ISRAELI PALESTINIAN PEACE

For my own sense of what is needed to achieve peace between Israel and the Arab world, and especially with the Palestinians who are in the camps and the West Bank, these are my thoughts at the end of 2008.

Recently, a number of high school graduates in Israel, in reaction to Israel's treatment of Palestinians and as conscientious objectors, have refused to enter the armed forces. Army service in Israel is considered to be a necessity of life, entry to adulthood, and a high calling. This refusal is viewed by the Israeli peace movement as a sign of acceptance of Israel's guilt for not allowing peace to move forward.

Many peaceniks, in and out of Israel, almost all of whom are Jewish, appear to believe that achieving peace is in the hands of Israel alone. That is simply not the case. More important, those of us who truly believe in peace and believe it is attainable, realize that the Arab world and the large majority of Palestinians (0ver 85%)do not want peace with Israel. They do want to do anything and everything possible to destroy Israel, up to and including signing peace agreements that by their very terms will mandate Israel's destruction. Peace agreements are put forward that the border states do not intend to honor any more than they have honored existing agreements such as the truce agreements with Lebanon or Hamas in Gaza.

The seeds of peace lie in educating both populations to peace. School textbooks in the Arab world educate students of all ages towards war with Israel and its destruction. Children dressed as suicide bombers are hailed by Arab leaders as role models for their peers. No peace will be attainable so long as this indoctrination continues.

A simple manifestation that Arab leadership is intent on peace mandates cessation of acts of war. Israel continues to be subjected to a variety of such deadly acts.

Maintenance of "refugee" camps and their sustenance by the United Nations since 1948 continues to show the intent of the bordering Arab states to use these sad people to maintain their conflict with Israel.

I am a dedicated peacenik. I am also a realistic peacenik. Israel has made many egregious errors in its dealings with the Palestinians over the years since 1948. However, aside from the two treaties with Egypt and Jordan, no iota of meaningful effort has been made by any Arab state or any Arab person of stature to bring realistic acts and ideas to the peace tables in the past.

An "Arab Peace Initiative" agreed to by fifty-seven Arab and Muslim countries appeared in the New York Times of December 19, 2008, that to the uninitiated and unknowledgeable reads like a good beginning to a negotiated peace with Israel. See U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194 that calls for, among other hits on Israel, a huge area including and surrounding Jerusalem to be internationalized and no longer to the capital of Israel, and the free return to their homes of all prior Arab residents of "Palestine" who fled the 1948 fighting at the insistence of the five invading Arab armies, who have been kept in refugee camps for sixty years by their Arab "brethren" and who now number over 3,000,000 persons. Those sections plus other nails in Israel's coffin are in that resolution. However, if the Arab Peace Initiative was agreed to by Israel, it would cease to exist as a nation in short order.

May Conscientious Objectors continue their actions in Israel. They are clear and good indicators of Israel's willingness to espouse peace. May such people appear safely in the near future in ANY Arab country. Then a serious peace dialogue may be opened with the leadership of that country. When the rockets stop falling from Gaza, an opportunity for peace discussions may open. When suicide bombers cease their attempts to explode themselves in Israel, the roads and checkpoints in Arab territory will be opened as will the possibility of dialogue.

Peace is a multi-sided affair. That fact must be recognized by all who claim they wish for peace in the Middle East between Israel and its neighbors.