End Game Has Never Changed on Arab Side
Reader comment on item: Middle East Debate: Should Washington Actively Promote an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Settlement?

Submitted by Mike N (United States), May 13, 2003 at 04:26

...Indy is a charming and charismatic speaker but he avoids the blatantly obvious which is the war will not end until the Palestinians are completely defeated, period! That means extricating the PLO and defeating and removing all the terrorist organizations. Until such time the war will continue, trusteeship or no trusteeship, Oslo or no Oslo, State or no State, changing their minds will only come from thoroughly defeating them. Anything that lengthens this process will only lengthen and draw out the war. The Palestinians seek to destroy Israel and playing nice and talking to them is not going to change this engrained idea in their head, as persuasive a speaker as Mr. Indyk is. This notion can only be defeated just as the idea of Nazism was.

Abu Mazen has never said that the violence has failed to lead them to a compromised solution, only that violence has not furthered their goals, which are clearly the eventual destruction of Israel. Thus, the only thing that has changed any Palestinian minds has been the Israelis winning the war over the past 2 1/2 years.

The Israelis have clearly changed since 10 years ago, they now for the most part are resigned to a 2 State Solution. Meanwhile the Palestinians instead of being more resigned to a 2 State Solution are more motivated than ever to destroy Israel and use violence to do this. Abu Mazen has only now suggested that using violence right now is not the way to further this goal and Israel's winning the war not any outside diplomacy was the ONLY thing that even led to this minor adjustment. Faysal al-Husseini, a former hero of the Israeli peacecamp, stated exactly this himself in a Kuwaiti newspaper. We may go through periods of cease fires and compromises but the end goal has never changed, Palestine from River to Sea.

Mike Nargizian

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