Israel vs the PA: who wants peace, who doesn’t

Arabs (the ‘Palestinian’ Authority (PA)) and Jews (Israel) are in conflict. The US and the European Union (EU) worry about this conflict. The US and EU want peace. They tell Israel that the Palestinian Authority and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, are ready, willing and able to create that peace. The US and EU tell Israel that Abbas is Israel’s truest and best peace partner.

Since that’s the case, the US and EU believe, there’s only one possible reason to explain why there’s no peace: Israel doesn’t want it.

Before you see how Israel ‘doesn’t want peace—and how the Palestinian Authority ‘does’ want peace, take a look at the definition of ‘peace’. That definition will tell you two things: first, peace can happen only when people cannot just live together side-by-side, but live well together cooperatively, such that both parties seek to help each other, and neither seeks to harm the other; and second, peace requires the absence of violence.

Violence means more than physical harm against another. It also means verbal violence in the form of incitement, glorifying the murder of the ‘other’, demonization and dehumanization.

It’s a simple recipe with two obvious ingredients. To create peace, you need to have the presence of ‘harmony’ and the absence of both physical and verbal violence.   

Now, with that recipe in mind, let’s look at how Israel ‘rejects’ peace and how the PA ‘seeks’ peace.

During the week May 14-21, 2015, Israeli leaders made two statements. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the EU’s new high representative of the EU for foreign affairs he believes in the concept of having two states (Tovah Lazaroff, “Netanyahu to EU foreign minister: I support the vision of two states for two peoples”, Jerusalem Post, May 20, 2015). The next day, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin reinforced Netanyahu’s statement when he told the same high representative for foreign affairs how important Netanyahu’s ‘vision’ was (Greer Fay Cashman, “Rivlin: The whole world heard Netanyahu's commitment to two-state solution”, Jerusalem Post, May 21, 2015).

Look at these two Israeli comments. What do they tell you? They tell the US and EU that Israel doesn’t want peace. Can you see their reasoning? I can’t.

US President Barack Obama ignored this ‘vision’ and has threatened Netanyahu instead over a comment Netanyahu made more than two months ago in the heat of an election. Obama has also chosen to reject Netanyahu’s subsequent retraction of his election comment (Rebecca Shimoni Stoil, “Obama administration rejects Netanyahu backtrack on two-states”, Times of Israel, March 19, 2015). After the Netanyahu ‘vision’ statement, Obama didn’t express hope for a ‘newer vision’. He didn’t complement Netanyahu for his ‘vision’. He threatened Israel (Zalman Ahnsaf, “Obama Warns Israel of Consequences”, Hamodia, May 21, 2015).

Israel is threatened for not speaking of peace. It’s threatened when it does speak of peace.

Now look at how the Palestinian Authority ‘seeks’ harmony, cooperation and peace with Israel. For harmony, the PA can’t wait to charge Israel with war crimes in the International Criminal Court (Khaled Abu Toameh, Tovah Lazaroff and Yonah Jeremy Bob, “Palestinian Authority advances bid to file lawsuits against Israel at ICC “, Jerusalem Post, May 18, 2015). For cooperation, the PA can’t wait to get Israel kicked out of the Federation Internationale Football Association—the international soccer association that’s much larger than but similar to America’s National Football League (“PA Insists on Its Campaign to Kick Israel out of FIFA”, Arutz Sheva, May 21, 2015). To express its commitment to a two-state solution, Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Party in the PA, has just declared (for the umpteenth time) that the new state of ‘Palestine’ won’t be situated side-by-side with Israel, but in place of Israel (Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, “Fatah leaves no room for a two-state solution: ‘From its Sea to its River... it is ours’”, Palestine Media Watch, May 18, 2015).  

The truth is, Arab leaders regularly incite Arabs to cause harm to Israel. Arab leaders glorify—not condemn---those who kill Jews.

In addition, Arab leaders pass laws making it illegal to do business with or work for Jews. Arab organizations and Parties incite against all cooperation with Israel.

That’s how Israel’s ‘truest and best peace partner’ behaves.  The PA is no peace partner. It behaves instead like Israel’s truest enemy.

For their part, both the US and EU ignore such obvious hate-based behaviour. They rarely—if ever—call Abbas and his top officials for their anti-Israel rhetoric. But they never miss an opportunity to criticize or threaten Israel.

Why do the EU and US so stubbornly criticize Israel so much, even as the PA uses war-like language against Israel? The answer is simple: with each passing month, the US and EU prove that they agree with the PA Mission Statement to destroy Israel.