No Arafat Jokes. No French Jokes.

Because nothing was possible with Arafat, the idea that if his exit from the Mukata is permanent Israel can find a new “partner” in the “peace process” has already been floated. This is what is known in political parlance as a BAD IDEA; A REALLY BAD IDEA that portends even more misery for the Palestinian people, and more threat to Israel.

Because nothing was possible with Arafat, the idea that if his exit from the Mukata is permanent Israel can find a new “partner” in the “peace process” has already been floated. This is what is known in political parlance as a BAD IDEA; A REALLY BAD IDEA that portends even more misery for the Palestinian people, and more threat to Israel.

The “peace process,” such as it was, was based on two flawed premises. First, that the issue was real estate and the only question was how much of it the Palestinians and their Arab backers required to drop their opposition to the existence of a Jewish state on any of it. Second and related, was that an Arab/Palestinian leader who accepted the deal would be willing and able to carry it out.

Since 1993, we have watched Arafat’s PA and its terrorist offshoots, plus Hamas, Islamic Jihad and assorted Chechens, Hizballah, PFLP, DFLP and other alphabet-soup stragglers devour their own children. They sacrificed educational, economic and political potential in the Palestinian community to their murderous desire to destroy Israel. They fed their people, especially the most vulnerable, lies and more lies about Israel, Jews, Americans, September 11th and the belief that they can turn back time. They created mechanisms of death that would once have defied credulity. Beslan is their legacy.

They were aided in this self-mutilation by the Arab states, the UN – UNRWA in particular – the EU and Russia that knowingly provided money and political cover to murderers and thieves. And aided throughout by a U.S. policy that asked the Palestinians to accept the legitimacy of Israel before their Arab patrons did. There was no reason to believe they could or would. The second intifadah is their legacy.

Current U.S.policy, the moribund Road Map aside, restores the old and proper balance – it is an Arab-Israel conflict, not an Israeli-Palestinian conflict and it needs to be settled by countries, not semi-reformed terrorist organizations. The restoration of UN Resolution 242 and defensible borders for the Jewish state to American diplomatic parlance has been welcome, and it is in the Palestinian interest to have it continue and redouble.

No matter what happens to Arafat, the Palestinian experiment in self-government has been a disaster and shouldn’t be repeated until a broader framework for a more peaceful Middle East is established. One major step would be for real countries with real governments that can be held at least partially accountable to be told to meet their obligations under Res. 242. “Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.”

The real road map to peace is in those words. Making Arab states go first would give the Palestinians a chance to reorganize and try to recover from the hideous nightmare that was Yasser Arafat.