- POINT 1: Israel "sabotaged" the Oslo Peace Process.
- COUNTERPOINT: The PA, not Israel, sabotaged the Oslo Peace Process. Israel prepared its people for conciliation and peace; the PA prepared its people for war. There is a strain of rejection of Israel's right to exist, of compromising with a Jewish state, among Palestinians that sabotaged Oslo and has repeatedly sabotaged other efforts at compromise and peace.
- COUNTERPOINT: Palestinian rejectionism and extremism sabotaged the Oslo Peace Process.
- Supporting Evidence: "We must face the fact that we are dealing here with a rigid state of mind (rejectionism and anti-Semitism) and that the failure of the Oslo peace process has not been so much the result of this or that negotiator's tactics or timing... It goes much deeper. The genocidal strain in this kind of fundamentalist rejectionism is older than the settlements, older than the state of Israel. It reflects the spirit of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who...fled to Berlin... begging Himmler to let him handle his version of the final solution in Palestine against the Jewish settlers." - Britain's Lord Weidenfeld to the House of Lords, July 13, 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: "I have come away from my examination of the history of the (Palestinian-Israeli) conflict with a sense of the instinctive rejectionism that runs like a dark thread through Palestinian history." - Benny Morris, "The Rejection" in The New Republic, April 11, 2003.
- Supporting Evidence: "We must face the fact that we are dealing here with a rigid state of mind (rejectionism and anti-Semitism) and that the failure of the Oslo peace process has not been so much the result of this or that negotiator's tactics or timing... It goes much deeper. The genocidal strain in this kind of fundamentalist rejectionism is older than the settlements, older than the state of Israel. It reflects the spirit of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who...fled to Berlin... begging Himmler to let him handle his version of the final solution in Palestine against the Jewish settlers." - Britain's Lord Weidenfeld to the House of Lords, July 13, 2001.
- COUNTERPOINT: Israel fulfilled its obligations in the Oslo Peace Process - preparing its people for peace. From school curricula to pop culture and music, the vision of peace and friendship gained enormous popularity. Though many Israelis were uncomfortable with Barak's offers at Camp David, this optimism was not shattered until the outbreak of the Intifada in September 2000.
- COUNTERPOINT: The Palestinian Authority did not fulfill its responsibilities under the Oslo accords.
- Supporting Evidence: The PA armed its populace, developed a corrupt government that violated human rights, and began a campaign of hate against Jews and Israel that swept into public life through school curricula, the media and the mosques, all of which prevented any hope for Oslo to succeed and laid the groundwork for the Intifada of 2000. Even Arab and Palestinian leaders began to condemn the corrupt, self-destructive PA.
• "Arafat should quit his position because he is the head of a corrupt authority. There is no point for him to remain in politics, especially as the Al-Fatah group has accused him of being responsible for all the tragedies in Palestine. Arafat has destroyed Palestine. He has led it to terrorism, death and a hopeless situation. Arafat has also divided the country, as Saddam Hussein divided Iraq, heaping humiliation on the nation." Ahmed Al-Jarallah, Editor of the Arab Times, July 18, 2004(*)
• "It may be time for Yasser Arafat to fall on his sword or leave. The situation in Palestine is bad and getting worse. It is too easy to blame it one more time on Israel and the usual suspects -- the West, the Arabs, the others. But if you listened to Palestinians, they are saying their president for life -- Yasser Arafat -- is the problem along with his cronies who rule them, rob them and impoverish them." Youssef M. Ibrahim, Gulf News, July 20 2004(**)
• The liberal-leaning Hazem Abd Al-Rahman wrote in his Al-Ahram column:"… Are these scum of the earth [Palestinians who attacked the Egyptian Foreign Minister] capable of accomplishing something for the Palestinian people? It is reasonable to assume that they, like the supporters of suicide bombings, are the first to damage the Palestinian cause, and are bringing death upon the Palestinian people…" December 24 2003(***) [1]
- Supporting Evidence: The Palestinians refused to make even symbolic gestures of conciliation. It did not revoke the Palestinian National Charter, which calls for the dismantling of "the Zionist entity" though it had pledged to do so in 1990's.. Historian Benny Morris
- Supporting Evidence: In PA authorized textbooks, "There is no attempt to encourage reconciliation with Israel. Israel is presented exclusively as inhumane and greedy... The struggle for the liberation of Palestine is presented mainly as a military one... The Feda'I and Shahid [martyr] are praised as the spearhead of this struggle... Jihad continues to be glorified and martyrs praised, with special attention given to the martyrs of Palestine." - The Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace in 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: The PA armed its populace, developed a corrupt government that violated human rights, and began a campaign of hate against Jews and Israel that swept into public life through school curricula, the media and the mosques, all of which prevented any hope for Oslo to succeed and laid the groundwork for the Intifada of 2000. Even Arab and Palestinian leaders began to condemn the corrupt, self-destructive PA.
- COUNTERPOINT: The PA has refused to wage a comprehensive campaign against terror groups and their infrastructure:
- Supporting Evidence: The Wye agreement requires the PA to "take all measures necessary in order to prevent acts of terrorism" and to wage a "comprehensive... continuous and constant" campaign against the "terrorists, the terror support structure, and the environment conducive to the support of terror." The PA must also submit a security work plan detailing the measures they intend to take against terror organizations.Section II Wye River Memorandum, October 23 1998 [2]
- Supporting Evidence: "There are no provisions for dismembering Hamas or the Islamic resistance or their offices... or any of the things Israel considered the infrastructure of terrorism." Nabil Shaath, PA Minister and senior Palestinian negotiator. (The Jerusalem Times, a Palestinian weekly newspaper, December 18, 1998.) [3]
- Supporting Evidence: The Wye agreement requires the PA to "take all measures necessary in order to prevent acts of terrorism" and to wage a "comprehensive... continuous and constant" campaign against the "terrorists, the terror support structure, and the environment conducive to the support of terror." The PA must also submit a security work plan detailing the measures they intend to take against terror organizations.Section II Wye River Memorandum, October 23 1998 [2]
- COUNTERPOINT: The PA violated its obligation to prevent anti-Israel incitement and hostile propaganda.
- Supporting Evidence: The Wye agreement requires the PA to "act systematically against all expressions or threats of violence or terror… and to prevent incitement." [4]
- Supporting Evidence: "We must confront them, we must confront them, we must confront them. We must confront them in every sense of the word." - Yasser Arafat in a speech to the Palestinian legislative council. (Palestinian Television. August 9, 1997)
- Supporting Evidence: "It is important that we organize our homes and our movement so that we can more and more and more endure the coming battle, which we shall initiate. We must say these things because great battles lie before us, and it will now be more difficult than in the past... let us each commit one to another and let us commit ourselves before Allah and the Palestinian people that we shall lead the coming battle as we have led previous battles… We are marching together with the blessing of Allah, my brothers, we are marching together to Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem." Arafat in a speech to his Fatah movement in Gaza. (Palestinian Television. August 5, 1997. Reported in Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda. August 6, 1997.) [5]
- Supporting Evidence: "The agreements will not liberate the land. Every centimeter requires a struggle, and the land requires blood... We must continue the struggle for which the martyrs fell..." - Saher Habash, Fatah Central Committee member, speaking on behalf of Chairman Arafat. January 24, 1999. (Official PA newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, January 25, 1999) [6]
- Supporting Evidence: "War! War! Continue the struggle!" - Yasser Arafat, in a speech at the Dehaishe refugee camp near Bethlehem, 22 October 1996 (Arutz-7 Radio, 23 October 1996) [7]
- Supporting Evidence: "The struggle will continue until all of Palestine is liberated." - Yasser Arafat, PLO Chairman (Voice of Palestine, 11 November 1995) [8]
- Supporting Evidence: "No one can complain about what Hamas and Jihad are doing. I say that it is the right of every Palestinian to struggle so long as there is a single Israeli soldier in the land of Palestine." - Farouk Qaddumi, head of the P.L.O.'s Political Department (Al-Musawar, 30 September 1994)Cited at http://www.iris.org.il/quotes/allquotes.txt [9]
- Supporting Evidence: "Our enemy is a lowly enemy. The Palestinian people know there is a state that was established through coercion and it must be destroyed. This is the Palestinian way." - Farouk Qaddumi, head of the P.L.O.'s Political Department. (Reuters, 10 August 1994) [10]
- Supporting Evidence: "Negotiations have achieved nothing up until now. As a consequence, we must be ready in every way to confront all possibilities. You must understand what I mean by this." - Arafat in an October 10, 1996 speech before the Palestinian Council. (Near East Report, Oct. 21, 1996.)
- Supporting Evidence: "They will fight for Allah, and they will kill and be killed, and this is a solemn oath... Our blood is cheap compared with the cause which has brought us together and which at moments separated us, but shortly we will meet again in heaven... Palestine is our land and Jerusalem is our capital" - Arafat to Palestinian security forces in Gaza on September 24. (Maariv, Oct. 4, 1996).
