Posted 7/23/2003 09:58:00 AM by Ocean Guy
Textbooks and Maps

Every day it becomes more apparent that Israel is on a one-way street as it follows the Road Map. While noting the big crime being committed by the presence of Jews on the Temple Mount, Arafat tells the school children:

"This is a big crime which cannot be ignored. Before this they (the Jews) entered the Ibrahimi mosque (Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron) and tried to pray there..."

… At the meeting with the summer camp children from St Georges' School in Jerusalem, Arafat praised them as a generation "representing sacrifices and steadfastness" and urged them to learn from the example of Fares Odeh, a 13-year-old boy from Gaza who was photographed throwing stones at an IDF tank before he was shot dead. "I tell you that we will march together towards Jerusalem," he said. "You represent the strong will and determination of this people."

Those kids are certainly learning a great lesson in working for peace. Their textbooks are no more helpful.

Despite proclamations by new Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas that his side is making strides for peace, the textbooks clearly show otherwise. The new materials were introduced in November 2002 and February 2003, months after President Bush's June 24, 2002, speech that supposedly served as the basis of the "road map." If the leaders of the Palestinian Authority had any real intention of peacefully living side by side with Israel, the indoctrination of Palestinian children would stop. Immediately. But it hasn't.
To this day, jihad and martyrdom are exalted. Palestinian schoolchildren are taught not just to hate Jews but to kill them. Grooming young children to become human bombs is a means to an end - the end of Israel.
The Palestinian textbooks make no bones about the real goal of the intifada. Of all the maps in the materials examined by Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, not one had a country labeled "Israel" - the entire region is called "Palestine."

Which gets to the core of the problem: the current Palestinian Authority leadership will never accept Israel. And the Arab and European nations that have been funding Yasser Arafat and his long-running jihad are equally complicit.

Some might find solace in the softening of the incitement, but the real message, "Even Jews also need to be liberated from Israel," gives me no comfort.

Israel is about to free over 500 more terrorists to appease the Arabs, who have brazenly taken an Israeli gesture of goodwill and turned it into a make or break issue. I say let it break.

The Road Map is a charade, the Hudna’s only purpose is to allow the terrorists to get stronger. The Arabs don’t want peace. For 55 years US actions have shown the Arabs that we will always step in to save them. We have, time and time again shown Arafat through our actions that his terrorism works. Our strong rhetoric, “We do not negotiate with terrorists,” is simply bluster, for our actions do not back it up.

After 9/11 the President set us on the course of confronting terrorism with the goal of defeating the terrorists. Unfortunately, Arafat and his ilk are exempted from the fight. Mahmoud Abbas will be visiting the White House this week, and I’m supposed to be glad? Are we supposed to have hope that a terrorist is coming to Washington for negotiations? Has Arafat/Abbas done ANYTHING to meet their Phase I obligations? Why, then are they being given the President’s blessing?

The President has surprised me before, and the behind the scenes and behind the headlines maneuvering have sometimes been impressive. Maybe there is hope that Abbas/Arafat will get the ultimatum that the Taliban and Saddam received. But given 55 years of history, it’s much more likely that we will appease the terrorists and place more hardship and ask more sacrifice of our friends.