A PLO State: Civilized Democracy or Terrorist State? Mideast Conference’s Goal Of Creating A Palestinian State Gravely Endangers Israel
NEW YORK – The creation of a Palestinian Arab state, which is the declared aim of the forthcoming Middle East peace conference, would gravely endanger Israel by, among other things, reducing it to indefensible borders that would be just nine miles wide, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has pointed out.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein noted the contradiction between the corrupt, terrorist regime that Yasir Arafat currently runs, and President Bush’s statement that a Palestinian state “cannot be based on a foundation of terror or corruption … it must be based on democracy and open markets, the rule of law, transparent and accountable administration, and respect for individual liberties and civil society.” (Washington Post, May 3, 2002)
The ZOA president said: “If we want to know what a Palestinian state will be like, just look what the Palestinian Authority regime has been like. For eight years, Arafat has presided over a dictatorship that orders, pays for, and harbors terrorists; is rife with corruption; and suppresses liberty and freedom. A full-fledged Palestinian state will be just as bad, or worse. This would be the only time in history that a state would be established not to provide a better life for its citizens, but to pursue the destruction of another state.”
The creation of a Palestinian Arab state will:
* Endanger America’s ally, Israel, by establishing a terrorist state that will station its forces just miles from Israel’s major cities—and leave Israel just nine miles wide at its vulnerable mid-section. A Palestinian state would share a Israel’s longest border, flanking the areas that contain 70% of Israel’s population, including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa— plenty of tempting targets for cross-border attacks by terrorists who would then take refuge in the Palestinian state.
U.S. MILITARY EXPERTS WARNED AGAINST ISRAELI RETREAT:
If Israel is forced back to the pre-1967 borders, it would be stripped of the protective Judea-Samaria mountain ranges. U.S. Lieut.-General Thomas Kelly, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War, has pointed out that Israel would be virtually indefensible without those mountainous areas: “I look out from those heights and look onto the West Bank and say to myself, ‘If I’m the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, I cannot defend this land without that terrain.’ They only have to go to the high ground running north and south in the middle of the country in order to dominate the country. So I don’t know about politics, but if you want me to defend this country, and you want me to defend Jerusalem, I’ve got to hold that high ground.”
Shortly after the 1967 war, U.S.Defense Secretary Robert McNamara asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff to analyze which of the administered territories Israel needed to keep for its security. Regarding Judea-Samaria, the Joint Chiefs concluded: “Control of the prominent high ground running north-south through the middle of West Jordan [the “West Bank”]…and then southeast to a junction with the Dead Sea…would provide Israel with a militarily defensible border.”
Even if Arafat initially agreed to demilitarization, how could Israel prevent him from later violating such an agreement? Germany was demilitarized after World War I, but when Hitler began building up the Germany army during the 1930s, the Allies took no action, because they were not prepared to go to war over Hitler’s infractions. Iraq was supposed to be demilitarized after the Gulf War, yet it has been steadily rebuilding its military. A Palestinian Arab state would have its own airports and seaports, as well as borders with Egypt and Jordan, making it relatively easy to import heavy weapons, missiles, and troops from Iraq. And the same kind of Iranian “volunteers” who have been sent to aid the Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon would no doubt be dispatched to “Palestine.”
ADDITIONAL DANGERS OF A PALESTINIAN STATE:
* Undermine the fight against terrorism by giving the Palestinian Arab terrorists a reward for their violence.
* Boost Bin Laden’s allies —Osama Bin Laden’s terrorists are closely allied with the terrorists of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and Fatah, who are attacking Israel and who would control a future Palestinian Arab state.
* Endanger Jordan. Arafat’s forces could join with the Palestinian Arab residents of Jordan —where they are a majority of the population— to overthrow King Abdullah and create a single state that will stretch all the way to the Jordanian border with Iraq. Arafat already tried once (in 1969-1970) to take over Jordan; the PLO’s official ideology claims that all of Jordan should be part of “Palestine.”
* Create another anti-American dictatorship —Yasir Arafat’s Palestinian Authority is a brutal Muslim dictatorship which tortures dissidents, silences newspaper that deviate from Arafat’s line, and persecutes Christians. The official PA media actively incites hatred against America, and the Arafat maintains warm relations with the most anti-American regimes in the world, including Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, North Korea, and Cuba.
* Endanger Jewish religious rights —the Palestinian Authority has already destroyed one key Jewish religious site, the Tomb of Joseph, turning it into a mosque and barring Jews from the area. The ancient Shalom al-Yisrael synagogue in PA-controlled Jericho has also been burned down. PA officials have called for banning Jewish prayer from Jerusalem’s Western Wall and Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs, and PA police officers regularly carry out shooting attacks on the Tomb of Rachel, near Bethlehem. In an Arafat state, Jews will be prevented from access to their religious sites.
* Endanger Palestinian Arab Christians —Christian Arabs living in PA territory “are subjected to brutal and relentless persecution,” according to the Israeli government. Bethlehem, which once had a Christian majority, is now 80% Muslim; most of its Christian residents have left because of Muslim harassment. Christians are not allowed to build, or even renovate, churches in PA territory. American courts have granted asylum to Palestinian Christian Arabs on the grounds that they will be persecuted if they return to PA-controlled areas. U.S.Senator Connie Mack and a delegation of ZOA leaders met in Israel in 1999 with Christian Arabs who described, first-hand, how they had been tortured by the PA police because of their Christian beliefs. If this is how badly Christian Arabs are treated by Arafat now, it will undoubtedly worsen if Arafat is given a sovereign state.
* Endanger Israel’s water supply. A significant portion of Israel’s water originates in Judea-Samaria. If Arafat has sovereignty, he could shut off the flow of that water. There would also be an increase danger of Palestinian Arab terrorists sabotaging the Israeli water supply.
GROWING OPPOSITION TO A PALESTINIAN STATE:
* The Likud’s political bureau —an internal forum of Likud leaders— voted unanimously in January 2002 to oppose the creation of a Palestinian Arab state.
* Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu —who is likely to succeed Ariel Sharon as Israel’s next prime minister, has said that “a Palestinian state must never be established and that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat must be overthrown.” Netanyahu also said that “with its own independent port, such a state would receive shiploads of arms day and night and we would find ourselves facing a terrorist state, armed to the teeth.” (Jerusalem Post, Jan.17, 2002)
* A recent poll found 68% of Israeli Jews believe that “regardless of the size or strength of a Palestinian state, if one is established it will constitute a threat to the State of Israel”; and 64% of Israeli Jews believe the creation of a Palestinian Arab state would “increase the ability of the Arab states to threaten Israel.”
Only 9% of Israeli Jews believe creating a Palestinian Arab state would reduce the Arab states’ threat to Israel. The poll was carried out on Nov.25-26, 2001 by the Smith Institute, Israel’s most prominent polling firm; it was co-sponsored by the ZOA and the Israeli news agency IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis).