Israel has made every effort to end the violence plaguing the region, though some would have you believe otherwise.
Hillel at UCLA director Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller moderated a speaking event Feb. 2 of a group called “Combatants for Peace,” where a retired Israeli soldier and a former member of the Palestinian terrorist group Fatah spoke about prospects for peace.
Bruins for Israel sponsored a similar event Monday, featuring an Israeli and a Palestinian Arab, both representing the organization OneVoice, urging a “model of compromise and joint action,” according to the event’s flyer.
Both groups portray themselves as moderates opposed to “militant absolutism.” They attempt to show equivalence between the actions taken by Israel and the Palestinians in the conflict, and insist that violence can be ended by a new series of negotiations.
Such peace proposals, though, have been repeatedly extended by the Israelis and rejected by the Palestinian Arabs.
In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin offered a comprehensive peace plan in the form of the Oslo Accords. Israel was to withdraw from the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza in exchange for the Palestinians’ renouncing of violence and recognition of Israel’s right to exist.
Instead, while publicly condemning violence, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat encouraged groups to carry out terrorist attacks against Israel, egregiously violating the peace agreement he signed.
In December 2000, a week after a Palestinian terrorist attack on a Tel Aviv bus, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak continued with a U.S.-brokered peace proposal. Barak offered to withdraw from 96 percent of the Palestinian territories, by far the greatest concession ever offered by Israel.
Yet Arafat rejected this deal and the violence continued. President Clinton later remarked that Arafat missed a chance to form a Palestinian state.
Undeterred by the lack of a Palestinian partner for peace, Israel withdrew entirely from the Palestinian territory of Gaza and unilaterally closed West Bank settlements in September 2005.
The terrorist group Hamas quickly issued statements reiterating its goal of destroying the Israeli state, which is in the group’s charter.
Palestinians voted this same terrorist group into a majority of the Palestinian parliament in January of 2006.
Two months later, Israelis elected the Kadima party, whose platform included unilateral withdrawal from Palestinian territories.
The difference in actions between the two groups couldn’t be more severe. In light of this historical record, the Palestinians are nearly entirely to blame for a lack of peace.
Israeli peace efforts were met with violence and a lack of cooperation at every step, though many, such as the panelists for the recent events on campus, continue to push for peace plans similar to the failed agreements.
These events go so far as to disproportionately blame Israel for the ongoing violence, according to Dr. Roberta Seid, historical consultant for the Pro-Israel group StandWithUs, who attended the Combatants for Peace event.
“I think they made Israel look worse,” Seid said. “There was absolutely no condemnation of Palestinian terrorism. It was as if the Palestinians didn’t have Hamas in power, which has called for the end of the Jewish state.
“Not a word was said about the ongoing terrorism or the savage suicide bombing war that led Israel to implement its counterterrorism measures,”
Leeron Morad, Bruins for Israel president, said that the group sponsored the event to reach out to Arab and Muslim students on campus.
“As a supporter of Israel, Bruins for Israel must always extend a hand of peace to all Arab and Palestinian students on campus,” said Morad, adding that the group Students for Justice in Palestine declined to co-sponsor the event.
Khalid Hussein, president of Students for Justice in Palestine, said he felt that his group should not co-sponsor the event because OneVoice doesn’t adequately address Palestinian demands.
“I don’t think (OneVoice) is explicitly against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza,” he said.
However, OneVoice’s Web site lists “bringing an end to occupation” as one of the organization’s main principles of participation.
Miriam Asnes, international program manager of OneVoice, said that the majority of Palestinians want peace, and that the recent Hamas victory was due to election mechanisms.
“It’s the difference between the popular vote and the electoral vote. The popular vote was very close, but parliamentary seats are not allocated by popular vote,” Asnes said.
But until the Palestinian leadership takes action to dismantle the terrorist groups ““ which it has repeatedly refused to do, and which the OneVoice movement doesn’t call for ““ it is responsible for the loss of life and suffering caused by Israel’s necessary military responses.
As long as the Palestinians are unwilling to take these basic steps towards peace, Israel cannot ““ and should not ““ be expected to bear the costs of a one-sided peace plan.
E-mail Lazar your feasible solutions to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict at dlazar@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.