011: “A town square in the West Bank has been renamed in honor of Dalal Mughrabi, who was a terrorist responsible for an attack that killed 35 Israelis, including 13 children, in 1978. Palestinians, in an official March 13 ceremony, named a town square in Al-Bireh, near Ramallah, for Mughrabi. Members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction were on hand for the unveiling of the plaque in her memory.”

There has been increasing criticism of Israel lately for its continuing occupation of territory on the West Bank. It is a bêtes noire in Israel’s continuing commitment to democracy. But following on the heels of the massacre of five members of a Jewish family on the West Bank – parents and three children, the youngest of whom was three months old – this act seems to demonstrate that the Palestinians have no serious commitment to living in peace with Israel. While the Western world is uncomfortable by the execrable malice of Hamas in Gaza, it withholds public criticism of the Palestinian Authority in The West Bank, arguing instead that the Palestinians are the ones pushing for peace and willing to make realistic concessions while it is the Israelis who are recalcitrant.

The Palestinians, both in the West Bank as well as in Gaza, continue to teach their children the worst stereotypes and bigotry about Israel and Jews.

Israel needs to yield land to enable an Arab state to co-exist next door. But unless the Palestinians are willing to take seriously the same acknowledgment, Israel cannot make make that concession without sacrificing its own safety and existence.