Jerusalem Cloakroom #134

Tenth Anniversary of Oslo:
Two Terror Acts

by Yoram Ettinger
yoramtex@netvision.net.il

September 10, 2003

The lessons learned upon the tenth anniversary of Oslo (and its deadly offspring – the Road Map, Wye Accord, Mitchell and Tenet Plans, Aqaba Accord, etc.), lowlighted by two successful terror acts:

1. Restraint and low-intensity war have been the wet dream of terrorists and the nightmare of democratic societies.  Israel’s restraint has generated more terrorism, while eroding Israel’s posture of deterrence and – unnecessarily – undermining the confidence of Israelis – and of Israel’s friends – in Israel’s just cause as well as in Israel’s capabilities to overcome terrorism. The US has not responded to Islamic terrorism by restraint, neither have Turkey, Germany, Italy, Peru, Egypt, Sri Lanka in pursuit of the PKK, Baader Meinhoff, Red Brigade, Shining Path, Muslim Brotherhood and Tamil terrorism.
    

2. A responsible leadership does not subcontract counter-terrorism to anybody – not to a friendly or neutral foreign power, and certainly not to the PA/PLO, which is the role model of international terrorism, treachery, non-compliance and corruption. The PLO/PA has stated its intention to integrate Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, rather than eliminating them.
    

3. The PLO/PA, which has been responsible to most terror acts since Oslo, and has harbored Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terror organization, thus establishing the largest terrorist base in the world, is not a partner to peace negotiation, but rather it has been the most lethal enemy.  One should not negotiate with a most lethal enemy.  One eradicates a most lethal enemy.
    

4. No additional agreement should be negotiated with the PLO/PA, which has violated every agreement it has concluded with Israel since 1993, as it did with every agreement concluded with Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia until 1993.
    

5. Surgical elimination of terrorists is ineffective. Pruning a poison ivy does not neutralize its poison; it strengthens the roots. One does not prune a poison ivy, nor does one water or fertilize it (which is the essence of US and Israeli transfer of funds to the PA/PLO or Palestinian NGOs).  The only way to neutralize a poison ivy is by uprooting it.
    

6. Expelling/eliminating Arafat would not solve the problem.  One has to uproot the entire PLO/PA/Hamas poison ivy.  It’s not the tip of the iceberg, which is threatening the Titanic; it’s the entire iceberg! The solution to Palestinian terrorism is the expulsion/elimination of the 60,000 terrorists who were RECKLESSLY legitimated, imported and armed by the architects of Oslo.
    

7. A proper due-diligence conducted ten years following Oslo, with 1,400 Israeli murdered by PA/PLO-harbored and PLO/PA-led Palestinian terrorism (equal proportionally to 70,000 Americans), concludes that there is no political solution to Palestinian terrorism; there is only military solution, if the Jewish state wishes to survive.
    

8. No more ceasefire, no more co-existence with terrorism, no more containment, defense or retaliation against terrorism, which is non-deterrable and non-containable.  The proper battle against such terrorism must be preventive-offensive on the enemy’s own ground.  The aim should be the eradication (rather than deterrence) of the entire infrastructure which feeds the fire – first and foremost the political, financial and ideological infrastructure, which directs, incites, brainwashes and finances the operational infrastructure.  If one is assaulted by a snake, one is advised to hit the head of the snake, rather than waste time hitting its tail and body.
    

9. A fence entrenches the self-destruct tactics of containment, retaliation and defense, and therefore nurtures further terrorism. Erecting a fence – which would become the mother of all white elephants, would produce a short-lived false sense of security. Israel should not protect itself against a wave of mosquitoes by a fence of spray; it should assault the mosquitoes by draining the entire swamp.
    

10. A Palestinian state and an effective battle against terrorism constitutes an oxymoron. A Palestinian State and vital US interests and values constitutes an oxymoron.  The history of the PLO proves that the broader its authority the more deadly is the fire of its anti-Israel and anti-Western terrorism (e.g. terrorism reached a peak, when the PLO enjoyed autonomy in Jordan during 1968-1970 and then when it enjoyed autonomy in Lebanon during 1972-1982, and it faded when the PLO was decimated and expelled). Oslo elevated the PLO from being a defeated-exiled terror organization in Tunisia to becoming a “Palestinian Authority”, thus producing an unprecedented wave of terrorism.  How devastating would be the scope of Palestinian terrorism, should there be a Palestinian State?!
     

11. Ten years following Oslo, Israel and the USA resemble a driver on the Washington Beltway (I-495), who erroneously gets off at the wrong exit, encountering the most violent neighborhood in Washington DC.  He barely manages to escape back to the Beltway, bleeding and driving a wrecked car. However, he keeps using the same fatefully wrong exit, because: “what’s the alternative?” (as the Oslo architects keep coaxing).  The alternative is to turn away sharply (180 degrees) from Oslo, Wye, Road Map, Mitchell and Tenet plans, which have produced the deadliest ever wave of Palestinian terrorism. The alternative is a departure from wishful-thinking, quick gratification, convenience-driven tactics and backbonelessness, and returning to Israel’s winning formula of 1948-1992: faith, realism, conviction-driven policy, patience and determination, defiance of external and domestic pressures and threats, and the willingness to pay a price for the privilege of resurrecting the Jewish Commonwealth on its land, in the most violent and unpredictable region in the world, the Mideast.