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[size=4] In the world of international
diplomacy few issues receive more wall-to-wall support than the notion
that it is essential to establish a Palestinian state. Leaders worldwide
are so busy speaking of how essential it is for a State of Palestine to
be founded that none of them seems to have noticed that it already
exists.
This state was officially founded in the summer of 2005, when Israel
removed its military forces and civilian population from the Gaza Strip
and so established the first wholly independent Palestinian state in
history. Israel's destruction of four Israeli communities in Northern
Samaria and curtailment of its military operations in the area set the
conditions for statehood in that area as well.
And so it is that as statesmen and activists worldwide loudly proclaim
their commitment to establishing the sovereign State of Palestine, they
miss the fact that Palestine exists. And it is a nightmare.
In the State of Palestine 88 percent of the public feels insecure.
Perhaps the other 12 percent are members of the multitude of regular and
irregular militias. For in the State of Palestine the ratio of
police/militiamen/men-under-arms to civilians is higher than in any
other country on earth.
In the State of Palestine, two-year-olds are killed and no one cares.
Children are woken up in the middle of the night and murdered in front
of their parents. Worshipers in mosques are gunned down by terrorists
who attend competing mosques. And no one cares. No international human
rights groups publish reports calling for an end to the slaughter. No UN
body condemns anyone or sends a fact-finding mission to investigate the
murders.
In the State of Palestine, women are stripped naked and forced to march
in the streets to humiliate their husbands. Ambulances are stopped on
the way to hospitals and wounded are shot in cold blood. Terrorists
enter operating rooms in hospitals and unplug patients from life-support
machines.
In the State of Palestine, people are kidnapped from their homes in
broad daylight and in front of the television cameras. This is the case
because the kidnappers themselves are cameramen. Indeed, their
commanders often run television stations. And because terror commanders
run television stations in the State of Palestine, it should not be
surprising that they bomb the competition's television stations.
SO IT WAS that last week, terrorists from this group or that group
bombed Al Arabiya television station in Gaza. And so it is that Hamas
attacks Fatah radio announcers and closes down their radio station
claiming that they use their microphones to incite murder. Because
indeed, they are inciting murder. What would one expect for terrorists
to do when placed in charge of a radio station?
And so it is that in the State of Palestine, journalists — whether
members of terror groups or not — are part of the 88 percent of
their public who are afraid. Sunday they protested outside the offices
of one terror faction or another that controls the Palestinian
Authority.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, reporter Ala Masharawi explained, "No
one goes outside, no one moves without thinking twice. Gaza's streets
have become terrible streets, especially at night. Gaza is a ghost
town."
As the Post's Khaled Abu Toameh reported last week, in the State of
Palestine, Christians are persecuted, robbed and beaten in what can only
be viewed as a systematic campaign to end the Christian presence in
places like Bethlehem. As Samir Qumsiyeh, owner of the Beit Sahur-_base_d
private Al-Mahd (Nativity) TV station lamented, "I believe that 15 years
from now there will be no Christians left in Bethlehem. Then you will
need a torch to find a Christian here."
MANY GOVERNMENT ministers and commentators seek strategic meaning in the
strife in the State of Palestine. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, for
instance, goes on and on about the need to strengthen the "moderates"
— that is, the Fatah terror group — over the "extremists" —
that is, the Hamas terror group.
Helping her to propound this nonsense is PA Chairman and Fatah chief
Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas and his men tell Westerners how pro-Western they
are at the same time as they name streets and schools financed by US aid
after Saddam Hussein and build sports facilities on the American
taxpayers' tab in memory of terrorists who killed American soldiers in
Iraq.
For the umpteenth time, on Sunday Fatah spokesmen in PA Chairman Mahmoud
Abbas's office blamed Iran and Syria for the escalating violence in Gaza
and Judea and Samaria that has killed 29 people, including two children,
in four days. "Iran and Syria are encouraging Hamas to continue fighting
against Fatah," they alleged.
Damra and his partner and fellow Fatah terrorist Mahmad Ramaha, who was
arrested a month ago, were working under the instruction of Hizbullah
— that is, under the direction of Iran. According to the Shin Bet,
Hizbullah — that is, Iran — has taken over Fatah operations in
Nablus. Since Israel's withdrawal from northern Samaria in August 2005,
the Shin Bet has noted that, like Gaza, the Nablus area has become a
mini-Afghanistan.
So not only are Hamas terrorists operating under Iranian and Syrian
direction today, Fatah terrorists are as well. Yet this doesn't stop the
US and Israel from pouring guns and money into the hands of Fatah terror
chiefs. They fail to recognize that what you see is what you get.
These guns are not used to encourage moderation. These guns are used
against Israelis and Palestinians alike in a turf battle between terror
groups over money, guns and power that will never end. And it will never
end because fighting and killing for money, guns and power is what
terrorists do.
FOR THE past 13 years, since the Palestinian Authority was established
in 1994, the contours of the State of Palestine have taken form in front
of our eyes. Starting with Yasser Arafat's abrogation of the rule of law
and murderous campaign against land dealers and journalists, with each
passing year and with each move to further empower the PA, the situation
has only grown worse. And yet, international pressure on Israel from
Arabs, Europeans and the US to surrender more territory, curtail its
authority, abrogate its claims to the areas set for Palestine, and
finance the Fatah terror group have only grown in intensity.
And with each passing year, as the reality of Palestine has become
clearer, the Israeli leadership's will to resist this pressure is
increasingly eroded.
So it is that last week Defense Minister Amir Peretz announced that he
supports negotiating with Hamas. Peretz laid out his "vision" for the
reinstatement of the so-called peace process with the Palestinians, and
stated that, to "empower" the Palestinians, he supports extending the
ban on IDF operations from Gaza to Judea and Samaria. It should go
without saying that such IDF operations are aimed at preventing
massacres of Israeli civilians like the one that happened in Eilat
Monday morning.
LIVNI, FOR her part, has become the international champion of Fatah.
Gushing to an audience of international peace processors in Davos,
Switzerland, last week, Livni said, "In order to achieve peace and in
order to promote a process, we must stick to this vision of a two-state
solution and examine what the best steps to take are."
Of course, neither Livni nor Peretz, who insist that Israel's most
urgent priority is to establish Palestine, is willing to recognize that
Palestine exists already. They refuse to acknowledge what we already
know: Palestine is a terror state and an economic basket case fully
funded by the international community. Indeed, over the past year since
Hamas won the Palestinian elections, international assistance to the
Palestinians has increased dramatically.
As Ibrahim Gambari, the UN under-secretary-general for political
affairs, noted last Thursday, official Western aid to the Palestinians,
not including Arab and Iranian support for Hamas and Fatah, increased by
10 percent in 2006 over 2005, and stood at $1.2 billion.
The Palestinians, who receive more aid per capita than any people on
earth, are needy not because they lack funds. They are poor because they
prefer poverty, violence and war to prosperity, peace and moderation. So
it is that 57 percent of Palestinians support terror attacks against
Israel.
The multitude of protesters worldwide who demand an end to the so-called
"occupation" and the establishment of Palestine should be made aware of
the fact that Palestine already exists. The hordes of political leaders
mindlessly squawking about "visions" and "two-state solutions" should
know: This is Palestine. Enter at your own risk.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington
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JWR contributor Caroline B. Glick is the senior Middle East Fellow at
the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC and the deputy managing
editor of The Jerusalem Post. Comment by clicking here.
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