A Briefing for the President, Part II

Visiting the Palestinian Authority for the first time, Mr. President, you might want to acquaint yourself with the thinking of the Palestinians on subjects of concern to you and the American people. We offer a few questions you might ask Abu Mazen:

• My Secretary of State and I have referred to “the occupation that began in 1967.” What year did the Israeli “occupation of Palestine” actually begin?
• When Americans refer to “Israeli settlements,” they mean houses for Jews built east of the 1949 Armistice Line. Would you show me where “Israeli settlements” actually are on your map?
  
  Visiting the Palestinian Authority for the first time, Mr. President, you might want to acquaint yourself with the thinking of the Palestinians on subjects of concern to you and the American people. We offer a few questions you might ask Abu Mazen:
  • My Secretary of State and I have referred to “the occupation that began in 1967.” What year did the Israeli “occupation of Palestine” actually begin?
  • When Americans refer to “Israeli settlements,” they mean houses for Jews built east of the 1949 Armistice Line. Would you show me where “Israeli settlements” actually are on your map? (Looking at the map, ask, “Where is Israel?”)
  • When I ask Israelis where they conceive the State of Palestine to be after a peace agreement, they respond with some variation of the West Bank and Gaza, with some arrangement for Jerusalem. This corresponds with my understanding of where Palestine will be. Where do you conceive the State of Israel to be after a peace agreement? (Mr. President, “In the sea” is not an acceptable answer here.)
  • You are receiving American money, equipment and the help of an American Army General to improve your security force capabilities. How can you give the American people confidence that our military is not simply producing more capable Palestinians terrorists? How can you give the Israeli people confidence that you will use these capabilities to protect the people of Israel from Palestinian terrorism, since some of that terrorism – including the murder of three Israelis in the past two months – was conducted by your own Fatah forces?
  • Gilad Shalit was captured while you were in control of the Gaza Strip. Why has he been denied visits from the International Red Cross? Will you join me in a demand that the Red Cross visit him?
  • And, speaking the Gaza Strip, it was under your control there that Qassam rockets began to be fired at Israel. In 2007, 1,263 rockets and 1,511 mortar shells were fired at Israel, compared with 1,722 rockets and 55 mortars in 2006. I would not tolerate fire from Canada or Mexico into the United States, even into sparsely populated parts of North Dakota or Arizona. Will you join me in a demand to end to the firing of rockets and mortars at Israel?
  • Palestinians call the establishment of Israel in 1948 the “naqba,” the catastrophe. Is the catastrophe the fact that a Jewish state was established in part of Mandatory Palestine, or that the Arabs did not permit the establishment of the corollary Palestinian Arab State? If the former, how do you think the United States can help you correct the injustice, and why do you think we would?
  • May I make an unannounced visit to a classroom in the Palestinian Authority and take home samples of textbooks and lesson plans?