Opinion
& Comment
No Solutions, Just Improvements
"There is no alternative to Yasser Arafat. He is the only one
with the stature, prestige and public support to make a
settlement with Israel and force it upon those who oppose
such a settlement." "There is no military solution to the
Israeli Palestinian conflict. If you kill one terrorist,
others will come in his place. The solution must be political
and social."
Both of these statements are true, but they do not have the
consequences that those who make them intend.
The justification for getting rid of Arafat does not lie in
those who are expected to replace him. The justification for
taking military action is not that it is a complete
solution.
For years senior Israeli officials have been saying that
Arafat should go. The Israeli government has now officially
decided to get rid of him, but they have not decided when.
No one defends Arafat personally. He is the originator of
modern terror and its practitioner for almost 40 years. He is
directly responsible for hundreds of deaths, including dozens
of American victims. Despite renouncing violence as a means
of settling disputes in the ten-year-old Oslo agreements and
several subsequent signed agreements, he initiated the
current three-year conflict after being offered a Palestinian
state with everything he had ever asked for. To this day he
continues the violence that plagues this part of the world,
both passively and actively.
Many argue that he is the only Palestinian with the clout to
really fight the other Palestinian terror groups. Maybe so,
but he has no intention of using his power in that way. He
has proven this time and again. Even at the height of the
"peace process" he only arrested terrorists and held them,
and even that was in order to avoid having to turn them over
to Israel as the Oslo agreement specified. The Palestinians
held show trials and released the worst criminals soon
after.
Arafat clearly is a world-class rosho and the less
power and influence that he has, the better a place the world
will be. Eliminating or neutralizing a bad person is always
good for the world. No one can say what will happen if Arafat
is out of the way, and speculation about things being worse
cannot be given much weight. It does not take much
imagination to think of scenarios that will be much better as
well as worse, chas vesholom. There is no reason to
evaluate the decision to remove him from the perspective of a
final settlement -- just get rid of a rosho. That will
certainly improve things.
The error of the argument against a "military solution" is
similar. The reason for military action is not just a
military solution. The efforts of the security services, with
siyata deShmaya, save many lives as they foil planned
attacks and arrest or eliminate criminal terrorists. They
also put pressure on the Palestinians. They improve the
world, even if they do not fully solve problems.
Though the overall policy has much to recommend it, the
actions of the government in this area so far do not inspire
confidence. The prime minister cut short his important trip
to India to rush home and then decide that Arafat has to go,
but not yet, especially since America is against it.
As in so many other areas, the government gives the
impression that it is desperately trying to appease the
public's short term demands, without any clear idea of where
it is heading.
Our own job now is teshuvoh, tefilloh, and
tzedokoh, and that is certainly the most important
effort for the world's welfare.
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