- Supporting Evidence: "The struggle will continue until all of Palestine is liberated." - Arafat in a radio address (Voice of Palestine, Nov. 11, 1995.) [11]
- Supporting Evidence: "Jerusalem is under occupation and the Moslems of the world should liberate it by jihad and put it under Islamic and Arabic authority. The jihad is not just a war jihad - we are talking about all means to get back Jerusalem." - Sheikh Ikram Sabri, PA Mufti. (Al-Sharq al-Awsat, Apr. 7, 1995) [12]
- Supporting Evidence: "We are all on our way to die as heroes on the road to Jerusalem, the capital of the state of Palestine." - Arafat in a speech in Gaza. (Jerusalem Post, Jan. 30, 1995)
- Supporting Evidence: "We are all seekers of martyrdom... I say to the martyrs who died, to the martyrs who are still alive, we hold to the oath, we hold to the commitment to continue the revolution." - Arafat in a speech on the 30th anniversary of Fatah's founding. (Palestinian TV, Jan. 1, 1995) [13]
- Supporting Evidence: "We sanctify the weapons found in the possession of the national factions which are directed against the occupation.... If there are those who oppose the agreement with Israel, the gates are open to them to intensify the armed struggle." - Jibril Rajoub in a lecture at Bethlehem University. (Yediot Aharonot, May 27, 1994)
- Supporting Evidence: "The jihad will continue... You have to understand our main battle is Jerusalem... You have to come and to fight a jihad to liberate Jerusalem, your precious shrine... No, it is not their capital. It is our capital." Arafat at a mosque in Johannesburg, South Africa on May 10, 1994. (Israel Radio, May 17, 1994; Jerusalem Post, May 18, 1994)
- Supporting Evidence: "Everything you see and hear today is for tactical and strategic reasons. We have not given up the rifle. We still have armed gangs in the areas and if we do not get our state we will take them out of the closet and fight again." - Faisal Husseini, PA representative for Jerusalem affairs, member of Arafat's Cabinet, in a speech at Bir Zeit University on November 22. (Maariv, Nov. 24, 1993)
- Supporting Evidence: "There is no people or land named Israel. Israel is our patriarch Yaaqoub, peace be upon him, and the children of Israel are the sons of Yaaqoub… We are the children of Israel…. These people are the children of the Zionist entity, they are the children of the colonialist entity, they are nothing more than thieves. They came and took land which does not belong to them. Therefore, the normalization of relations with them is impossible…. even if Palestine remains occupied for hundreds of years… These Zionists are not fit to establish a nation or to have their own language or even their own religion. They are nothing more than a hodgepodge." - Safi Naz Kassam, Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, official PA newspaper. September 1 1997 [14]
- Supporting Evidence: "The Jews are the seed of Satan and the devils.... The Jews do not believe in God...They have distorted the faith and exchanged the gift of God for heresy, rebellion and prostitution, and distorted the Torah...." (religious program broadcast on official Palestinian Authority television, November 3, 1998.) [15]
- Supporting Evidence: "Corruption is part of the nature of the Jews. So much so that it is only on rare occasions that one finds corruption in which Jews were not behind it… Their intense love of money and accumulating wealth is well known and they do not care what method is used to achieve it. They are likely to use the lowliest and most convenient methods to achieve their objectives.... If one studies their history, it becomes apparent that the Jews were subjected to losses and expulsion as a result of their wickedness and their despicable acts. All this occurred after their true nature and their responsibility for destroying the world was revealed... Since this is their mode of behavior, they have focused their efforts on developing their plotting mentality, as they believe the secret of their survival lies in their control over the economies of the countries which opened their gates before them." - Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, Official PA newspaper. November 7, 1998. [16]
- Supporting Evidence: The Wye agreement requires the PA to "act systematically against all expressions or threats of violence or terror… and to prevent incitement." [4]
- COUNTERPOINT: The PA violated its obligation to reduce the size of the Palestinian Police
- Supporting Evidence: "This is no problem. We will get around it by reallocating policemen such that one who serves in one location can serve in another. We will get around it by adopting a policy of transferring policemen." - Ghazi Jabali, PA Police Chief Ghazi. ( Al-Quds. Nov. 4, 1998) Source of translation? [17]
- Supporting Evidence: "With regard to lowering the number of Palestinian policemen, Dahlan indicated that the Palestinians do not intend to lower their number. He said, "We have no problem providing one list of policemen and a second list of policemen who do administrative work" - Muhammad Dahlan, PA Preventive Security chief in Gaza. (Al-Ayyam, Oct. 26, 1998) [18]
- Supporting Evidence: "This is no problem. We will get around it by reallocating policemen such that one who serves in one location can serve in another. We will get around it by adopting a policy of transferring policemen." - Ghazi Jabali, PA Police Chief Ghazi. ( Al-Quds. Nov. 4, 1998) Source of translation? [17]
- COUNTERPOINT: The PA violated its obligation to confiscate illegal weapons
- Supporting Evidence: "Any illegal arms will be confiscated by the Palestinian Police." (Oslo II, Annex I, Article II)
- Supporting Evidence: "On the issue of confiscating illegal weapons, Dahlan stated there is no agreement on lowering the number of weapons in the PA's possession." - Muhammad Dahlan, PA Preventive Security chief in Gaza. (Al-Ayyam. Oct. 26, 1998) [19]
- Supporting Evidence: "There is a law for licensing weapons. Every respectable person submits a request and we give it to him The weapons license is granted to businessmen, dignitaries, politicians and wanted fugitives" - Ghazi Jabali, PA Police Chief Ghazi. (PA TV. Oct. 30, 1998)
- Supporting Evidence: "Any illegal arms will be confiscated by the Palestinian Police." (Oslo II, Annex I, Article II)
- COUNTERPOINT: The PA violated its obligation to arrest terrorists.
- Supporting Evidence: "The Palestinian Police will arrest and prosecute individuals who are suspected of perpetrating acts of violence and terror." (Oslo II, Annex I, Article II)
- Supporting Evidence: "The Palestinians will not listen to the Israeli security forces' instructions regarding who to arrest." - Nabil Sha'ath, PA Minister. (Voice of Israel in Arabic. Nov. 5, 1998) [20]
- Supporting Evidence: "I can not arrest a Palestinian citizen who killed an Israeli and at the same time give the Israeli the right to commit terrorist acts against Palestinians my primary security mission is to protect Palestinian security and defend Palestinian citizens." - Muhammad Dahlan, PA Preventive Security chief in Gaza. (Al-Ayyam. Oct. 26, 1998) [21]
- Supporting Evidence: "The Palestinian Police will arrest and prosecute individuals who are suspected of perpetrating acts of violence and terror." (Oslo II, Annex I, Article II)
- COUNTERPOINT: Palestinians have raided or destroyed Christian and Jewish holy sites in violation of specific commitments to protect their sanctity.
- Supporting Evidence: According to Annex III, Appendix I, Article 32 of the Oslo 2 accord which was signed on September 28, 1995:
2. Both sides shall respect and protect the listed below religious rights of Jews, Christians, Moslems and Samaritans:
a. protection of the Holy Sites;
b. free access to the Holy Sites; and
c. freedom of worship and practice."In addition to this general obligation, the Oslo 2 accord (Article V of Annex I) also spells out specific arrangements concerning particular sites such as the Tomb of Joseph in Nablus, the Shalom al Yisrael Synagogue in Jericho, and the Tomb of Rachel near Bethlehem. These arrangements are designed to ensure free access to the sites and their protection.
- Supporting Evidence: The Palestinian Authority has commandeered, vandalized, or destroyed many Christian shrines. On July 5, 1997 Palestinian policemen violently took over Abraham's Oak Russian Monastery - located in the Palestinian-controlled part of Hebron. In the process, Palestinian police forces beat both the Abbess and a monk severely causing both to be hospitalized. On another occasion, the PLO seized the Greek Orthodox Monastery adjacent to the Church of Nativity to provide Yasser Arafat with a Bethlehem residence.
- Supporting Evidence: Tomb of Rachel - The Tomb, located on the outskirts of Bethlehem, is the burial site of the Biblical matriarch Rachel and is under Israeli control. During the September 1996 riots, the PA orchestrated riots near the Tomb in which a Palestinian mob assaulted the site and hurled rocks and firebombs at it, causing damage to the outer part of the structure. Palestinian policemen on the scene shot and wounded Israeli soldiers guarding the Tomb.
- Supporting Evidence: Tomb of Joseph - Located in Nablus, the Tomb is the burial site of the Biblical figure Joseph. During the September 1996 riots, a Palestinian mob led by Palestinian policemen assaulted the Tomb. Palestinian security agents opened fire on Israeli troops at the site, killing 6 Israeli soldiers. After the Israeli forces temporarily withdrew, the Palestinian mob entered the site and set fire to it. They burned the Jewish prayer books, Bibles and religious articles inside the structure and caused extensive damage. Palestinian forces took Joseph's tomb again in October of 2000, completely destroying the Jewish shrine and Yeshiva. The PA converted the site into a mosque.
- Supporting Evidence: According to Annex III, Appendix I, Article 32 of the Oslo 2 accord which was signed on September 28, 1995:
- COUNTERPOINT: The PA, not Israel, sabotaged the Oslo Peace Process. Israel prepared its people for conciliation and peace; the PA prepared its people for war. There is a strain of rejection of Israel's right to exist, of compromising with a Jewish state, among Palestinians that sabotaged Oslo and has repeatedly sabotaged other efforts at compromise and peace.
- POINT 2: The Palestinians did not reject the Camp David proposal or the Taba Agreements. At Taba, they were close to agreement but the Israeli elections were pending and Barak withdrew the negotiating team and that was where things ended.
- COUNTERPOINT: According to American and Israeli negotiators, Arafat and the Palestinians never accepted the Camp David proposals or ever made a counter-offer. They walked away. Their answer came when they unleashed the Intifada in Sept. 2000. At Taba, Palestinian negotiators raised extreme and inflexible demands and the two sides did not come closer. The PA's support of the violent Intifada was in and of itself a negation of the principle of negotiation.
- Supporting Evidence: "He said yes, and then he added reservations that basically meant he rejected every single one of the things he was supposed to give… He was supposed to give, on Jerusalem, the idea that there would be for the Israelis sovereignty over the Western Wall, which would cover the areas that are of religious significance to Israel. He rejected that… He rejected the idea on the refugees. He said we need a whole new formula, as if what we had presented was non-existent… He rejected the basic ideas on security. He wouldn't even countenance the idea that the Israelis would be able to operate in Palestinian airspace… You know when you fly into Israel today you go to Ben Gurion. You fly in over the West Bank because you can't -- there's no space through otherwise. He rejected that… So every single one of the ideas that was asked of him he rejected." - Dennis Ross, Former US Envoy to the Middle East.
