In the April 2016 edition of Commentary Magazine they have an article called “The Peace Process Is an Obstacle to Peace.” The title intrigued me and confirmed to me the feelings I have had for over 20 years. My feelings can be summed up in a song by the Imperials which had a line, “there will never be any peace until God is seated at the conference table.”
What the article confirmed to me is that there can be no peace between Israel and the Palestinians because one side wants peace and the other side wants to kill the Jews. The writer of the article is Michael Mandelbaum, professor of Foreign Policy at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He said,
“At the core of the conflict, standing out like a skyscraper in a desert to anyone who cared to notice, is the Palestinian refusal to accept Jewish sovereignty in the Middle East. This attitude has existed for at least a century, since the Arab rejection of the Balfour Declaration.”
Every peace treaty negotiated to solve the ‘Middle East Problem’ failed because there is a refusal to recognize that Islam and Arab states are committed to the destruction of Israel.This is why each administration tries and fails to bring peace.
It is amazing that the United States believes that it can solve this problem. America treats this as a labor dispute, a negotiation, and they believe that both sides want peace. It is hard for Americans to conceive that offering economic and political freedom to Palestinians would not bring peace with Israel.
Consider the Oslo Accords: President Clinton brokered the deal and said, “Finally the time is approaching when there will be safety in Israel’s house, when the Palestinian people will write their own destiny.” This was a Land for Peace deal and Israel would give up land so that a two state solution would bring peace. It failed. After Yassir Arafat and Prime Minister Rabin shook hands, the peace deal became a process. It was soon riddled with politics and hatred from the Palestinians.
Israel agreed to
- recognize the Palestinian Authority
- transfer land
- educate the Israeli population for peace (there would be difficult compromises),
- allow a Palestinian Authority police force
- supply arms to Palestinians so that they could police their own people
The Palestinians agreed to
- end all terror
- recognize Israel in the PLO charter (their charter calls for the destruction of Israel)
- destroy all terror groups
- preserve and protect all holy sites (Jewish and Christian)
- educate their people for peace.
Israel held up their end of the bargain. They gave up land — control over the Gaza Strip and 42% of the West Bank. Israel gave Palestinians arms, but they did not give up all of the land in the West Bank. The reason they withheld land was because the PA did not stop terror.
The key commitment of the Palestinians was to stop terror. Instead, terror attacks increased. More Israelis were killed during the 5 years of the Oslo Accords than in the previous fifteen years without the deal! Arafat cried peace in front of the Western media, but in front of the Arab press, he announced how he would use the deal to kill the Jews. Arafat was practicing the Islamic teaching on how to get an advantage over your enemies – you lie while making a peace deal! On Arab TV Arafat said,
“In memory of the noble and brave holy martyrs, today I ask you, my brothers, to pray for all our martyrs and the last of them, the martyr engineer Yihyeh Ayaash.”
Ayaash carried out 93 terror attacks on Israel! Arafat had no intention of making peace with Israel and he never changed the PLO charter.
The Oslo Accords (1993-1998) failed before they even started, because the both sides would not recognize reality. Mandelbaum convicts the USA of that blindness when he writes,
“American officials have either ignored or downplayed all of this: the goal of destroying Israel, the Palestinian glorification of martyrs, those who kill Jews, and giving financial awards to families who kill Jews.”
As the Palestinians continue to educate their people to kill Jews, push their children to be suicide bombers, and take money from Arab states to continue attacks on Israel, they will continue to pursue their goal of destroying Israel! How can you have peace with this type of peace partner?
The Scriptures are clear, they will cry “peace, peace” and all they will get is war.
The French will attempt the latest round of “we can do it” peace deal that they will force on Israel. Israel is not invited to the peace summit. They will be forced to accept the agreement. Israel has rejected the whole affair.
The satanic press has already blamed Israel for the failure of peace and they will continue to blame Israel. One day, a man sent by Satan, the antichrist, will make a 7 year peace deal. He will break the deal and he will blame Israel, God, Jesus, and anyone else associated to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Peace and security are elusive because it is not God’s will for the nations to continue to disobey His directives. Pray hard!
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/peace-process-obstacle-peace
