Earlier this week, I made the mistake of reading the communiqué published at the end of the March 19
Sharm el-Sheikh multilateral conference.
I say “mistake” because the document, which sums up various points agreed upon by Israeli, Palestinian, American, Egyptian and Jordanian political and security leaders, is so one-sided and infuriating that it is difficult to comprehend how the government could have agreed to such shameful terms.
Thankfully, the decisions published in such communiqués are usually worth little more than the cost of the ink used to print them. But that does not take away from just how deplorable the summit’s statement is.
This is followed immediately by the declaration that Israel has made a “commitment to
stop discussion of any new settlement units for four months and to stop authorization of any outposts for six months.” In other words, the Jewish state has agreed to a wholesale freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria through at least the summer.
By contrast, the document fails to list any concrete steps to be taken by the Palestinians, such as halting their massive land grab and spate of illegal building throughout Judea and Samaria.
So even as the Palestinians continue apace with their plans to seize huge chunks of our ancestral homeland, Israel is tying its own hands in this regard.
In another remarkable bit of obfuscation, the sides included a paragraph about incitement to violence that implies a moral equivalence between Israeli and Palestinian conduct on this issue. Using drab and vague language, it states that “the two sides agreed to establish a mechanism to curb and counter violence, incitement and inflammatory statements and actions,” as though both are equal opportunity offenders.
For anyone who has been following the Israeli-Palestinian peace process for the past 30 years since the Oslo Accords, this is nothing short of high comedy. The Palestinians have repeatedly vowed, promised, pledged, undertaken and all sorts of other verbs to cease with their systematic peddling of hate against Israel. Nevertheless, as we all know, they continue to do so with boundless passion and energy.
A quick glance at some of the Palestinian Authority’s own official rhetoric makes this abundantly clear.
For example, on the home page of the website of the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, one can find press releases and statements denouncing Israel as an “apartheid regime of Jewish supremacy” which engages in “hate-mongering” and threatens “the very existence of the Palestinian people.”
Another gem on the website full of love and reconciliation is the text of a speech delivered by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki on March 16, in which he refers to Israel as “this illegal regime” which engages in “a relentless campaign of viciousness, criminality and brutality” as part of “the Israeli system of colonial apartheid.”
Needless to say, the
Sharm el-Sheikh communiqué could have included an explicit commitment by the Palestinians to stop making payments to the families of murderers and terrorists, or to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, or to stop denying the Jewish connection to the Land.
But there is none of this. Just the establishment of another nameless and faceless committee to explore the obvious, study the apparent, and ultimately do nothing about it.
(full article online)
The document fails to list any concrete steps to be taken by the Palestinians, such as halting their massive land grab and spate of illegal building throughout Judea and Samaria.
www.jpost.com