- Supporting Evidence: "Finally, very late, [Arafat's] staff conveyed to the White House a reply that contained big noes and small yeses. Bruce Reidell, from the National Security Council, told me that we shouldn't get it wrong, that there should be no misunderstandings on our part: Arafat in fact said no." - Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israeli Foreign Minister and party to Camp David
- Supporting Evidence: "He said yes, and then he added reservations that basically meant he rejected every single one of the things he was supposed to give… He was supposed to give, on Jerusalem, the idea that there would be for the Israelis sovereignty over the Western Wall, which would cover the areas that are of religious significance to Israel. He rejected that… He rejected the idea on the refugees. He said we need a whole new formula, as if what we had presented was non-existent… He rejected the basic ideas on security. He wouldn't even countenance the idea that the Israelis would be able to operate in Palestinian airspace… You know when you fly into Israel today you go to Ben Gurion. You fly in over the West Bank because you can't -- there's no space through otherwise. He rejected that… So every single one of the ideas that was asked of him he rejected." - Dennis Ross, Former US Envoy to the Middle East.
- COUNTERPOINT: According to American and Israeli negotiators, Arafat and the Palestinians never accepted the Camp David proposals or ever made a counter-offer. They walked away. Their answer came when they unleashed the Intifada in Sept. 2000. At Taba, Palestinian negotiators raised extreme and inflexible demands and the two sides did not come closer. The PA's support of the violent Intifada was in and of itself a negation of the principle of negotiation.
- POINT 3: Yasser Arafat was willing to broker a peace accord at Camp David.
- COUNTERPOINT: President Clinton and US Envoy Dennis Ross have both noted that Yasser Arafat showed no movement from his maximalist demands during the September 2000 Camp David Accords.
- Supporting Evidence: "'A summit's purpose,' Clinton said, 'is to have discussions that are based on sincere intentions and you, the Palestinians, did not come to this summit with sincere intentions.'" - Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israel's Chief Negotiator in Camp David, Ma'ariv, April 6, 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: "Both Barak and Clinton were prepared to do what was necessary to reach agreement. [...] Can one say the same about Arafat? Unfortunately, not-and his behavior at Camp David and afterward cannot be explained only by his suspicions that a trap was being set for him." - Dennis Ross, US Envoy to the Middle East.
- Supporting Evidence: "The Israelis moved more from the position they had. [...] I would be making a mistake not to praise Barak because I think he took a big risk. And I think it sparked, already, in Israel a real debate, which is moving Israeli public opinion toward the conditions that will make peace. So I thought that was important, and I think it deserves to be acknowledged." - President, William J. Clinton
- Supporting Evidence: "He did not negotiate in good faith; indeed, he did not negotiate at all. He just kept saying no to every offer, never making any counterproposals of his own, What they [Arafat and his colleagues] want is a Palestinian state in all of Palestine," says Barak. "What we see as self-evident, [the need for] two states for two peoples, they reject. Israel is too strong at the moment to defeat, so they formally recognise it. But their game plan is to establish a Palestinian state while always leaving an opening for further 'legitimate' demands down the road." - Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel, Party to Camp David negotiations
- Supporting Evidence: "Fundamentally I do not believe he [Yasser Arafat] can end the conflict… For him to end the conflict is to end himself."- Dennis Ross, Former US Envoy to the Middle East.
- Supporting Evidence: Observers and participants of the 2000 Camp David summit all assert that Yasser Arafat never even offered a counter-proposal to Israeli Prime Minister Barak's proposals. In fact he even rejected every offer for joint sovereignty on the Temple Mount, claiming that it had no significance to Jews. Ms. Ashrawi, this is the most holy place in the Jewish religion. US Mediator, Dennis Ross even states, "[Prime Minister Barak] was prepared to make decisions; Arafat was not. I believe he is capable of launching the process, but he is not capable of concluding it." How does this indicate that Arafat was ready for compromise with Israel?
- Supporting Evidence: "'A summit's purpose,' Clinton said, 'is to have discussions that are based on sincere intentions and you, the Palestinians, did not come to this summit with sincere intentions.'" - Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israel's Chief Negotiator in Camp David, Ma'ariv, April 6, 2001.
- COUNTERPOINT: Even Arab spokesmen condemn Arafat for refusing Clinton and Barak's offer at Camp David.
- Supporting Evidence: Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, who was an intermediary in the negotiations, called Arafat's refusal to accept the Camp David offer "a crime against Palestinians, in fact against the whole region." (New Yorker interview March 24, 2003)
- Supporting Evidence: In the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, editor Jubran Tuweini wrote, "[T]he worst enemy of the Palestinian cause is the Palestinians, who have endorsed a policy of refusal and fundamentalist extremism as a way of behavior. How many times have they already served Israel with their deeds? How many times has the behavior of these groups already saved Ariel Sharon and his government?" December 24 2003 [22]
- Supporting Evidence: On the liberal Arab website Elaph, Egyptian columnist Sami Buheiri wrote: "[T]he rabble majority of the Arab and Palestinian street today….refuse to accept any kind of a peace agreement with Israel... It is they who applaud the bus and restaurant bombings in order to destroy any spark of hope for peace... They are Arab nationalists who have failed completely in all their wars with Israel and in all attempts to achieve peace with Israel, because they were not serious, and they were not men - neither in fighting nor in peacemaking..." [23]
- Supporting Evidence: "Arafat has destroyed Palestine. He has led it to terrorism, death and a hopeless situation. Arafat has also divided the country, as Saddam Hussein divided Iraq, heaping humiliation on the nation. Although he has become senile, Arafat still wants to retain the reins of Palestine in his hands. He has to be relieved of his responsibilities and should be forced to retire." Ahmed Al-Jarallah, Editor of the Arab Times, July 18, 2004 [24]
- Supporting Evidence: "It may be time for Yasser Arafat to fall on his sword or leave. The situation in Palestine is bad and getting worse. It is too easy to blame it one more time on Israel and the usual suspects -- the West, the Arabs, the others. But if you listened to Palestinians, they are saying their president for life -- Yasser Arafat -- is the problem along with his cronies who rule them, rob them and impoverish them." Youssef M. Ibrahim, Gulf News, July 20 2004 [25]
- Supporting Evidence: "Prince Hassan bin Talal, uncle of Jordan's King Abdullah and a former heir to the throne of the Hashemite kingdom, has told an Italian newspaper that he sees Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a pragmatic man, who wants security for his people, but is unable to find a partner on the Palestinian side with whom to conduct negotiations."Ha'aretz, December 29 2003 [26]
- Supporting Evidence: Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, who was an intermediary in the negotiations, called Arafat's refusal to accept the Camp David offer "a crime against Palestinians, in fact against the whole region." (New Yorker interview March 24, 2003)
- COUNTERPOINT: Yasser Arafat rejected the proposals put forth by the Clinton Administration.
- COUNTERPOINT: President Clinton and US Envoy Dennis Ross have both noted that Yasser Arafat showed no movement from his maximalist demands during the September 2000 Camp David Accords.
- POINT 4: Barak's 'generous offers' consisted of a Palestinian state fragmented into Bantustans.
- COUNTERPOINT: Barak offered the Palestinians a state on a contiguous 97% of the West Bank and Gaza strip during negotiations in Taba. Yasser Arafat refused this and turned to violence. No Bantustans. No occupation. . This was refused.
- Supporting Evidence: "There would be a net 97 percent of the [West Bank] territory that would go to the Palestinians… the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem would become the capitol of the Palestinian state… There would be a right of return for the refugees to their own state, not to Israel, but there would also be a fund of $30 billion internationally that would be put together for either compensation or to cover repatriation, resettlement, rehabilitation costs." - Dennis Ross, Former US Envoy to the Middle East.
- Supporting Evidence: "Those who say there were cantons, completely untrue. It was contiguous." - Dennis Ross, Former US Envoy to the Middle East.
- Supporting Evidence: "…you rejected Clinton's proposal, which gave your people 96-97% of the West Bank, citing the religious ruling that you rejected it because it was an American-Jewish conspiracy against the Palestinian people…" Al-'Aff Al-Akhdar, Tunisian columnist, 2002
- Supporting Evidence: "There would be a net 97 percent of the [West Bank] territory that would go to the Palestinians… the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem would become the capitol of the Palestinian state… There would be a right of return for the refugees to their own state, not to Israel, but there would also be a fund of $30 billion internationally that would be put together for either compensation or to cover repatriation, resettlement, rehabilitation costs." - Dennis Ross, Former US Envoy to the Middle East.
- COUNTERPOINT: Barak offered the Palestinians a state on a contiguous 97% of the West Bank and Gaza strip during negotiations in Taba. Yasser Arafat refused this and turned to violence. No Bantustans. No occupation. . This was refused.
- POINT 5: The Oslo process and Camp David summit culminated in a deal no Palestinian leader could accept.
- COUNTERPOINT: The Oslo Process would have yielded Palestinians almost every one of their demands, except destroying Israel. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority drew much criticism for their rejection of Clinton's offer, so they devised a fictitious accounts of what they were offered.
- Supporting Evidence: The Oslo Process, culminating in the Taba talks - not the Camp David talks - did offer the Palestinians a viable state with territory on 100% of the Gaza Strip and a contiguous 95% of the West Bank with land swaps for some of the remaining 5%. There were no cantons, and Jerusalem served as a shared capital with Palestinian sovereignty on most of the Temple Mount (see above). Dennis Ross tells us that none of this was written down because the Clinton Administration did not want it to serve as a floor for future negotiations. The maps circulated by the Palestinian Authority represented only a phase in the negotiations. Yasser Arafat himself did not offer any counter proposals to it.
