In the long history of Tribune editorials hostile to Israel, the Nov. 16 editorial “Bibi has earned the cold shoulder” hit a new low. The Tribune needs to remember that the government of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, was popularly elected.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s victory was almost certainly due to the security concerns of Israeli citizens, associated with multiple suicide bombings by Palestinian terrorists months before the election.
Netanyahu’s mandate was to seek greater reciprocity in the peace process–that Israel would not continue to turn over territory without increased security cooperation from the Palestinian Authority. In the four years since Oslo, every major West Bank city has been turned over to the Palestinians, and most of Gaza as well. Yet the Israelis have not received the enhanced security the peace process promised.
Since Oslo, almost 300 Israelis have been murdered by terrorists, some of them in the employ of the Palestinian Authority. So, too, the PLO never revoked its charter calling for the elimination of Israel. The PA never disarmed the terrorist cells, continued to call for “jihad” (holy war) against Israel and attempted to end-run the peace process. Where are the Tribune’s condemnations of the Palestinian Authority?
Most important, rather than abort the peace process, Israel’s government has called for accelerating negotiations on final-stage issues (Jerusa-lem, settlements, sovereignty, refugees, borders) because the step-by-step process has failed. Rather than blame Israel, the Tribune should remember who has been scraping body parts off of its streets and consider what the PA has done to advance the peace process.
It is grossly unfair to blame U.S.-Israel relations, or the state of Israeli-Palestinian talks, for the hesitation by Arab “allies” to support U.S. policy goals with Iraq. To begin with, Clinton’s “snub” belies your current U.S. bias argument. More to the point, compare Israeli-Palestinian relations today to those at the time of the Gulf War (no relations, and the PLO supporting Iraq). And yet, our Arab “allies” were able to fight with the U.S. then.
