The Road Map from Iraq, Part I

“I do not believe there is any other issue with the same power to reunite the world community than progress on the issues of Israel and Palestine,” said British Prime Minister Tony Blair. As grateful as we are for his steadfast and passionate defense of liberty for Iraq, we feel compelled to point out that the only unity most of the world is likely to find on Israel and Palestine is that Israel should stop doing whatever most of the world says it is doing that most of the world doesn’t like.

In which case, as in the case of Iraq, most of the world will be wrong.

“I do not believe there is any other issue with the same power to reunite the world community than progress on the issues of Israel and Palestine,” said British Prime Minister Tony Blair. As grateful as we are for his steadfast and passionate defense of liberty for Iraq, we feel compelled to point out that the only unity most of the world is likely to find on Israel and Palestine is that Israel should stop doing whatever most of the world says it is doing that most of the world doesn’t like.

In which case, as in the case of Iraq, most of the world will be wrong.

And the ones who are likely to be most wrong on Israel are precisely those who were most wrong on Iraq – the European Union, Russia and the United Nations; 3/4 of the “Quartet” planning to implement the still-secret “Road Map” to Palestinian-Israeli peace. And for the same reasons.

Wedded to the belief that negotiations with dictators can be productive and that the word of a dictator can be trusted; seeing no moral difference between dictators and the democracies they threaten; and seeing no moral difference between blowing up children in pizza parlors or dropping poison gas on ethnic minorities and defending against such depredations, the EU, the UN and Russia are morally and politically unequipped to demand of the Palestinians (or the Iraqis) the sort of reform to civilized behavior that could induce productive negotiations between them and anyone else. In particular, Russian behavior in Chechnya makes it morally and French behavior on Iraq makes it politically unequipped to be America’s partner in international negotiations

And a word about the British, part of both the EU and the UN. While terrific on Iraq, it cannot be forgotten that the British caused three of the world’s most intractable problems by partitioning territory between groups with historic enmity – India/Pakistan, Northern Ireland and Israel/Palestinians. The Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland – touted as a model for Israel – is a failure because the terrorists won’t disarm and the British can’t figure out how to make them, which is the real lesson for Israel. Under the circumstances, Britain is both morally and politically unequipped to be our partner in negotiations to rectify previous British failures.

So is there no hope for finding a modus vivendi between Israelis and Palestinians?

Perhaps; the fourth member of the Quartet – the United States – has both moral and political capital. Our president told the UN to enforce its own resolutions or face irrelevance. He told Saddam to meet UN demands or face “regime change.” He promised the Iraqi people liberation. And he delivered.

If the Palestinians are serious about ending their war against Israel, negotiating a better life for their people, and moving toward democratic control of their own lives, the U.S. no doubt stands ready to be of assistance.