Settling In for a Long Wait

A must-read, by Charles Krauthammer. Summary courtesy of the Presidents Conference Daily Alert, which is a daily must-read and the source for many of today's stories.

The article is important for articulating the best justification for Prime Minister Sharon's policy. This blog, and most of Israel, disagrees with the withdrawal, but we will settle for second-best as articulated by Krauthammer now that the fait has been accompli.

-Israel has no peace partner - Mahmoud Abbas has nothing to offer and has offered nothing - and in the absence of a partner, there is only one logical policy: Rationalize your defensive lines and prepare for a long wait.

-Far from Israel getting any credit for this deeply wrenching Gaza withdrawal, the demand now is for yet more concessions - from Israel. The New York Times called the Gaza withdrawal "only the beginning and declared that Sharon "must also be forewarned" that giving up the West Bank must be next."

-This is a counsel of folly. The idea that if only Israel made more concessions and more withdrawals, the Palestinians would be enticed into making peace is flatly contradicted by history. We are not talking ancient history here; we are talking the past 12 years.

-Under Oslo, Israel made massive, near-suicidal concessions: bringing the PLO back to life, installing Arafat in power in the West Bank and Gaza, permitting him to arm militia after militia, and ultimately offering him (at Camp David 2000) the first Palestinian state in history, with a shared Jerusalem and total Israeli withdrawal from 95% of the formerly occupied territories (with Israel giving up some of its own territory to make the Palestinians whole). How were these concessions met? With a savage terrorist war that killed 1,000 Israelis and maimed thousands more.

-The Gaza withdrawal is not the beginning but the end. Apart from perhaps some evacuations of outlying settlements on the West Bank, it is the end of the concession road for Israel. And it is the beginning of the new era of self-sufficiency and separation in which Israel ensures its security not by concessions, but by fortification, barrier creation, realism, and patient waiting.

-Waiting for the first-ever genuine Palestinian concessions. Waiting for the Palestinians to honor the promises - to recognize Israel and renounce terrorism - they solemnly made at Oslo and brazenly betrayed. That's the next step. Without it, nothing happens.