Bibi's Trojan Horse

In his book “A Place Among the Nations,” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “Bibi” for short, contends that the Palestinian Liberation Organization is a “Pan-Arab Trojan horse, a gift that the Arabs have been trying to coax the West into accepting.” Denying that the Palestinians have a right for national self-determination, Bibi argues that a Palestinian state just a few miles from Tel Aviv’s beaches would pose a “mortal danger to the Jewish state.” More than twenty years after publishing the book, Bibi still maintains his belief that Israel must prevent the Palestinians from attaining self-government by expanding its settlements on the West Bank. At a time when 136 countries openly recognize the state of Palestine, is it justifiable and reasonable that Israel continues to reject its autonomy?

The answer is yes. Israel’s best course is to sustain its iron wall strategy and assert its hegemony. Peace agreements between Israel and Palestine have resulted in nothing but animosity and disappointment. In 1993, Israel began a seven-year-long peace process in Oslo with the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. From 1996 to 1999, Hamas attempted to disrupt the peace agreements through suicide bombings and terrorist attacks. Palestinian factions like Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah threw time bombs and conducted armed ambushes in the streets of Tel Aviv and synagogues of Jerusalem. During the final negotiations, Hamas perpetrated attacks against innocent Jewish civilians.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization approaches the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspective of an uncompromising terrorist group, rather than a trustworthy and steadfast negotiator. Although the current leader of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas has expressed his willingness to engage in a constructive peace process, the erratic behavior of Palestinian terrorists has precluded Benjamin Netanyahu from committing to a two-state solution. In a world increasingly ambivalent to Israel’s struggles, Prime Minister Netanyahu cannot and should not forge deals with unreliable allies. Doing so would temporarily appease Palestinian concerns, but it would also encourage a vicious cycle of unsubstantiated concessions by the Israeli government.

It is unlikely that Israel will give up the West Bank any time soon. The territory holds more than just a religious or political significance. It is the only way by which Israel can defend itself from surrounding Arab states. Israel’s control of the Jordan Valley allows it to intercept arms trafficking to terrorist organizations. The West Bank also serves as a buffer region for any potential air or ground attacks on Israel, as most of the heavily-populated cities are on the coastal plain. Surrendering the West Bank to a group of rouge and self-interested individuals would weaken Israel’s ability to defend itself from foreign attacks and thereby encourage surrounding states to further challenge and dispute Israel’s sovereignty.

I can only envision a viable peace deal if the Palestinian Liberal Organization rejects its ties with groups like Fatah and instead paves its own path of democracy, peace and stability.  Netanyahu is right to proclaim the Palestinian Liberation Organization a Trojan horse. The Charter for the PLO claims that Zionism is an illegitimate movement “racist and fanatic in its nature.” The Palestinians’ calls for justice, dignity, freedom and Middle Eastern peace are shrouded by its belief that the State of Israel is “entirely illegal.” Closest neighbors do not have to be closest friends, but they have to respect each other if they are to survive.