Bush’s Speech Part 3: Many

26 Jun, 2002 by John Hawkins

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Bush’s Speech Part 3: Many people, myself included, have pointed out that it’s going to be almost impossible for the Palestinians in the disputed territories to change from a culture that glorifies suicide, death, and savagery to a civilized Democracy in 3 years. So why did Bush lay all these conditions down for them to get a state? It’s because Bush did something the rest of the world has been unwilling to do in the last few years, he took Israel’s needs into consideration.

Despite what they may say publicly, the rest of the world knows that Arafat is a terrorist thug and that the majority of the Palestinians support terrorism and want to destroy the state of Israel. The same nations that would never accept that sort of behavior from a nation on their borders, expect Israel to do so. Naturally Israel has been balking at the idea of creating a terrorist state that’s obsessed with their destruction on land Israel desperately needs to defend itself from a conventional attack. So the Israelis have been in the middle of a decades long stalemate with the Palestinians that has gotten worse and worse in recent years.

Bush has taken a different path and has chosen to ask that the Palestinians reform their behavior in order to break the stalemate. Ultimately, this is the way to go because allowing the Palestinians to create a new terrorist state on Israel’s borders not only encourages terrorism, it also guarantees a continuation of the conflict. Much of the world has been acting as if giving the Palestinians a state would solve the problems between them and the Israelis, but that’s putting the cart before the horse.

Negotiations, speeches, peace conferences, and unending concessions to the Palestinians are not going to solve this issue. If that were the case, the 9 years of constant diplomacy since Oslo would of done the job. Unfortunately for both sides, the idea that there is going to be a peaceful resolution to this is a mirage. Either the Palestinians will come to Democracy the same way the Japanese did, after a bloody invasion and occupation, or they will simply be transferred to another country. Bush’s speech doesn’t change that fact, but it may have the potential to set a framework for peace and Palestinian Democracy after the coming bloodshed. For that reason it should be applauded.