This is the Second Time, Mr. Hadley
The determination to create a Palestinian State is part of President Bush’s “Freedom Agenda,” said National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, who gave a speech this week remarkable for denigrating both Israel’s own faith in democracy and its sacrifices under the Oslo Accords. Mr. Hadley said, among other things:
The determination to create a Palestinian State is part of President Bush’s “Freedom Agenda,” said National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, who gave a speech this week remarkable for denigrating both Israel’s own faith in democracy and its sacrifices under the Oslo Accords. Mr. Hadley said, among other things:
For much of the last century the Freedom Agenda seemed to inform U.S. policy in every region of the world except the Middle East. (Palestinian statehood is possible now because) Key segments of the Israeli public have given up the aspiration for a ‘Greater Israel’ and no longer wish to retain control over the West Bank and populate it with Israeli settlers… the Israeli public… (has) come to understand that the establishment of a free and democratic Palestinian state… can advance international recognition and acceptance of a free and democratic Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people.
We are appalled that a U.S. government official believes international recognition of Israel is dependent on the creation of a 23rd Arab country. Israel’s permanence and legitimacy are not conditional and not subject to review. We are further appalled that Mr. Hadley thinks Israel woke up in the 21st Century and said, “Hey, let’s give up ‘Greater Israel’ and help the Palestinians with democracy!” Been there; done that; failed.
The Oslo Accords were enormously problematic, but they were remarkable in one aspect. Israel had been rejected, vilified, attacked and undermined by the Arab world before and after it found itself in control of more than a million Palestinians as a result of a defensive war in 1967. The Palestinians, who were never ever sovereign, were brutalized from 1948-67 as Jordan and Egypt illegally occupied territory intended as their state. Yet it was Israel, at Oslo in 1993, which offered the Palestinians a path to statehood in the belief that positive nationalism offers the Palestinians democracy, liberty and freedom, as Zionism did for Jews. It was a breathtaking offer by Jerusalem, very much in the mode of President Bush’s belief, which Mr. Hadley echoed: “Freedom is the right of every person… it is God’s gift to every person… freedom was the basis of our founding as a nation.”
And it was Israel’s. Both stem from Old Testament emphasis on the value of each person as having been created in the image of the Creator.
Israel was offering a “Freedom Agenda” in 1993, with high hopes and expectations – which were dashed on the reality that Palestinian leadership under Arafat and his deputy Abu Mazen were interested in acquiring territory only to use it as a launching pad for terrorism against Israel. The Oslo experience radicalized the Palestinians, and terrorism against Israel reached new levels, culminating in the 2000-2004 Palestinian war against Israeli civilians. Israelis took a more than reasonable step back.
Israel in 2007 appears willing once again to trust that there can be a positive Palestinian nationalism and a Palestinian leadership that has broken from its own past. Without judging Israel’s decision, if Israel is willing to try it AGAIN, then Israel should be understood to be taking a SECOND leap of faith. It is unbecoming of American officials to ignore the depth of the suffering Israel experienced at the hands of Palestinian terrorists and fail to appreciate Israel’s willingness to try AGAIN to bring the promise of democracy and liberty to people who appear unwilling to accept it.