Been There, Done That

August 15, 2002

by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

Originally Posted at National Review Thursday, August 15, 2002

Conservative right-wingers can be so daft sometimes. Really.

After nearly two years of ongoing terrorist violence against Israelis and IDF counter-offensives, the Labor party leader and Israeli defense minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer has finally come up with a revolutionary plan, presented to the PLO leadership last week, to end the bloodshed. His proposal is unofficially known as "Gaza and Bethlehem First", as it calls for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Bethlehem, with the PLO filling the security and administrative vacuum left by the Israelis. After PLO leader Yasser Arafat has proven his ability to control those areas, the withdrawals would continue until the Arab population centers are all under the Palestinian Authority. Thus far, the PLO leadership has accepted the idea, in principle, but is troubled that the deal would not include Ramallah, home to Arafat"s headquarters, in its first stage.

While the new Israeli proposal may seem to have an uncanny resemblance to the May 1994 "Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area", unofficially known as "Gaza and Jericho First", that is only when viewed through the eyes of conservative right-wingers, unwilling to give peace a chance. The 1994 agreement called for Israeli implementation of "an accelerated and scheduled withdrawal of Israeli military forces from the Gaza Strip and from the Jericho Area" [and] shall transfer authority" to the Palestinian Authority"" It should be clear that, while the original 1994 Oslo agreement referred to turning Gaza and *Jericho* over to Arafat"s PLO, the Ben-Eliezer proposal is completely and utterly different, in that it calls for turning Gaza and *Bethlehem* over to Arafat"s PLO.

The new peace proposal is so innovative that it led to talks among the various terrorist groups operating in the Palestinian Authority, including the Hamas and Islamic Jihad, regarding a suspension of suicide bombings against civilians inside Israel"s pre-1967 "Green Line". The Supreme Council of the National and Islamic forces met over the past few days to review and discuss a draft declaration, prepared by the Palestinian Authority and Yasser Arafat"s Fatah, that would limit "resistance operations" to Judea, Samaria and Gaza only. It is true that the partial cease-fire would not have applied to such attacks as the June 20, 2002, murder of Rachel Shabo, her five year old son Avishai, her 13 year old son Zvika and her 16 year old son Neria in their home in Itamar, nor would it have prevented the shooting death of five year old Danielle Shefi and the injuring of her two younger brothers as they played in their parents" bedroom in Adora, in late April, but one cannot minimize the importance of such a declaration. If the Hamas and Islamic Jihad were to agree, even for a temporary period, to murder Jewish children only in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, then that could pave the way to implementation of the Ben-Eliezer peace plan.

Yasser Arafat"s Fatah, represented by the Tanzim and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, is already officially against attacks inside "Green Line" Israel. In fact, erstwhile Tanzim leader, and now Israeli prisoner, Marwan Barghouti, wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post on January 16, 2002, wherein he renounced terrorism and wrote that "I, and the Fatah movement to which I belong, strongly oppose attacks and the targeting of civilians inside Israel, our future neighbor"." It is true that one day after the Barghouti piece was published, Tanzim gunmen attacked a bat mitzvah party (in Hadera), killing six civilians and wounding over thirty, but, in principle, the moderate PLO leadership is opposed to such actions in pre-1967 Israel. That is, with the exception of the Fatah’s May 27, 2000, suicide bombing outside a mall in Petah Tikva, the April 12, 2002, suicide bombing in Jerusalem’s outdoor market, the March 30, 2002, suicide bombing in a Tel-Aviv café, the March 29, 2002, suicide bombing inside a supermarket in Jerusalem, the March 21, 2002 suicide bombing in the middle of King George Street in Jerusalem and the March 2, 2002, suicide bombing of a bar-mitzvah celebration in the Beit Yisrael neighborhood in Jerusalem.

Other than the foregoing exceptions, any left-wing leader truly interested in peace must believe that the PLO will now religiously abide by commitments undertaken in the framework of the innovative "Gaza and Bethlehem First" proposal. Furthermore, while the 1994 "Gaza and Jericho" agreement led to hundreds of Israeli deaths at the hands of PLO-backed terrorists "more than during a similar period of time preceding the agreement" the new and improved proposal, once implemented, will surely bring stability and peace to the region.

Recently, the prime minister threatened to call for new elections if the government budget does not pass an upcoming Knesset vote. This could be a positive development, as the Israeli electorate will be given the chance to vote for radically new Labor party ideas in the pursuit of peace.

Rumor has it that the proposed Likud campaign slogan will be "Been There, Done That."