We Don't Want To

Prof. MK Arieh Eldad

As if possessed, Sect'y Rice is pushing Annapolis.
The story is told of Boy Scouts who are supposed to be doing one good deed every day. When their scoutmaster asked his scouts to tell about their good deeds, each scout
She's enlisting Arab leaders from Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
reported that he "helped an old lady across the street." The scoutmaster was quite familiar with the quiet neighborhood and therefore surprised at the sudden rise in the number of old women who needed assistance. He questioned his charges and discovered that the were all talking about the same street and the same woman. And when he asked why it took five scouts to help one elderly citizen cross one street, he learned that the woman didn't really want to cross it.

As if possessed, Condoleezza Rice is pushing Ehud Olmert and Abu Mazen to the Annapolis Conference. And though she represents the world's single superpower, she feels she needs assistance to execute this mission. She's enlisting Arab leaders from Egypt and Saudi Arabia to help both sides to cross the street and reach a place neither of them wants to be. The "joint statement" that she is writing and violently putting into the mouths of Olmert and Abu Mazen may turn out to be deadly. All of us may choke on it.

Listen to Abu Mazen and his spokesmen. They are making every possible demand in the world, so that Israel won't be able to agree to them: all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and, of course, Jerusalem; and just in case Olmert, in his desperation, consents, they have added extravagant demands for border areas from before the Six Day War. To ensure that even a bankrupt like Olmert will not be able to make obligations at this fire sale, they have added the demand for freedom for all PA prisoners, the right to open Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem, return of the terrorists deported from the Church of the Nativity, and immediate retreat to the September 2000 lines (these are the lines from which the Arabs launched the second intifada, in which Yasser Arafat and Abu Mazen's Fatah terrorists killed more than 1,000 Israelis); in addition, they demand the execution of the third stage of the Oslo Accords, an end to building in the settlements, and a cessation of the construction of the Mughrabi Bridge in Jerusalem.

There's no doubt that if they were to get promises from Olmert that all those demands would be met, then they would soon be demanding a controlling share of Teva pharmaceutical company, the appointment of Azmi Bishara as chairman of the Jewish Agency, and the return of Amir Peretz to the post of minister of defense. And just to eliminate any doubts, they have made a small prediction. If the conference fails, the region may be plunged into violence. This is not, heaven forbid, a threat, just an assessment.

Condoleezza herself has said the situation will be a disastrous if the sides do not accede to her demands. And when the Egyptian foreign minister, who fears a collapse of the talks, warns that the conference should be held only after both sides are ready, she shrugs her shoulders and moves on. Really, what does it matter if the old lady does not want to cross the street? Ms. Rice wants to establish a Palestinian state here and now.

Abu Mazen knows that he may lose everything if Israel has lost its mind and does not stop Olmert in time. If Israel removes its forces and retreats from Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, Hamas will take over these territories in a matter of hours. Then, Olmert, Chaim Ramon, Avigdor Lieberman and Tzipi Livni will discover
What does it matter if the old lady does not want to cross the street?
that Shuafat and D'hiyat Al-Barid are not just Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem that they have never been to, populated by lots of Arabs living off our social security money, but they are a noose to the north, south and west of Neve Ya'akov and Pisgat Ze'ev. Then, even the demagogues ranting about the Arab demographics in Jerusalem will understand that ceding sovereignty in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem is a sure-fire recipe for turning the Israeli capital into another Baghdad. Abu Mazen doesn't care if Jerusalem is destroyed, but he does not want to lose the little he has just because of the whims of an American secretary of state and the incredible weakness of Olmert and his associates.

The failure of the Annapolis Conference is written large on the wall. The results of this failure will bring us disaster. Only one disaster might be worse: that which would befall us were the conference to succeed and Olmert to establish, in Annapolis, a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Therefore, there's an urgent need to come up with an alternate good deed for Condoleezza Rice - a worldwide project that could bring her a Nobel Peace Prize without our having to pay for it with our blood and the future of the State of Israel.

Al Gore has already taken global warming; but the bees are disappearing, and hunger and AIDS are destroying Africa, and the Muslims want to take over Europe - so why shouldn't she try to be useful somewhere else? Please understand, Dr. Rice, we really don't want to cross the street.