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             In the 2554 years between 587 B.C.E. and 1967 C.E., Jerusalem was conquered more than twenty times, and, as part of many empires, was ruled from different and distant capital cities.  Only for the Jews (for more than 650 years), for the Crusaders (for 188 years), and for the State of Israel (since 1949) has Jerusalem served as a capital city.

 

            The official map of “Palestine” issued by the Palestine Authority (PA) shows the projected State of Palestine as comprising all of the West Bank (Judea/Samaria), all of Gaza, all of the State of Israel, and even a “slice” of the Kingdom of Jordan.  Additionally, it excludes any reference to a Jewish population, listing holy sites of Christians and Muslims only.  An official cartographer, Khalil Tufakji, was commissioned by the PA to design and to locate a proposed Capitol Building. This he drew on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. It would be constructed, he indicated, directly on top of an ancient Jewish cemetery.

 

            From the Oslo Accords’ very beginnings, on September 1, 1993, Yasser Arafat reaffirmed that the “peace” agreements were an intrinsic part of the PLO’s 1974 phased plan for Israel’s destruction: “The agreement will be a basis for an independent Palestinian state in accordance with the Palestinian National Council resolution issued in 1974….The PNC resolution issued in 1974 calls for the establishment of a national authority on any part of Palestinian soil from which Israel withdraws or which is liberated…” Ominously, on May 29, 1994, Rashid Abu Shbak, a senior PA security official, had remarked:  “The light which has shone over Gaza and Jericho will also reach the Negev and the Galilee.”
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            Speaking of maps, it will be instructive to consider the following:  The Arab world is comprised of 22 states of nearly five million square miles and 150,000,000 people.  The Islamic world contains 44 states with well over one billion people.  The Islamic states comprise an area 672 times the size of Israel.  Israel, with a population of about six million Jews, is – together with Judea/Samaria – less than half the size of San Bernardino County in California.  The Sinai Desert, which Israel presented to Egypt in the 1979 Treaty, is itself three times larger than the entire State of Israel.

 

            What about the history of Palestinian compliance with the so-called Peace Process? Incontestably the PA and Hamas are both guilty of multiple material breaches of the original Oslo Accords.  For example:

 

1.       PA/Hamas still fail to confiscate arms and to disarm militias.  The Palestinian police (still drawing upon terrorists for recruitment) are legally obligated to disarm all militias acting in areas under its jurisdiction, to confiscate all weapons other than pistols, and to license pistols in accordance with regulations to be established by the two sides (Annex I, Art. II, 1 and Art. XI).  In fact, all of the militias which were operating when the PA first assumed control over Gaza and Jericho – Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Fatah – remain armed.  In total violation of the Oslo Accords and the successor Road Map, Hamas – even after Israel’s Operation Cast Lead – is still establishing a thriving military industry in Gaza,complete with extensive cross-border smuggling from Egypt.  Even before Prime Minister Sharon’s ill-fated “disengagement” from Gaza, Hamas had established multiple factories for manufacturing various kinds of ammunition.  Moreover, and notwithstanding U.S. President Barack Obama’s support of the Road Map, Hamas is now actively engaged in assorted and growing collaborations with al Qaeda. 

 

2.         The PA still refuses to present Israel with lists of Palestinian policemen.  To enable Israel to prevent terrorists from joining the Palestinian police force (an expectation that Israel has consistently been unable to satisfy), the PA is obligated to submit the list of all potential recruits for Israel’s approval (Annex I, Art. IV, 4).  This requirement is especially critical regarding those Palestinians who were initially recruited from those areas where Hamas and Islamic Jihad influence has always been particularly strong.  The PA has never submitted any of the names from when it recruited forces for Gaza and Jericho.  The PA repeated its codified commitment concerning recruitment for the additional areas governed by the Interim Agreement, but it has still continued and enlarged its policy of systematic noncompliance.

 

3.         The PA has long exceeded the permissible number of policemen.  The early Gaza-Jericho Accords of May 1994 limited the number of Palestinian policemen to 9000 (Annex I, Art. III, 3), but during the period when the PA controlled these two areas they enrolled approximately 20,000 people in their so-called “security forces.” The Interim Agreement expanded the PA’s jurisdiction to additional parts of Judea/Samaria, and increased the permissible number of policemen to 24,000 in areas A and B, including Gaza (Annex I, Art. IV, 3).  Early on, however, the PA police signed on more than 30,000 men and perhaps as many as 40,000 or even 50,000.  This would suggest that the PA police have always been recruited not as a police agency, but as an army.

 

4.         The PA still continues to refuse to extradite any suspected terrorists.  The PA is still obligated to turn over to Israel for trial all individuals for whom Israel provides an arrest warrant and proof of terrorist activity (Annex IV, II, 7).  Yet, to date, Israel has requested several hundred suspects in mass murder, murder or attempted murder of Israelis, and not one has been handed over to Israeli authorities.  Leading PA officials have made it perfectly clear that they have absolutely no intention of honoring the extradition provisions of the Oslo Accords, and that they will continue their wholesale illegal intransigence under the RoadMap. Reciprocally, it should be pointed out, Israel has absolutely no right under international law to free terrorists – an egregious practice which has been accepted by several successive Israeli governments, and always with deeply regrettable human outcomes.

 

5.         The PA has failed entirely to use its court system for the punishment of terrorists.  The Palestinian police are obligated to “arrest and prosecute individuals who are suspected of perpetrating acts of terror and violence.” (Annex I, Art. II, 1).  Yet, for years, not one of the top leaders of the military wings of PA, Hamas or Islamic Jihad has been sentenced in this regard – a policy of flagrant Palestinian law-violation that continues without apology, and assuredly without any sanctions from the so-called “international community.”

 

6.         The PA leadership has become more rather than less complicit in its persistent incitement to terror. The Palestinian leadership is obligated to refrain from incitement to terrorism (Art. XXII). Yet, there have been many statements by PA government officials calling stridently for Jihad, and praising those who have brought unspeakable death to Israeli men, women and children.

 

LOUIS RENÉ BERES (Ph.D., Princeton, 1971) lectures and publishes widely on Israeli and US foreign and military policies. He is Strategic and Military Affairs columnist for The Jewish Press.


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Louis René Beres (Ph.D., Princeton, 1971) is Emeritus Professor of International Law at Purdue and the author of twelve books and several hundred articles on nuclear strategy and nuclear war. He was Chair of Project Daniel, which submitted its special report on Israel’s Strategic Future to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, on January 16, 2003.