The "road map" versus War on Terrorism

Submitted by ibrodsky (United States), Jun 10, 2003 at 12:35

Dr. Pipes, you are absolutely correct. The "road map" should be halted until the following conditions are met:

1. The Palestinians must choose leaders not compromised by terror. Abu Mazen, Arafat's puppet, is not such a leader and Abu Mazen is making a fool out of President Bush by pretending otherwise.

2. No progress towards a peaceful resolution is possible as long as the Palestinians engage in, support, or even just tolerate terrorism. Make them stop the recruitment and incitement. Make them choose whether they are with the U.S. or with the terrorists.

3. Palestinian leaders must state unequivocally that they recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and renounce all groups and past attempts seeking to destroy that state. Pretending to want peace with "Israel" as envisioned by Islamists is not acceptable.

Unfortunately, President Bush scolded Israel today for its targeted attack against Hamas' Rantisi. This is the height of hypocrisy: the U.S. used the exact same method to kill Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen. It also implies that Palestinian terrorists should be protected, and Abu Mazen's declarations that he has no intentions of fighting terrorist groups is an acceptable violation of the "road map."

In my opinion, the "road map" is only valuable if it forces the Palestinians to dismantle terrorist groups. Since they have made clear they can't/won't do this, it should be halted.

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