Rewarding Misbehavior
The Obama administration has recently decided to upgrade the diplomatic status of the Palestinian Authority. The PA mission in Washington has been seeking this since President Obama assumed office eighteen months ago, although they have not done very much to earn it. In fact, for the last eighteen years, the Palestinians had met with the Israelis in direct, face-to face negotiations. It is ironic that now, when they refuse to do so, their diplomatic status is being upgraded.
Maen Areikat, chief of the PA Mission in Washington received an unexpected letter from the State Department announcing the upgrade, meaning that, among other things, the PLO flag will proudly fly in Washington during visits from PA figureheads.
This occurred, despite the fact that every single document signed between the Palestinians and the Israelis since Oslo, (including Oslo II, the Wye River Accords, the Hebron Accords, the Road Map etc.), has specified that the very first condition for further progress requires the end of all Palestinian incitement to hate and to kill, and to replace all of Israel with Palestine. This means the end of the incitement in text books, in schools and summer camps, in sermons from the appointed imams, on television, newspaper and the radio.
This is the essential ingredient for peaceful coexistence. As long as generations are raised believing that their grandfather’s orchards and vineyards in Haifa will one day be theirs, if they are ready to martyr themselves to the cause, there will never be peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The way that children are educated is much more fundamental to the cause of peace than issues such as the shape and contours of the map of Israel, the status of Jerusalem or the refugee issue, all which although thorny, can be ultimately resolved if there is truly the will to do so. The one necessary ingredient however, has got to be peaceful intentions between the two parties, in order for the peace treaty to exist long after the ink on the paper dries. What is needed is a peace that will endure for generations, not just a temprary hudna, tetiah, or ceasefire, merely to allow time to regroup.
According to the meticulous documentation from MEMRI, Palestinian Media Watch, and the Committee to Monitor Incitement, there has not been one iota of progress on this score.
In fact, just two days after the receiving the news, this past Thursday, the Palestinian Authority announced that they will be naming a summer camp in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, near Ramallah, after Dalal Mughrabi, who is one of the worst terrorists in Israel’s history. Ms. Mughrabi, in 1978, high-jacked a bus and killed 37 civilians, 12 of them children.
This summer camp is run by the “Light of Generations Youth Association. ” Are these the sort of role models that they are trying to instill for future generations? If so, there will never be peace, irrespective of how many PLO flags fly throughout Washington.