Last update - 00:00 20/07/2007
Save us from our friends' visions
By Israel Harel
U.S. President George W. Bush's vision of two states for two nations, which he repeated during his speech early this week, is a messianic vision. And it is being shattered against the walls of the Islamic resistance he is unfamiliar with, and which even great America under his leadership cannot breach despite its power and wealth. And from the pro-Israeli declarations in his speech we can see how far behind the times he is, even regarding Israel's transparent situation. Israel, he said, has to be a Jewish state "and the national home of the Jewish people." What he doesn't know is that many Israelis, including MK Menahem Ben-Sasson, the chairman of the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee - and other Jewish Knesset members - no longer agree with this Zionist conclusion.
Suicide bombers and Qassam rockets, which caused death and destruction in Israel, were the Palestinian responses to Bush's famous speech about the "vision of the Palestinian state," which is five years old this summer. But these things, including the intensification of Qassam terrorism after the destruction of the Jewish settlements in Gush Katif, did not teach a lesson either to the U.S. president or the political leaders in Israel.
Both he and they continue to promote a "vision" that has proven to be groundless from the time of the Oslo Accords' withdrawals and concessions to today. The solution to unending terror is not to be found, as Bush's vision implies, in Israel's hands. If Israel withdraws and even becomes more flexible on the issue of the Palestinian right of return, the terror will continue. As has been proven here and in other places, Bush does not base his visions on a rational foundation. A Palestinian state will be a base of radical Islam rather than a peace-loving neighbor.
And when the U.S. withdraws from Iraq, as it will, it will not have democracy, but rather a regime worse than that of Saddam Hussein: a radical Muslim autocracy, almost certainly Shi'ite, that will ignite the region. When the Shi'ite axis, Iran and Iraq, hungers for prey, it is not difficult to imagine the fate of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, and perhaps Egypt as well. Even in Afghanistan, despite the American sacrifice of lives and the investment in the economy, there will not be democracy. The Taliban, whom Bush eulogized after the furious American offensive after 9/11, is once again rearing its violent head.
Bush's moves have thus led to results opposite those he intended. The fulfillment of the vision of the Palestinian state has also led, due to a spineless and confused Israeli policy, to Hamas' domination of Gaza. Fatah's defeat, like the election results in the cities of Judea and Samaria in which Hamas also won a decisive victory, will lead to this organization ruling in Judea and Samaria as well. And in his speech Bush demanded that Israel, which has prevented Hamas from imposing extremist Islam on Judea and Samaria, withdraw from there as well.
No less naive is his belief in a regional summit conference. Syria, until it is given the Golan, will not attend such a conference. The same is true of Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the other Arab countries that do not recognize Israel. So who will participate in the "regional conference?" Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinians and Israel? But they met only two weeks ago in Sharm el-Sheikh. And of that it has already been said: Save me from the visions of my friends; I'll manage by myself with those of my enemies.