- Supporting Evidence: "Clinton presented proposals to the Palestinian leaders on a golden platter, and they answered him with an Intifada of armed struggle and suicide bombings - in an era when these are no longer appropriate. Thus, at one blow, we lost [both] the land … and our reputation. The occupation army returned [to the territories] and in everyone's eyes our image was tarnished by egotism unprecedented in our history." Al-'Aff Al-Akhdar, Tunisian columnist, 2002
- Supporting Evidence: The Oslo Process, culminating in the Taba talks - not the Camp David talks - did offer the Palestinians a viable state with territory on 100% of the Gaza Strip and a contiguous 95% of the West Bank with land swaps for some of the remaining 5%. There were no cantons, and Jerusalem served as a shared capital with Palestinian sovereignty on most of the Temple Mount (see above). Dennis Ross tells us that none of this was written down because the Clinton Administration did not want it to serve as a floor for future negotiations. The maps circulated by the Palestinian Authority represented only a phase in the negotiations. Yasser Arafat himself did not offer any counter proposals to it.
- COUNTERPOINT: The Oslo Process would have yielded Palestinians almost every one of their demands, except destroying Israel. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority drew much criticism for their rejection of Clinton's offer, so they devised a fictitious accounts of what they were offered.
- POINT 6: Israelis don't want peace because even during the peace process they have been taking Palestinian Land and demolishing Palestinian homes.
- COUNTERPOINT: No honest person can claim that Israel does not want peace after the U.S. brokered offer made by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to Yasser Arafat.
- COUNTERPOINT: Israeli Public Opinion Polls consistently show that Israelis want peace and are willing to abandon the West Bank, Gaza and most of the settlements to achieve it. That this has not happened is only a testament to the Israeli public's rational fear of withdrawing unilaterally, without any guarantees of security and in the midst of a terrorist war.
- COUNTERPOINT: Israelis were deeply committed to the peace process and developed a culture of peace when Oslo began. The Palestinians did not.
- Supporting Evidence: From school curriculums to pop culture and music, the peace movement gained enormous popularity in Israel following the signing of Oslo and subsequent peace offers, up to the 2000 Taba offer of all of Gaza and a contiguous West Bank as a Palestinian state. In contrast, the Palestinian Authority used the time after Oslo to accumulate illegal arms and prepare the Palestinian people for war, resulting in the unprecedented wave of terrorism since 2000.
- Supporting Evidence: In Israeli textbooks, "Islam, the Arab culture and the Arabs' contribution to human civilization are presented in a positive light. No book calls for violence or war. Many books express the yearning for peace between Israel and the Arab countries," according to the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace in 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: In PA authorized textbooks, "There is no attempt to encourage reconciliation with Israel. Israel is presented exclusively as inhumane and greedy...The struggle for the liberation of Palestine is presented mainly as a military one. ...the Feda'I and Shahid are praised as the spearhead of this struggle....Jihad continues to be glorified and martyrs praised, with special attention given to the martyrs of Palestine," according to the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace in 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: "We are teaching the children that suicide bombs make Israeli people frightened and we are allowed to do it… We teach them that after a person becomes a suicide bomber he reaches the highest level of paradise." - Palestinian "Paradise Camp" counselor speaking to BBC interviewer.
- Supporting Evidence: From school curriculums to pop culture and music, the peace movement gained enormous popularity in Israel following the signing of Oslo and subsequent peace offers, up to the 2000 Taba offer of all of Gaza and a contiguous West Bank as a Palestinian state. In contrast, the Palestinian Authority used the time after Oslo to accumulate illegal arms and prepare the Palestinian people for war, resulting in the unprecedented wave of terrorism since 2000.
- COUNTERPOINT: No honest person can claim that Israel does not want peace after the U.S. brokered offer made by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to Yasser Arafat.
- POINT 7: Ariel Sharon's visit to the Haram Al'Sharif (Temple Mount) was responsible for the outbreak of the Al Aqsa Intifada.
- COUNTERPOINT: The official US Mitchell Report, which forms the basis of the international understanding regarding the Intifada and possibilities for Peace, acknowledges that, "The Sharon Visit did not spark the Al-Aqsa Intifada."
- COUNTERPOINT: The Palestinian Authority was notified of and had authorized Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount.
- COUNTERPOINT: Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti admitted that he staged the beginning of the Intifada and chose Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount as the moment to initiate hostilities.
- COUNTERPOINT: The Palestinian Authority's Communications Minister admitted that the Intifada was planned and executed by Arafat's government and was not a response to Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount.
- COUNTERPOINT: The official US Mitchell Report, which forms the basis of the international understanding regarding the Intifada and possibilities for Peace, acknowledges that, "The Sharon Visit did not spark the Al-Aqsa Intifada."
- POINT 8: The Intifada is a spontaneous popular uprising.
- COUNTERPOINT: High officials within the Palestinian Authority admitted to preparations for violence before the outbreak of the Intifada.
- Supporting Evidence: "From the negotiating delegation [At Camp David,] led by the commander and symbol, Abu Ammar (Yasser Arafat) to the brave Palestinian people, be prepared. The Battle for Jerusalem has begun." - Al-Shuhada ("The Martyrs"), Palestinian Authority monthly magazine. July 2000 (three months before outbreak of Intifada).
- Supporting Evidence: "The Palestinian police will lead together with the noble sons of the Palestinian people, when the hour of confrontation arrives." -Ghazi Jabali, commander of the Palestinian police. Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, official Palestinian Authority daily. August 11 2000 [27]
- Supporting Evidence: "The popular recruitment in the PA's territories has significantly increased, and a Palestinian Liberation Army was established under the Fatah Leadership. The PA has already distributed weapons to the citizens and is supervising training and preparation for the possible confrontation with the forces of the Israeli occupation." - Statement by PA security official, July 21, 2000 (two months before the beginning of the Intifada). Reported in Kul Al-Arab, Israeli-Arab newspaper.
- Supporting Evidence: "The failure to reach a final agreement [at Camp David] will force the Palestinians to opt for military action." - Hasan Al-Khashef, Director-General of the PA Ministry of Information. In Al-Quds Al Arabi, August 24, 2000 (one month before the beginning of the Intifada).
- Supporting Evidence: "Violence is around the corner, and the Palestinians are willing to sacrifice even 5,000 casualties." - Freih Abu Middein, PA Justice Minister. In the Palestinian Authority Newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 24, 2000 (one month before the beginning of the Intifada).
- Supporting Evidence: "We will advance and declare a general Intifada for Jerusalem. The time for the Intifada has arrived, the time for Intifada has arrived, the time for Jihad has arrived." - Al-Sabah, official publication of the Palestinian Authority. September 11, 2000. (over two weeks before the beginning of the Intifada).
- Supporting Evidence: "From the negotiating delegation [At Camp David,] led by the commander and symbol, Abu Ammar (Yasser Arafat) to the brave Palestinian people, be prepared. The Battle for Jerusalem has begun." - Al-Shuhada ("The Martyrs"), Palestinian Authority monthly magazine. July 2000 (three months before outbreak of Intifada).
- COUNTERPOINT: The Palestinian Authority's Communications Minister admitted that the Intifada was planned and executed by Arafat's government.
- Supporting Evidence: "Whoever thinks that the Intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque is wrong... This Intifada was planed in advance." - PA Communications Minister, Imad al Faluji. In Al-Safir, March 3, 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: "Imad Faluji, the Palestinian National Authority's Communications Minister, said during a PLO rally in Ain al-Hilweh refutifada [...] that the five-month-old uprising against Israel had been planned since the Camp David peace talks failed in July, contradicting past contentions of a spontaneous outburst from Palestinians on the street." - Semi-governmental Lebanese Newspaper, Beirut "Daily Star", March 3, 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: "Mr. Falouji went on to state that Arafat launched this intifada as a culminating state to the immutable Palestinian stance in the negotiations." - Al-Ayyam, the Palestinian Authority daily newspaper. December 6, 2000.
- Supporting Evidence: "The issues of Jerusalem, the refugees and sovereignty are one and will be finalized on the ground and not in negotiations. At this point it is important to prepare Palestinian society for the challenge of the next step because we will inevitably find ourselves in a violent confrontation with Israel in order to create new facts on the ground. [...] I believe that the situation in the future will be more violent than the Intifada." - Abu-Ali Mustafa of the Palestinian Authority. July 23, 2000 (two months before the outbreak of the current Intifada).
- Supporting Evidence: Quoting from the semi-governmental, Beirut "Daily Star" (March 3, 2001), "Imad Faluji, the Palestinian National Authority's Communications Minister, said during a PLO rally in Ain al-Hilweh refutifada [...] that the five-month-old uprising against Israel had been planned since the Camp David peace talks failed in July, contradicting past contentions of a spontaneous outburst from Palestinians on the street." Why, in light of the Palestinian Authority's admission that the current Intifada was planned and orchestrated from above, do you still claim that it is spontaneous?
- Supporting Evidence: "Whoever thinks that the Intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque is wrong... This Intifada was planed in advance." - PA Communications Minister, Imad al Faluji. In Al-Safir, March 3, 2001.
- COUNTERPOINT: Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti admitted that he staged the beginning of the Intifada and chose Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount as the moment to initiate hostilities.
- COUNTERPOINT: The Palestinian Authority created the riots that began the Intifada.
- COUNTERPOINT: Foreign press agencies reported preparations for a new Intifada in Palestinian Authority summer camps.
- COUNTERPOINT: High officials within the Palestinian Authority admitted to preparations for violence before the outbreak of the Intifada.
- POINT 9: Israel's current violence against the Palestinians is a continuation of Israel's 1948 War of Independence.
- COUNTERPOINT: It is Palestinians, not Israelis, who see their Intifada as an opportunity to continue the 1948 War and undo its results, judging from statements of Palestinian political leaders and results from Palestinian opinion polls.
- Supporting Evidence: "Our nation is patient and determined…which sacrificed its body to defend itself, which was laid bare by the Nakba carried out the international, Zionist and imperialist power, which didn't have the right to allow [the creation of Israel], for those who didn't have the right [the Zionists]. Acts of sacrifice, determination and revolution have sent a message to the world that Palestine is the homeland of the Palestinian nation and it has no other, and it will not accept an alternative to its homeland." Yasser Arafat Speech on PA TV May 15 2004
- Supporting Evidence: In a random sample of 1199 Palestinians conducted by JMCC Public Opinion Polls in September of 2002, 64.3% of Palestinians supported suicide bombings against civilians and 43% of Palestinians believed the goal of the current Intifada should be the elimination of Israel.
