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Acknowledging the Issue is Israel's Existence

by Daniel Pipes
Mon, 15 Nov 2004

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Voices of authority – governments, the media, academics, religious figures – nearly all concur that the Palestinians back in September 1993 accepted the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, that that is now a done deal. I disagree, as I have written many times, notably in a December 1997 article titled "On Arab Rejectionism." This weblog entry cites, in reverse chronological order, others who have come around to my point of view, especially those who once believed in the Oslo negotiations and other soi-disant "peace process" diplomacy.

Bernard Lewis: "the clear message from the Palestinian camp and from many of their Arab and other supporters is that the issue is the legitimacy, that is to say the existence, of Israel as a Jewish state. ("To Be or Not to Be," The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 15, 2004)

Charles Krauthammer: "Yes, he [Yasir Arafat] signed interim deals to get a foothold in Palestine. But that was always with the objective of continuing the fight from a better strategic position. It was never to conclude a lasting compromise or real peace with Israel. That is why he died so far from his promised land. This promised land was never the West Bank and Gaza. Arafat founded Fatah in 1959 -- eight years before Israel even acquired these territories. His objective then, and until the day he died, was a Palestinian state built on the ruins of an eradicated Israel." ("Arafat's Legacy," The Washington Post, Nov. 15, 2004)

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