Road Map needs the Security Fence
Reader comment on item: [The Road Map:] Learning from Oslo

Submitted by Ivan Barna (United States), Jun 10, 2003 at 16:39

Dr. Pipes, you once wrote "As long as Palestinians want to destroy Israel more than to have their own state, there cannot be peace." Is that premise any less true today?

Perhaps the most viable solution for implementation of President Bush's Road Map is a speedy completion of the slowly constructed security fence which would include most of the settlements, even if it would appear to be an Israeli unilateral "withdrawal by dismantling some outerlying settlements." This should allow for some staged lessening of restrictions on the Palestinians without significantly increasing "successful" Palestinian terrorist atrocities against Israelis.

These current generations of Palestinians (and the current Arab world) will not be satisfied with even the most generous Israeli concessions. So, live with a security fence, it's artificial borders, and the least number of Israeli troops on the Palestinian side of the fence to complement the security of the fence until new Palestinian generations (and the Arab world) are ready to genuinely accept the existence of a Jewish State of Israel. This may not be the ideal solution and it may last for decades but is peace really possible now with people whose ultimate goal is to eliminate a Jewish State of Israel any way they can (terrorism and/or demographics) and continually educating and inciting their people to hate and dream of Israel's destruction?

Sadly, perhaps the best thing President Bush can accomplish is to buy time, decades if needed. The Road Map needs much more time to accomplish a lasting peace, not deadlines which accomplish nothing but a strategic hudna (cease-fire) for the Palestinians (and the Arab world) to regroup and continue their war against Israel.

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