- Supporting Evidence: In a 2002 Poll taken at Najah University in Nablus, "87% of Palestinians surveyed were in favor of continuing terror attacks," and, "87.5% were in favor of 'liberating all of Palestine'."
- Supporting Evidence: A poll released on October 22 2003 by Palestinian Media Watch, reveals that 59% of Palestinians believe that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad should continue their armed struggle against Israel even if Israel leaves all of the West Bank and Gaza, including east Jerusalem, and a Palestinian state is created. (Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, October 20 2003 [28]
- Supporting Evidence: Yasser Arafat explicitly called for undoing the "Nakba," the Palestinian defeat in 1948: "Our nation is patient and determined which sacrificed its body to defend itself, which was laid bare by the Nakba carried out the international, Zionist and imperialist power, which didn't have the right to allow [the creation of Israel], for those who didn't have the right [the Zionists]. Acts of sacrifice, determination and revolution have sent a message to the world that Palestine is the homeland of the Palestinian nation and it has no other, and it will not accept an alternative to its homeland." Arafat Speech broadcast on PA Television for "Nakba Day," May 15 2004 [29]
- Supporting Evidence: A Hamas leader in Gaza said he would not give up his arms even if Israel pulled out of Gaza because Haifa and Jerusalem are still "occupied"-cities that are part of pre-1948 Israel. "But speaking in Gaza City, Ahmed Bahar, one of the Hamas leaders on the Israeli hitlist, said the pullout from Gaza would not end the fighting. 'We will not throw away our weapons…Jerusalem is still occupied, Haifa is still occupied. They took our land by force and we have the right to take it back by force." The Guardian, April 23 2004 [30]
- Supporting Evidence: You contend that the current violence is a continuation of Israel's 1948 War of Independence. Trygve Lie, the first UN Secretary General said that in 1948, the day Israel declared its independence it was attacked by seven Arab states with the intent to destroy it. Palestinian public opinion polls indicate that between 43-87.5% of Palestinians believe the goal of the current violence is the destruction of Israel. It seems like the Palestinian public sees this war as a continuation of 1948 as well. During your tenure in the PLO. Why don't you advocate an end to the goal of the 1948 war, the extinction of a Jewish State in Israel?
- Supporting Evidence: "Our nation is patient and determined…which sacrificed its body to defend itself, which was laid bare by the Nakba carried out the international, Zionist and imperialist power, which didn't have the right to allow [the creation of Israel], for those who didn't have the right [the Zionists]. Acts of sacrifice, determination and revolution have sent a message to the world that Palestine is the homeland of the Palestinian nation and it has no other, and it will not accept an alternative to its homeland." Yasser Arafat Speech on PA TV May 15 2004
- COUNTERPOINT: In one very evident way,the current battle is a continuation or repeat of the 1948 War. Once again, Palestinian leadership has rejected compromise, refused to accept Israel's right to exist, and chosen war instead of negotiation and compromise.
- Supporting Evidence: In the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, editor Jubran Tuweini wrote, "Once again, we realize that the Arabs are their own worst enemy - just as the worst enemy of the Palestinian cause is the Palestinians, who have endorsed a policy of refusal and fundamentalist extremism as a way of behavior. How many times have they already served Israel with their deeds? How many times has the behavior of these groups already saved Ariel Sharon and his government?" December 24 2003
- Supporting Evidence: On the liberal Arab website Elaph, Egyptian columnist Sami Buheiri wrote: "[T]he rabble majority of the Arab and Palestinian street today….refuse to accept any kind of a peace agreement with Israel... It is they who applaud the bus and restaurant bombings in order to destroy any spark of hope for peace... They are Arab nationalists who have failed completely in all their wars with Israel and in all attempts to achieve peace with Israel, because they were not serious, and they were not men - neither in fighting nor in peacemaking...December 30 2003
- Supporting Evidence: "The mania for armed struggle….is the cause for [us] missing …historical opportunities since 1937 to 2000, with…pristine excuses such as 'we have the right[s] on our side…" Al-'Aff Al-Akhdar, Tunisian columnist, 2002
- Supporting Evidence: "Haj Amin Al-Husseini collaborated with Hitler and rejected the settlement offered him by the Peel Commission in 1937 to partition Palestine, with 20% going to the Jews and 80% to Palestine. Then, he repeated his mistake by rejecting the Partition Plan [1947] that this time would have given 55% to the Jews and the rest to Palestine…you rejected Clinton's proposal, which gave your people 96-97% of the West Bank, citing the religious ruling that you rejected it because it was an American-Jewish conspiracy against the Palestinian people…" Al-'Aff Al-Akhdar, Tunisian columnist, 2002
- Supporting Evidence: In the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, editor Jubran Tuweini wrote, "Once again, we realize that the Arabs are their own worst enemy - just as the worst enemy of the Palestinian cause is the Palestinians, who have endorsed a policy of refusal and fundamentalist extremism as a way of behavior. How many times have they already served Israel with their deeds? How many times has the behavior of these groups already saved Ariel Sharon and his government?" December 24 2003
- COUNTERPOINT: It is Palestinians, not Israelis, who see their Intifada as an opportunity to continue the 1948 War and undo its results, judging from statements of Palestinian political leaders and results from Palestinian opinion polls.
- POINT 10: Attacks against Israelis only began after Israel used excessive force in 2000.
- COUNTERPOINT: This claim is patently untrue. There is no way Palestinian attacks can be blamed on Israel's counter-terrorism measures in 2000. . Terrorist attacks against Israelis had begun mounting from the time the Declaration of Principles were signed in 1993, seven years before the Intifada erupted in 2000.
- Supporting Evidence: In just the first five years after Oslo (1993 to 1998), terrorists killed 305 Israelis, almost twice the number killed in the whole 13 years between 1980 and 1993. Peace Watch Report
- Supporting Evidence: Suicide bombing did not begin as a response to Israel's "excessive force" after 2000. The timing of the first suicide bomber in Israel correlated with Yasser Arafat's taking over leadership in Gaza in 1994. On April 13, 1994, a suicide bomber from Gaza blew himself up on a bus in Hadera. Hamas took credit for the bombing.
- Supporting Evidence: In just the first five years after Oslo (1993 to 1998), terrorists killed 305 Israelis, almost twice the number killed in the whole 13 years between 1980 and 1993. Peace Watch Report
- COUNTERPOINT: Attacks against Israelis began before any Israeli police or military action.
- Supporting Evidence: Two Israelis were killed between the end of Camp David and the beginning of Arab rioting. On September 27, 2000, Sgt. David Biri, 19, of Jerusalem, was fatally wounded in a bombing near Netzarim in the Gaza Strip and on September 29, 2000, Border Police Supt. Yosef Tabeja, 27, of Ramle was shot to death by his Palestinian counterpart on a joint patrol near Kalkilya.
- Supporting Evidence: One day after Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount and one day before Rosh HaShanah, one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar, the Palestinian Authority's official radio station exhorted, "all Palestinians to come and defend the al-Aksa Mosque." The Palestinian Authority arranged for students to participate in the organized riots, closing schools and bussing them to the Temple Mount. They joined thousands of Arabs at the Temple Mount to hear a sermon that exhorted Muslims to "eradicate the Jews from Palestine." Riots ensued in which Arabs threw rocks and bricks down on the heads of Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall. These riots precipitated the first Israeli police response.
- Supporting Evidence: You claim that the first Palestinian terrorist action inside Israel occurred one month after Israel began the use of force. This statement is deceptive. At least 14 Israelis were killed by Palestinians within that one month period. Two of those were killed by Palestinians before Israel exerted any force at all. Why would you ignore the gunning down of a rabbi as he traveled with a group of men, women, and Children near Nablus? Why would you ignore any of these deaths?
- Supporting Evidence: Two Israelis were killed between the end of Camp David and the beginning of Arab rioting. On September 27, 2000, Sgt. David Biri, 19, of Jerusalem, was fatally wounded in a bombing near Netzarim in the Gaza Strip and on September 29, 2000, Border Police Supt. Yosef Tabeja, 27, of Ramle was shot to death by his Palestinian counterpart on a joint patrol near Kalkilya.
- COUNTERPOINT: Israel cannot be blamed for the violence in the current Intifada. Palestinian terrorist groups, with the support of the Palestinian Authority, unleashed a pre-meditated terrorist war against Israel in September 2000. Israel has had to defend itself and control the terrorist groups that the PA was supposed to have disarmed.
- Supporting Evidence: "Whoever thinks that the Intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque is wrong... This Intifada was planed in advance." - PA Communications Minister, Imad al Faluji. In Al-Safir, March 3, 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: "Imad Faluji, the Palestinian National Authority's Communications Minister, said during a PLO rally in Ain al-Hilweh refutifada [...] that the five-month-old uprising against Israel had been planned since the Camp David peace talks failed in July, contradicting past contentions of a spontaneous outburst from Palestinians on the street." - Semi-governmental Lebanese Newspaper, Beirut "Daily Star", March 3, 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: "Mr. Falouji went on to state that Arafat launched this intifada as a culminating state to the immutable Palestinian stance in the negotiations." - Al-Ayyam, the Palestinian Authority daily newspaper. December 6, 2000.
- Supporting Evidence: "The issues of Jerusalem, the refugees and sovereignty are one and will be finalized on the ground and not in negotiations. At this point it is important to prepare Palestinian society for the challenge of the next step because we will inevitably find ourselves in a violent confrontation with Israel in order to create new facts on the ground. [...] I believe that the situation in the future will be more violent than the [first] Intifada." - Abu-Ali Mustafa of the Palestinian Authority. July 23, 2000 (two months before the outbreak of the current Intifada).
- Supporting Evidence: "Whoever thinks that the Intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque is wrong... This Intifada was planed in advance." - PA Communications Minister, Imad al Faluji. In Al-Safir, March 3, 2001.
