Dr. Keyes is founder and chairman of the Declaration Foundation, a communications center for founding principles. Tune into his new television show “Alan Keyes is Making Sense” on MSNBC, Monday through Thursday, 10 p.m., ET.
In 1967 Arab forces massed against Israel, and the international community permitted Egyptian President Nasser to kick U.N. “peacekeepers” out of the Sinai. Then, the world stood by as hundreds of thousands of Arab troops attempted to deliver a deathblow to Israel. That blow wasn’t thwarted by international outrage. It was thwarted only by the unexpected brilliance of the Israeli military.
As a result of that brilliant, desperate war for survival, Israel acquired the Sinai, the West Bank and Gaza. It is a lie to speak of those territories as though Israel had seized them by aggression.
Everywhere else in the world, it is understood that territory acquired in self-defense need not be returned except in the context of a negotiated peace. And the Israelis have shown themselves willing time and time again to put that territory on the line in the hopes of achieving just such a negotiated settlement.
The historic Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978 resulted in Israel’s return of the Sinai to the Egyptians. An agreement made, an agreement kept. Israel has reached other, less comprehensive agreements with Jordan and even Syria. When the other side is willing to keep its word, history shows that Israel has also kept its word. Why are we forgetting this now?
In negotiations with the PLO, the Palestinian Authority and Arafat, the Israelis have made concessions, reached agreements, signed on the dotted line and followed through on those agreements. Israel turned substantial authority in the West Bank and Gaza over to Yasser Arafat as a result of such an agreement.
And from the Palestinians has come lip service to peace and preparation for war. The one thing – the one thing – that was required of their side has never been delivered. And that is to stop killing Israelis. The Palestinians have been unwilling to cease manipulating the peace process through deadly destruction of civilians.
The Israelis, as a result, face the same situation we do in our war on terror. No defensive action will actually forestall the death-dealing blow of suicidal terror. The only possible step is to attack those who have incited, equipped and financed those who are determined to kill you.
America understands this when we are attacked. We must acknowledge the same imperative in the policies that the Israelis are now pursuing.
I have long supported the legitimate demand for Palestinian self-government. But the first prerequisite of self-government is to govern one’s own passions, resentment and anger. Martin Luther King made the 20th century’s racial progress possible by teaching us that even the victims of terrible oppression still are responsible for not contributing to the very culture of violence that oppresses them.
The Palestinian people need that kind of leadership now. But they aren’t getting it. Instead, they are being led into desperate acts of self-destruction. Suicide bombing symbolizes all that such leadership offers. It accomplishes nothing except national immolation on the altar of prideful leaders preaching the martyrdom of despair.
Arafat’s leadership consists precisely of inciting his people to martyrdom. But “martyr” means “witness.” And the Palestinian people don’t need more witnesses to violence, incitement, reprisal and revenge. They desperately need witnesses to hope, leaders who will look at Israel’s record with Egypt, Jordan and others.
Israel has kept its bargains. That is an offer of hope. The Palestinian choice for life and dignity is to challenge Israel with new, real offers of legitimate peaceful coexistence. The Palestinians can have reasonable hope that such offers will be met with honorable reply from Israel. But this can’t happen until the Palestinians reject the leadership now pushing them over the desperate precipice of revenge and self-destruction.
America can help by repudiating the plea of victimization as excuse for the surrender to evil. We do not relieve Palestinian suffering by coddling a leadership which is seeking quite consciously to incite self-destruction. If we have the toughness to join Israel in refusing to deal with such leadership, we will open the door to hope. We will help spark the Palestinian people to turn away from the cult of revenge, and to look for leaders willing to offer something better than the pointless destruction of the innocent.
