End of conflict requires destruction of hatred

Levi is president of the Jewish Student Union.

By Justin Levi

In the last few weeks, we have seen some of the bloodiest
carnage in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Many
are asking: “Who’s to blame?” But the responsible
question is: “Who will change this?” No one has, as
yet, stepped up to the plate.

For the Palestinians, we have Palestinian Authority President
Yasser Arafat, the terrorist par excellence, whose campaign of
violence has resulted in the deaths of countless innocent Israeli
civilians. The masquerade of the last eight years is over, and the
world can now see that Arafat can’t and won’t make
peace with Israel, precisely because he wants Israel destroyed.
This is why he turned down the historic and far-reaching peace
initiative proposed by Ehud Barak at Camp David in 2000.

For the Israelis, we have Ariel Sharon, who on top of having
little credibility in the eyes of the world community, has
surprisingly rendered himself impotent in this latest round of
violence. This ineffectiveness extends to his unwillingness to
destroy the terrorist group Hamas once and for all in the wake of
last week’s Passover massacre.

Enter Benjamin Netanyahu ““ the former Israeli Prime
Minister who was swept from power by a wave of sentiment geared
toward peace, and who may be swept back in by an Israeli public
that realizes they were living a pipe dream for ever expecting that
they could make peace with Arafat. Sharon is treating this conflict
like his own personal grudge match with the Palestinian leader, and
only Netanyahu it seems, can step in and treat the situation with
the necessary containment policy.

It is a simple premise that in order to make peace, both sides
have to be willing. When one side desires war and massacre above
all else, advocating a policy of appeasement borders on the absurd.
Instead, one must accept reality and act as such.

For its own sake, the Israelis must demonstrate to the
Palestinians that targeting and murdering innocent babies, as they
have done numerous times, will not work. A massive incursion into
the territories with the intent of destroying the terrorist
infrastructure is the only way this message can be properly
conveyed.

When the dust settles, the two parties must work to change the
sociological conditions in the territories that create such hatred,
which is what is fueling this conflict. Without question, it is
Netanyahu that is most able to bring this situation about in the
first place.

Right now, every external influence in the average
Palestinian’s life ““ religion, politics, education,
leadership, family, friends ““ is reinforcing the same idea
that it is a holy act to kill Israelis and to kill Jews. The
conflict is about hatred, not “occupation.” Indeed,
many Palestinians now believe the blood libel stereotype, dating
back a thousand years, which says that Jews use the blood of
Christian and Muslim children to make ritual foods for their
holidays. You simply can’t make peace with people that
believe such filth.

The solution, therefore, rests on the conviction of the Israelis
to change the fundamental sociological underpinnings that make this
hatred possible. After destroying the terrorist web, the Israelis
must dissolve the Palestinian Authority and the PLO in order to get
rid of the idea that there are honest brokers among the P.A.
leadership. Then Israel must latch on to those Palestinians it
knows are willing to work with it to make peace, and aid them in
building a new Palestinian leadership organization that is willing
to crack down on remaining terrorism and that is willing to
advocate a policy of coexistence, in Arabic, to its followers.

Working to coexist includes changing Palestinian textbooks,
permitting dissent among its own ranks, and condemning the idea
that the murder of innocent Israelis and Jews is morally
justified.

It will take many years but eventually, the next generation of
Palestinians may be born into a world that preaches the values of
peace and coexistence, rather than the values of hatred and
destruction, which have held them back for so long.