- COUNTERPOINT: Israel did not react with a military campaign until terrorism crescendoed in March 2002 when, in just one month, 16 suicide bombers exploded themselves in crowded civilian centers, killing 96 civilians and seriously wounding hundreds.
- Supporting Evidence: After rejecting Prime Minister Barak's compromise proposals, the Palestinians effectively declared war on Israel on September 29, 2000 when the Oslo War began.
- Supporting Evidence: Between September 29 and December 31 2000, Israel experienced 15 bomb attacks with 36 killed and 84 injured.
- Supporting Evidence: In 2001, terrorist attacks mounted in number and in the toll they took. There were 119 terrorist attacks, including 38 suicide bombing incidents. 76 Israeli civilians-men, women and children-were killed; 986 were wounded.
- Supporting Evidence: In the first three months of 2002, Palestinian terrorists launched 119 successful terrorist attacks, the equivalent of 1.3 a day. In March alone, 17 suicide bombers detonated themselves among innocent civilians. More Israelis were killed and severely wounded in these three months than in the whole of 2003: 177 were killed; 956 were wounded.
- Supporting Evidence: Between 9/29/00 and 4/14/04, 924 Israelis have been killed, over 70% of them civilians, including children, the elderly and women. 4452 civilians have been injured, some so seriously that they are permanently crippled. Children have become orphans; parents have lost their children when they go or return from school.
- Supporting Evidence: After rejecting Prime Minister Barak's compromise proposals, the Palestinians effectively declared war on Israel on September 29, 2000 when the Oslo War began.
- COUNTERPOINT: This claim is patently untrue. There is no way Palestinian attacks can be blamed on Israel's counter-terrorism measures in 2000. . Terrorist attacks against Israelis had begun mounting from the time the Declaration of Principles were signed in 1993, seven years before the Intifada erupted in 2000.
- POINT 11: The Palestinians are peaceful and want peace.
- COUNTERPOINT: While it may be true that many Palestinians want peace, a great number of Palestinians believe the goal of the current Intifada should be the elimination of Israel, and a vast majority support using suicide bombing and terrorism against civilians as the means to achieve that goal.
- Supporting Evidence: In a 2002 Poll taken at Najah University in Nablus, "87% of Palestinians surveyed were in favor of continuing terror attacks," and, "87.5% were in favor of 'liberating all of Palestine'."
- Supporting Evidence: In a random sample of 1199 Palestinians conducted by JMCC Public Opinion Polls in September of 2002, 64.3% of Palestinians supported suicide bombings against civilians and 43% of Palestinians believed the goal of the current Intifada should be the elimination of Israel.
- Supporting Evidence: A poll released on October 22 2003 by Palestinian Media Watch, reveals that 59% of Palestinians believe that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad should continue their armed struggle against Israel even if Israel leaves all of the West Bank and Gaza, including east Jerusalem, and a Palestinian state is created. (Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, October 20 2003 [31]
- Supporting Evidence: Yasser Arafat explicitly called for undoing the "Nakba," the Palestinian defeat in 1948: "Our nation is patient and determined which sacrificed its body to defend itself, which was laid bare by the Nakba carried out the international, Zionist and imperialist power, which didn't have the right to allow [the creation of Israel], for those who didn't have the right [the Zionists]. Acts of sacrifice, determination and revolution have sent a message to the world that Palestine is the homeland of the Palestinian nation and it has no other, and it will not accept an alternative to its homeland." Arafat Speech broadcast on PA Television for "Nakba Day," May 15 2004. [32]
- Supporting Evidence: A Hamas leader in Gaza said he would not give up his arms even if Israel pulled out of Gaza because Haifa and Jerusalem are still "occupied"-cities that are part of pre-1948 Israel. "But speaking in Gaza City, Ahmed Bahar, one of the Hamas leaders on the Israeli hitlist, said the pullout from Gaza would not end the fighting. 'We will not throw away our weapons…Jerusalem is still occupied, Haifa is still occupied. They took our land by force and we have the right to take it back by force." The Guardian, April 23 2004 [33]
- Supporting Evidence: In a 2002 Poll taken at Najah University in Nablus, "87% of Palestinians surveyed were in favor of continuing terror attacks," and, "87.5% were in favor of 'liberating all of Palestine'."
- COUNTERPOINT: While it may be true that many Palestinians want peace, a great number of Palestinians believe the goal of the current Intifada should be the elimination of Israel, and a vast majority support using suicide bombing and terrorism against civilians as the means to achieve that goal.
- POINT 12: Israel's recent offensive against the Palestinians is a continuation of the 1948 policy of expulsion and expropriation.
- COUNTERPOINT: Israel never had a policy of expulsion and expropriation, in 1948 or at any other time. Arab policies, not Israel, created the refugee problem. The refugees were a product of the 1948 War. Had Arab leaders accepted the UN Partition Resolution in 1947 instead of going to war, there would have been a Palestinian state and no refugees.
- Supporting Evidence: "The fact that there are those refugees is the direct consequence of the action of the Arab states in opposing [the UN plan for] partition and the [creation of a] Jewish state. The Arab states agreed upon this policy unanimously…." Emil Ghoury, Secretary of the Arab Higher Committee during the 1948 War. Beirut Daily Telegraph, September 6, 1948.
- Supporting Evidence: "[T]he creation of the refugee problem…was a direct consequence of the war that the Palestinians-and in their wake, the surrounding Arab states-had launched." Historian Benny Morris
- Supporting Evidence: "Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave. Only a few months separated our call to them to leave and our appeal to the United Nations to resolve on their return." Syrian Prime Minister Haled al Azm, 1948-49
- Supporting Evidence: "Brotherly advice was given to the Arabs of Palestine to leave their land, homes and property and to stay temporarily in neighboring fraternal states, lest the guns of the invading [Arab] armies mow them down." (Habib Issa, Secretary general of the Arab League, in Al Hoda Newspaper, June 8, 1951.)
- Supporting Evidence: "The fact that there are those refugees is the direct consequence of the action of the Arab states in opposing [the UN plan for] partition and the [creation of a] Jewish state. The Arab states agreed upon this policy unanimously…." Emil Ghoury, Secretary of the Arab Higher Committee during the 1948 War. Beirut Daily Telegraph, September 6, 1948.
- COUNTERPOINT: The idea that Israel's recent offensive is part of a policy of expulsion and expropriation turns the facts upside down. Israel had withdrawn from the Territories so that Palestinians could form an independent, self-governing entity. By 1997, 98% of Palestinians were ruled by the Palestinian Authority.(*) Israel's recent offensive is an effort to fight the war against it initiated by the Palestinians-a campaign of rampant terrorism that murdered 900innocent Israeli civilians between October 2000 and March 2004.
- Supporting Evidence: Since the beginning of the Intifada, Israeli intelligence has received approximately 40 terrorist warnings a day.
- Supporting Evidence: "whoever thinks that the Intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque is wrong... This Intifada was planed in advance." - PA Communications Minister, Imad al Faluji. In Al-Safir, March 3, 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: "Imad Faluji, the Palestinian National Authority's Communications Minister, said during a PLO rally in Ain al-Hilweh refutifada [...] that the five-month-old uprising against Israel had been planned since the Camp David peace talks failed in July, contradicting past contentions of a spontaneous outburst from Palestinians on the street." - Semi-governmental Lebanese Newspaper, Beirut "Daily Star", March 3, 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: "Mr. Falouji went on to state that Arafat launched this intifada as a culminating state to the immutable Palestinian stance in the negotiations." - Al-Ayyam, the Palestinian Authority daily newspaper. December 6, 2000.
- Supporting Evidence: "The issues of Jerusalem, the refugees and sovereignty are one and will be finalized on the ground and not in negotiations. At this point it is important to prepare Palestinian society for the challenge of the next step because we will inevitably find ourselves in a violent confrontation with Israel in order to create new facts on the ground. [...] I believe that the situation in the future will be more violent than the Intifada." - Abu-Ali Mustafa of the Palestinian Authority. July 23, 2000 (two months before the outbreak of the current Intifada).
- Supporting Evidence: Quoting from the semi-governmental, Beirut "Daily Star" (March 3, 2001), "Imad Faluji, the Palestinian National Authority's Communications Minister, said during a PLO rally in Ain al-Hilweh refutifada [...] that the five-month-old uprising against Israel had been planned since the Camp David peace talks failed in July, contradicting past contentions of a spontaneous outburst from Palestinians on the street." Why, in light of the Palestinian Authority's admission that the current Intifada was planned and orchestrated from above, do you still claim that it is spontaneous?
- Supporting Evidence: Since the beginning of the Intifada, Israeli intelligence has received approximately 40 terrorist warnings a day.
- COUNTERPOINT: Israel never had a policy of expulsion and expropriation, in 1948 or at any other time. Arab policies, not Israel, created the refugee problem. The refugees were a product of the 1948 War. Had Arab leaders accepted the UN Partition Resolution in 1947 instead of going to war, there would have been a Palestinian state and no refugees.
- POINT 13: "The political strategies aimed at discrediting Arafat and the Palestinian Authority were also ready right from the start. Barak's political circles prepared a manuscript known as the "White Book", which announced that Arafat had never deserted the "option of violence". ." (ie the Palestinians had not planned to use violence. This notion was invented by Israel's generals.)
- COUNTERPOINT: It is absurd and irresponsible to condemn Israel's leadership for monitoring the PA's intentions and to imply that Israel somehow concocted evidence of the PA's intention to use violence. The evidence is clear that the PA was not fully committed to non-violence and peaceful negations.
