ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996 TAG: 9606050020
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Cal Thomas
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
ACCORDING to the monotone American press, last week's election in Israel was Armageddon for the ``peace process.'' Most journalists, joined at the mind with the Clinton administration, believe the only way to peace in the Middle East is for Israel to continue giving up land it won after being attacked five times from without by its Arab neighbors and regularly from within by terrorists.
The victory of Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu is a direct challenge to their political orthodoxy. Yet his election represents a sober and correct response to a ``peace process'' that was moving too quickly with little evidence of compliance by Israel's most notorious enemies.
A Jerusalem Post editorial correctly stated that Netanyahu's victory ``was a signal by the Israeli electorate that it wants the peace process slowed down, not killed.''
The pressure on Israel by the Clinton administration and most Western governments to move ahead with the Oslo agreement - trading land for promises of peace - was too quick for a majority of Israel's Jewish population.
In violation of what used to be called journalistic ethics, much of the world media also became strong advocates of Shimon Peres' candidacy. So violations of the Oslo accord were either not reported or considered exceptions. Ignored were the pronouncements of Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat that Oslo and all other agreements were just means to the end of occupying all of Israel.
While Arafat's public image is now that of a diplomat, he still calls for a holy war against Israel, demands the ``right of return'' of Palestinian refugees and their relatives to Israel and the territories, and makes the establishment of Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state a condition for a final peace agreement. He also assures Arab audiences that the Oslo agreement is just one step forward in the PLO's 1974 ``phased plan'' to destroy Israel.
Little has been done by the PLO to enforce its part of the Oslo agreement, and the PLO and Hamas have paid no penalty for violating it. Implementing the agreement has become the goal - not stopping terrorism or punishing those who promote it. In advance of the Israeli election, the PLO passed out leaflets in East Jerusalem preparing Palestinians for a possible resumption of the intifada. According to a May 17 report in the newspaper Haaretz, the leafleting was directed by Khatem Abd-al Kadr Idd, a former representative of the Fatah terrorist organization to the joint command of the intifada, who is currently the secretary of the PLO's Jerusalem Committee.
There is also widespread suspicion, according to Haaretz, that PLO officials have abused their status to smuggle military supplies and terrorists from Gaza to Judea and Samaria.
The power of Hamas has not diminished. The widely reported ``crackdown'' promised by Arafat on Hamas' ``military wing'' never reached the training camps, it's had no effect on the organization's finances and organizational structure, and the cadres remain armed. Most of the Hamas members arrested in the roundups have now been let go. It is unlikely that any will remain in jail now that the election is over.
The Likud Party platform on which Netanyahu ran promises to continue peace negotiations, but with a difference. Instead of using the definition for peace preferred by Westerners, Israel's security is paramount. The platform states: ``The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is an eternal right which is not subject to dispute and combines with its right to security and peace."
Furthermore, ``The government of Israel will carry out negotiations with the Palestinian Authority to achieve a permanent arrangement of peace, on condition that the Palestinians completely honor all their obligations and principally cancel in an absolute way the paragraphs in the Palestinian Charter which call for the destruction of Israel and that they will prevent terror and incitement against Israel.''
Far from abandoning the ``peace process,'' the platform and the victory of Netanyahu suggest a more realistic approach to Israel's security. If Israel is not secure, there can be no lasting peace.
- Los Angeles Times Syndicate
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