Dennis Ross, the most prominent American mediator during most of the Oslo process, has recognized a primary reason for its failure was the way America ignored Palestinian Arab incitement. In his informative book, The Missing Peace, he writes about "the Palestinians' systematic incitement in their media, an educational system that bred hatred, and the glorification of violence."
That incitement, a systematic indoctrination of hatred by the Palestinian Authority, continues unabated under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, even though he is almost always referred to as being "moderate."
The bloody consequences of Abbas' duplicity has been documented by the Palestinian Media Watch, which monitors the official Palestinian Authority outlets and translates some of their content into English.
Within the last few weeks:
Palestinian Authority television broadcast a program honoring Ahlam Tamimi, the woman who drove a suicide bomber to the Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem in 2001, where he murdered fifteen people.
Palestinian Authority television honored Fahami Mashahara for driving a suicide bomber to the Gilo neighborhood in Jerusalem, where he murdered nineteen people and injured more than a hundred others.
Abbas himself awarded a presidential grant to the family of Khaldoun Najib Samoudy, a terrorist recently killed as he was preparing a terrorist attack at the Hamra checkpoint.
The Palestinian Authority announced plans for the "Shahida of Honor, Wafa Idris Tournament." Idris was the first Palestinian Arab female suicide bomber, blowing herself up in Jerusalem in 2002, injuring more than 150 people and killing one.
Besides glorifying the murderers of innocent Israeli civilians, a few days ago Abbas recently announced he would be going to Gaza to meet with the leaders of Hamas in an attempt to reconcile with them. One wonders why he is so eager to meet with the fanatical Islamists destroying Gaza while he continues to refuse to meet with Israeli leaders who actually want to make peace.
Among the recent consequences of Abbas' duplicity:
On March 23, another bomb exploded at a bus station in Israel's capital of Jerusalem. Dozens were injured and at least one woman was killed.
On March 12, a Palestinian Arab terrorist murdered five members of the Fogel family in Itamar, some of them as they slept. Not content with mere murder, according to some reports, they beheaded the Fogel's three month old baby.) Just a few weeks before, Palestinian Authority television had honored Habash Hanani for murdering three high school students in the same town in May, 2002. Undoubtedly, after the murderer of the Fogel family is found, he too will be glorified by the Palestinian Authority.
No wonder, during the two months I recently spent in Israel, I could not find anyone with any real hope for peace within the next generation.
In Israel, the children are taught about peace and reconciliation. People try to understand the Arab perspective. Government leaders, even those considered "hard-line," are prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to induce their Arab neighbors to agree to live together in peace.
In the Palestinian Authority, children are still taught to hate. They are taught to blow up rather than grow up. Even so-called "moderate" leaders like Mahmoud Abbas insist they will never make any concessions, standing fast with outlandish demands that effectively call for the elimination of Israel. And, for the last two years, except for a brief, three-week, interlude, Abbas has refused to even pretend to negotiate with Israel.
America gives a large amount of assistance to the Palestinian Arabs. We have even increased that assistance during the last two years, even as the Palestinian Authority has steadfastly refused to negotiate and continued to do its best to torpedo peace prospects.
We continue to make the same mistakes Dennis Ross wrote about.
It's time to learn and to change. If we can use our leverage to induce the Palestinian Authority to create a generation open to peace rather than indoctrinated to hate, there will be a chance that Israeli and Palestinian Arab children will grow up rather than blow up.
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