- Supporting Evidence: "Everything you see and hear today is for tactical and strategic reasons. We have not given up the rifle. We still have armed gangs the areas and if we do not get our state we will take them out of the closet and fight again." - Faisal Husseini, PA representative for Jerusalem affairs, member of Arafat's Cabinet, in a speech at Bir Zeit University on November 22. (Maariv, Nov. 24, 1993)
- Supporting Evidence: "It is important that we organize our homes and our movement so that we can more and more and more endure the coming battle, which we shall initiate. We must say these things because great battles lie before us, and it will now be more difficult than in the past... let us each commit one to another and let us commit ourselves before Allah and the Palestinian people that we shall lead the coming battle as we have led previous battles… We are marching together with the blessing of Allah, my brothers, we are marching together to Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem." Arafat in a speech to his Fatah movement in Gaza. (Palestinian Television. August 5, 1997. Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda. August 6, 1997.) [34]
- Supporting Evidence: "The agreements will not liberate the land. Every centimeter requires a struggle, and the land requires blood... We must continue the struggle for which the martyrs fell..." - Saher Habash, Fatah Central Committee member, speaking on behalf of Chairman Arafat. January 24, 1999. (Official PA newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, January 25, 1999) [35]
- Supporting Evidence: "War! War! Continue the struggle!" - Yasser Arafat, in a speech at the Dehaishe refugee camp near Bethlehem, 22 October 1996 (Arutz-7 Radio, 23 October 1996) [36]
- Supporting Evidence: "The struggle will continue until all of Palestine is liberated." - Yasser Arafat, PLO Chairman (Voice of Palestine, 11 November 1995) [37]
- Supporting Evidence: "No one can complain about what Hamas and Jihad are doing. I say that it is the right of every Palestinian to struggle so long as there is a single Israeli soldier in the land of Palestine." - Farouk Qaddumi, head of the P.L.O.'s Political Department (Al-Musawar, 30 September 1994) [38]
- Supporting Evidence: "Our enemy is a lowly enemy. The Palestinian people know there is a state that was established through coercion and it must be destroyed. This is the Palestinian way." - Farouk Qaddumi, head of the P.L.O.'s Political Department. (Reuters, 10 August 1994) [39]
- Supporting Evidence: "Negotiations have achieved nothing up until now. As a consequence, we must be ready in every way to confront all possibilities. You must understand what I mean by this." - Arafat in an October 10 speech before the Palestinian Council. (Near East Report, Oct. 21, 1996.)
- Supporting Evidence: "They will fight for Allah, and they will kill and be killed, and this is a solemn oath... Our blood is cheap compared with the cause which has brought us together and which at moments separated us, but shortly we will meet again in heaven... Palestine is our land and Jerusalem is our capital" - Arafat to Palestinian security forces in Gaza on September 24. (Maariv, Oct. 4, 1996).
- Supporting Evidence: "The struggle will continue until all of Palestine is liberated." - Arafat in a radio address (Voice of Palestine, Nov. 11, 1995.) [40]
- Supporting Evidence: "Jerusalem is under occupation and the Moslems of the world should liberate it by jihad and put it under Islamic and Arabic authority. The jihad is not just a war jihad - we are talking about all means to get back Jerusalem." - Sheikh Ikram Sabri, PA Mufti. (Al-Sharq al-Awsat, Apr. 7, 1995) [41]
- Supporting Evidence: "We are all on our way to die as heroes on the road to Jerusalem, the capital of the state of Palestine." - Arafat in a speech in Gaza. (Jerusalem Post, Jan. 30, 1995)
- Supporting Evidence: "We are all seekers of martyrdom... I say to the martyrs who died, to the martyrs who are still alive, we hold to the oath, we hold to the commitment to continue the revolution." - Arafat in a speech on the 30th anniversary of Fatah's founding. (Palestinian TV, Jan. 1, 1995) [42]
- Supporting Evidence: "We sanctify the weapons found in the possession of the national factions which are directed against the occupation.... If there are those who oppose the agreement with Israel, the gates are open to them to intensify the armed struggle." - Jibril Rajoub in a lecture at Bethlehem University. (Yediot Aharonot, May 27, 1994)
- Supporting Evidence: "The jihad will continue... You have to understand our main battle is Jerusalem... You have to come and to fight a jihad to liberate Jerusalem, your precious shrine... No, it is not their capital. It is our capital." Arafat at a mosque in Johannesburg, South Africa on May 10, 1994. (Israel Radio, May 17, 1994; Jerusalem Post, May 18, 1994)
- Supporting Evidence: "Everything you see and hear today is for tactical and strategic reasons. We have not given up the rifle. We still have armed gangs the areas and if we do not get our state we will take them out of the closet and fight again." - Faisal Husseini, PA representative for Jerusalem affairs, member of Arafat's Cabinet, in a speech at Bir Zeit University on November 22. (Maariv, Nov. 24, 1993)
- COUNTERPOINT: It is absurd and irresponsible to condemn Israel's leadership for monitoring the PA's intentions and to imply that Israel somehow concocted evidence of the PA's intention to use violence. The evidence is clear that the PA was not fully committed to non-violence and peaceful negations.
- POINT 14: Israel cannot be allowed to use the actions of a few extremists bent on derailing the Road Map to destroy the [peace] process.
- COUNTERPOINT: Israel never let the actions of a few extremists destroy the peace process. In 1993, the year Israel signed the Oslo Accords, terrorism casualties doubled from the previous year, jumping from 34 to 61 and they continued to be high until 1999. Israel did not mount a counteroffensive or allow these fundamental violations to interrupt the peace process.
- Supporting Evidence: Between 1993 and the start of the Oslo War, terrorists killed 256 Israelis. "Proportionately to its population, this number would represent the equivalent loss for the United States of about 49,000 citizens." Professor Joel Fishman
- Supporting Evidence: "Israeli and American leadership could not face up to the frequent recurrence of terror, regarding it as an act of nature, such as a thunderstorm or an earthquake, about which nothing could be done. One could not formally recognize the "inconvenient reality" of terror without calling into question the entire "peace process." Furthermore, coming to terms with reality would imply adopting a course of action other than maintaining the status quo." ." Professor Joel Fishman
- Supporting Evidence: "The Israeli government also gave the Palestinians a free ride from 1993-2000, during the seven-year Oslo process, by downplaying terrorist attacks and the two-faced message of the Palestinian leadership, which presented a message of peace in English and a message of war in Arabic. To keep the Oslo process from collapsing, both Israeli and US leaders decided in 1993 to ignore the PA's daily radio and TV calls for a renewed war against Israel." Interview with David Bedein, Director of the Israel Resource News Agency. 2002
- Supporting Evidence: Between 1993 and the start of the Oslo War, terrorists killed 256 Israelis. "Proportionately to its population, this number would represent the equivalent loss for the United States of about 49,000 citizens." Professor Joel Fishman
- COUNTERPOINT: Israel did not react with a military campaign until terrorism crescendoed in March 2002 when, in just one month, 17 suicide bombers exploded themselves in crowded civilian centers, killing 96 civilians and seriously wounding hundreds.
- Supporting Evidence: After rejecting Prime Minister Barak's compromise proposals, the Palestinians effectively declared war on Israel on September 29, 2000 when the Oslo War began.
- Supporting Evidence: Between September 29 and December 31 2000, Israel experienced 15 bomb attacks with 36 killed and 84 injured.
- Supporting Evidence: In 2001, terrorist attacks mounted in number and in the toll they took. There were 119 terrorist attacks, including 38 suicide bombing incidents. 76 Israeli civilians-men, women and children-were killed; 986 were wounded.
- Supporting Evidence: In the first three months of 2002, Palestinian terrorists launched 119 successful terrorist attacks, the equivalent of 1.3 a day. In March alone, 17 suicide bombers detonated themselves among innocent civilians. More Israelis were killed and severely wounded in these three months than in the whole of 2003: 177 were killed; 956 were wounded.
- Supporting Evidence: Between 9/29/00 and 4/14/04, 924 Israelis have been killed, over 70% of them civilians, including children, the elderly and women. 4452 civilians have been injured, some so seriously that they are permanently crippled. Children have become orphans; parents have lost their children when they go or return from school.
- Supporting Evidence: After rejecting Prime Minister Barak's compromise proposals, the Palestinians effectively declared war on Israel on September 29, 2000 when the Oslo War began.
- COUNTERPOINT: To call the Palestinians' well-organized, orchestrated campaign of incitement and violence the "actions of a few extremists" is to defy reality. The Palestinian leadership in effect had openly declared war against Israel in Sept 2000. These attacks are not the work of marginal criminals. Violence was planned and coordinated long before Ariel Sharon walked on the Temple Mount on September 28, 2000.
- Supporting Evidence: "Whoever thinks that the Intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is wrong, even if this visit was the straw that broke the back of the Palestinian people. This Intifada was planned in advance, ever since President Arafat's return from the Camp David negotiations, where he turned the table upside down on President Clinton." PA Communications Minister, Imad Al-Faluji Al-Safir (Lebanon), March 3, 2001
- Supporting Evidence: "[T]he Palestinian people did not cease throughout the seven years of negotiations [since Oslo] from carrying out Intifadas against Israel and stating its positions by means other than the negotiating table." "The choice is not at all between options of negotiation and fighting: You can have negotiations and fight at the same time... the Palestinian people fight with weapons, with jihad, with Intifadas and suicide actions... and it is destined to always fight and negotiate at the same time…" Nabil Sha'ath, PA Minister of Planning and International Cooperation. January 1996
- Supporting Evidence: "The popular recruitment in the PA's territories has significantly increased, and a Palestinian Liberation Army was established under the Fatah Leadership. The PA has already distributed weapons to the citizens and is supervising training and preparation for the possible confrontation with the forces of the Israeli occupation." Statement by PA security official, July 21, 2000 (two months before the Intifada erupted). Reported in Kul Al-Arab, Israeli-Arab newspaper.
- Supporting Evidence: "The failure to reach a final agreement [at Camp David] will force the Palestinians to opt for military action."-Hasan Al-Khashef, Director-General of the PA Ministry of Information inAl-Quds Al Arabi [London] August 24, 2000. )
- Supporting Evidence: "Violence is around the corner, and the Palestinians are willing to sacrifice even 5,000 casualties." Freih Abu Middein, PA Justice Minister, August 24, 2000 in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA newspaper).
