The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has observed that the need still existed for Israel to mount a massive security operation and seal off Judea and Samaria on the eve of Rosh Hashanah and the High Holydays even though the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) and its president Mahmoud Abbas are routinely described as peace-seeking, moderates who are allegedly preventing and fighting terrorism against Israel. Reports indicate that terrorist threats have led Israel military and security forces to go on their highest level of alert.
Israel, as part of the security measures adopted by the defense establishment, has placed general closures on Judea and Samaria for the period of the Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Succot festival. At this moment, there is Arab rioting in Jerusalem, following Palestinian Authority (PA) calls issued today for Muslims in the Jerusalem area to continue clashing with Israel’s security forces, in order to “protect Al-Aksa” and “prevent the Judaizing of Jerusalem” (Maayana Miskin, ‘As Israel Seeks to Quell Riots, PA Tells Muslims to Fight,’ Israel National News, October 5, 2009).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “How are we to understand that, on one day, the Obama Administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praise Mahmoud Abbas as a moderate peace-seeker who is sincerely devoted to fighting and preventing terrorism and then, the next day, Israel announces it is mounting a massive security effort to prevent Palestinian terrorism from Judea and Samaria into Israel and then, the day after that, Israel and the US negotiate with Abbas to determine how much land to give to him and when a Palestinian state under his control can be established.
“How is it possible that Israel needs to mount security operations against Arab violence, not only against that emanating from territory under PA control, but that it has to mount security operations against violent campaigns actually demanded and abetted by the PA? Is it really possible to speak of the PA as a peace partner under such conditions?
“Why are America and Israel negotiating with Mahmoud Abbas to discuss more land concessions and even statehood while Abbas continues to be unwilling or unable to stop terrorist attacks emanating from Judea and Samaria, a territory he allegedly controls? If he cannot be motivated to stop terrorism when he is still seeking Israeli concessions, what possible motivation will he have to do it when he has received all these concessions? I have been told personally by former Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief-of-Staff, Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon that last year, Israeli forces prevented 186 terror attacks.
“One would have thought that the much-vaunted peace process that is supposed to be in progress with Abbas would mean, among other things, that terrorism and incitement to hatred and murder within the PA would be something of the bygone past. One must also wonder why the Netanyahu government is still dealing with Abbas when Abbas has taken absolutely no action to fulfill signed Palestinian commitments under the Oslo agreements and the 2003 Roadmap peace plan to arrest terrorists, confiscate their weaponry and end the incitement to hatred and murder that permeates the PA-controlled media, mosques, schools and youth camps.
“If this is the situation today, 16 years after the start of the Oslo process, what can the Netanyahu government believe and expect will be the situation this time next year or the year after?
“In these circumstances, it is dangerously unrealistic to proceed with a signed agreement with a PA regime that, to this date, has never honored a single one of its commitments. The drive to create a Palestinian state regardless of what Palestinians think and do is bound to lead to still more bloodshed and disaster. We have no reason for assuming that a sovereign Palestinian state, in Jew-free Judea and Samaria, will be any more peaceable, any more conciliatory or any more responsible than the current terror-promoting and terrorist-protecting regime.
“The PA is not a peace partner – it calls for violence against Israel and Israel has to deal with Palestinian who seek to murder and maim Israelis, especially on Jewish holidays. Do Arabs have to fear Jews coming to murder them on Muslim holidays? Of course not – there is simply no comparison.
“At no time has statehood been a method for preventing terrorism or producing peace. Iran, Syria and North Korea are all sovereign states – they are not lovely and peaceful. On the contrary, regimes like these in control of a country have greater capacity to inflict harm and advance their illiberal, violent agendas. The massive security operation that Israel is obliged to put in place to protect the country during a major holiday is stark and sad testimony to these truths.”