This year’s Breathtaking Chutzpah Award should go to R. Shankar Nair for castigating Israel for not being a normal country–“a country with clearly-defined borders . . . a country that claims no authority over people outside its borders” (Op-Ed, March 29).
Normal countries don’t normally have to deal with suicide bombers bent on murdering their civilians. Would Mr. Nair condemn Washington for intervening in Canadian affairs if terrorists crossed the border from Ontario to wreak havoc on public buses in Detroit, while Canadian officials made only a half-hearted attempt to stop them and the Canadian prime minister lauded them as martyrs? The “withdraw-and-shut-the-gate” approach Mr. Nair advocates is fine, but only if authorities on the other side of the fence have the desire and ability to uphold their end of the bargain. Thus far, Yasser Arafat has been unwilling and/or unable to do so.
Incredibly, Mr. Nair rebukes Israel for failing to appreciate that her security concerns are best met through a separation of populations. Where has he been for the past 2 1/2 years? The purpose of the Oslo process, which Israel initiated and continues to implement even at the cost of its children’s blood, is to give the Palestinians control over their own lives. The Palestinian Council already enjoys full responsibility for the internal security, public order and civil affairs of nearly one-third of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza, and likely will be permitted to extend its authority over an additional 68 percent by the time negotiations toward a permanent status begin in a few months.
The primary impediment to achieving the goal held jointly by Israelis and Palestinians is Hamas terrorism, atrocities perpetrated by fanatics whose notion of normalcy is a Middle East purged of Jews, Christians and non-militant Muslims. It is unconscionable for anyone to suggest that Israel is to blame for the murderous acts committed against her own people.
