New York — Israel National News reported that “former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani has bucked the party line of successive US administrations and come out against the establishment of a Palestinian State.” They added that he “warned against the push by President George Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to establish a state in Judea & Samaria ruled by Fatah.”

 

These comments by Giuliani were made in the September/October issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. Giuliani also said that “it is not in the interests of the United States at a time when it is being threatened by Islamist terrorists, to assist in the creation of another state that will support terrorism.” Giuliani said Palestinians must show “a clear commitment to fighting terrorism, and willingness to live in peace with Israel.” He argued that the problem for Palestinians was not a “lack of statehood” but good governance and that too much emphasis had been placed on Israeli-Palestinian talks which just brought up the same issues “again and again.”

 

In commenting on the UN, he said it was “irrelevant to the resolution fo almost every major dispute of the last 50 years.”

 

There is a growing number of people who oppose the establishment of a Palestinian State, arguing it would only become another terrorist state. They include former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, General Moshe Ya’alon; former head of the CIA, Jim Woolsey; Mideast scholar, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University, Bernard Lewis and Dr. Daniel Pipes, Director of the Middle East Forum. Some have also noted that Iran, North Korea, and Syria are sovereign states, yet are not peace-loving states. Statehood does not guarantee a peaceful law-abiding country. In fact, it may only strengthen the promotion of the values espoused by the underlying culture.

 

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