- Supporting Evidence: "Whoever thinks that the Intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is wrong, even if this visit was the straw that broke the back of the Palestinian people. This Intifada was planned in advance, ever since President Arafat's return from the Camp David negotiations, where he turned the table upside down on President Clinton." PA Communications Minister, Imad Al-Faluji Al-Safir (Lebanon), March 3, 2001
- COUNTERPOINT: Israel has overwhelming justification for defending itself. The PA has maintained the machinery of war and incitement throughout its governance. In its children's schoolbooks, its mosques, and government-controlled media, the PA has kept up a campaign of hate and vilification of Israelis and Jews, denied the legitimacy of the Jewish state, insisted that all the land belongs to Palestinians, and called for the killing of Jews.
- Supporting Evidence: The Jews "must be butchered and killed, as Allah the Almighty said, 'Fight them: Allah will torture them at your hands.'…Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are, in any country. Fight them, wherever you are. Wherever you meet them, kill them." Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya, Sermon in Gaza broadcast on PA television. October, 2000 PA-appointed religious leader. Sermon broadcast on PA television.
- Supporting Evidence: An end-of-the-year ceremony for 1650 kindergarten students run by Hamas 'included a skit by children that encouraged the murder of Jews as a religious commandment. 2002
- Supporting Evidence: "Notice, oh worshippers of Allah, the Jews are the most loathsome creatures on the face of the earth. For the Christians, despite their abominations, asked of Omar bin Al-Khattab one condition from among four-not to permit the Jews to live in Palestine. We want people like [Saladin] to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque…." Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris, Friday sermon on PA TV August 15, 2003
- Supporting Evidence: The Jews "must be butchered and killed, as Allah the Almighty said, 'Fight them: Allah will torture them at your hands.'…Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are, in any country. Fight them, wherever you are. Wherever you meet them, kill them." Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya, Sermon in Gaza broadcast on PA television. October, 2000 PA-appointed religious leader. Sermon broadcast on PA television.
- COUNTERPOINT: This is not the work or sentiment of just a few extremists. Recent polls show that the Palestinian population supports continued terrorism against Israel.
- COUNTERPOINT: No nation can or should tolerate this assault on its people. No nation can neglect to take defensive security measures to protect its citizens. No one can call this the work of "a few extremists."
- COUNTERPOINT: Israel never let the actions of a few extremists destroy the peace process. In 1993, the year Israel signed the Oslo Accords, terrorism casualties doubled from the previous year, jumping from 34 to 61 and they continued to be high until 1999. Israel did not mount a counteroffensive or allow these fundamental violations to interrupt the peace process.
- POINT 15: The settlements are the biggest obstacle to peace.
- COUNTERPOINT: It is disingenuous to claim that the settlements are the biggest obstacle to peace. Even if Israel dismantled the settlements and gave the Palestinians all of the Territories and East Jerusalem, a majority of Palestinians have indicated they believe terrorism should still continue.
- COUNTERPOINT: It is disingenuous to claim that the settlements are the biggest obstacle to peace. Arabs and Palestinians refused to make peace with Israel long before there were any settlements in the Territories.
- COUNTERPOINT: The existence of settlements in the Sinai did not prevent Israel and Egypt from reaching a peace agreement in 1979. Per that agreement, Israel dismantled its settlements and uprooted the Israelis living in the Sinai.
- COUNTERPOINT: During the Camp David and Taba negotiations in 2000 and 2001, Israel offered to remove most settlements from a future Palestinian state. The Palestinian leadership still rejected the offer.
- Supporting Evidence: At Camp David in 2000 and Taba in 2001, Prime Minister Barak offered to uproot settlements from 95% of the West Bank and 100% of the Gaza Strip.
- Supporting Evidence: At the same negotiations, Prime Minister Barak offered a land exchange for the 5% of the land with Jewish communities that would become part of Israel.
- Supporting Evidence: A majority of the settlers have indicated a willingness to relocate if a final agreement requires it, according to a poll taken by Peace Now in 2002.
- Supporting Evidence: At Camp David in 2000 and Taba in 2001, Prime Minister Barak offered to uproot settlements from 95% of the West Bank and 100% of the Gaza Strip.
- COUNTERPOINT: It is disingenuous to claim the settlements are the main obstacle to peace. These settlements, even with their growth to accommodate growing families and needs, cover only a miniscule portion of land in the West Bank, and the vast majority is concentrated along the 1967 borders.
- Supporting Evidence: The existing settlements take up only 1.36% to 1.7% of the entire West Bank, according to Peace Now and B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights watch group.
- Supporting Evidence: 80% of the settlers live in communities that hug the 1967 border and could be easily accommodated into Israel with slight border adjustments.
- Supporting Evidence: The existing settlements take up only 1.36% to 1.7% of the entire West Bank, according to Peace Now and B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights watch group.
- COUNTERPOINT: The demand that there be no Jewish communities in a future Palestinian state is racist. Currently, Jewish communities comprise only 1.6% of the land, according to B'Tselem. Why shouldn't some Jews, who may be attached to their homes or religious sites, be allowed to live in a Palestinian state, especially given that 20% of Israeli citizens are Arabs.
- COUNTERPOINT: The Palestinian leadership has made it clear that the real obstacle to peace is that it refuses to compromise and accept the existence of Israel.
- Supporting Evidence: "The struggle will continue until all of Palestine is liberated." - Arafat in a radio address (Voice of Palestine, Nov. 11, 1995.)
- Supporting Evidence: "The Oslo agreement, or any other agreement, is just a temporary procedure, or just a step towards something bigger […] [Palestine], according to the higher strategy, [is] 'from the river to the sea.' Palestine in its entirety is an Arab land, the land of the Arab nation." - Faisal Husseini, PA representative for Jerusalem affairs, member of Arafat's Cabinet, and noted 'moderate', in Egyptian Daily "Al-Arabi" June 21, 2001
- Supporting Evidence: "We will never be ready to lay down arms until the liberation of the last centimeter of the land of Palestine." - HAMAS, June 5, 2003. [43]
- Supporting Evidence: 43% of Palestinians believed the goal of the Intifada should be the "liberation" of all of Palestine-i.e. eliminating Israel-according to a poll taken in September 2002 by the Palestinian polling organization, Jerusalem Media and Communications Center.
- Supporting Evidence: 48% of Palestinians believed the goal of the Intifada should be some form of one-state solution-i.e. eliminating Israel as a sovereign Jewish nation-according to a poll taken in April 2003 by the Palestinian polling organization, Jerusalem Media and Communications Center.
- Supporting Evidence: "It is the Palestinian leadership's rejection of the Barak-Clinton peace proposals of July-December 2000, the launching of the Intifada, and the demand ever since that Israel accept the "right of return" that has persuaded me that the Palestinians, at least in this generation, do not intend peace: they do not want, merely, an end to the occupation-that is what was offered back in July-December 2000, and they rejected the deal. They want all of Palestine and as few Jews in it as possible. The right of return is the wedge with which to prise open the Jewish state. Demography-the far higher Arab birth rate-will, over time, do the rest…" Historian Benny Morris, 2002
- Supporting Evidence: In the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, editor Jubran Tuweini wrote, "Once again, we realize that the Arabs are their own worst enemy - just as the worst enemy of the Palestinian cause is the Palestinians, who have endorsed a policy of refusal and fundamentalist extremism as a way of behavior. How many times have they already served Israel with their deeds? How many times has the behavior of these groups already saved Ariel Sharon and his government?" December 24 2003
- Supporting Evidence: "The struggle will continue until all of Palestine is liberated." - Arafat in a radio address (Voice of Palestine, Nov. 11, 1995.)
- COUNTERPOINT: It is disingenuous to claim that the settlements are the biggest obstacle to peace. Even if Israel dismantled the settlements and gave the Palestinians all of the Territories and East Jerusalem, a majority of Palestinians have indicated they believe terrorism should still continue.
- POINT 16: The root cause of terrorism is the illegal Israeli settlements.
- COUNTERPOINT: This is disingenuous. Israel had agreed to dismantle most of the settlements when the intensive phase of terrorism began in 2000.
- Supporting Evidence: At Camp David in 2000 and Taba in 2001, Prime Minister Barak offered to uproot settlements from 95% of the West Bank and 100% of the Gaza Strip.
- Supporting Evidence: At the same negotiations, Prime Minister Barak offered a land exchange for the 5% of the land with Jewish communities that would become part of Israel.
- Supporting Evidence: A majority of the settlers have indicated a willingness to relocate if a final agreement requires it, according to a poll taken by Peace Now in 2002.
- Supporting Evidence: At Camp David in 2000 and Taba in 2001, Prime Minister Barak offered to uproot settlements from 95% of the West Bank and 100% of the Gaza Strip.
- COUNTERPOINT: This is disingenuous. The root cause of terrorism is that Palestinian extremists and Yasser Arafat do not want to accept compromise and peaceful negotiation. Even Arab leaders have condemned them for this.
- Supporting Evidence: In the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, editor Jubran Tuweini wrote, "Once again, we realize that the Arabs are their own worst enemy - just as the worst enemy of the Palestinian cause is the Palestinians, who have endorsed a policy of refusal and fundamentalist extremism as a way of behavior. How many times have they already served Israel with their deeds? How many times has the behavior of these groups already saved Ariel Sharon and his government?" December 24 2003
- Supporting Evidence: The liberal-leaning Hazem Abd Al-Rahman wrote in his Al-Ahram column:"… Are these scum of the earth [Palestinians who attacked the Egyptian Foreign Minister] capable of accomplishing something for the Palestinian people? It is reasonable to assume that they, like the supporters of suicide bombings, are the first to damage the Palestinian cause, and are bringing death upon the Palestinian people…" December 24 2003
- Supporting Evidence: Palestinians don't have a state because they have had "an all or nothing policy," unlike the Zionists. "The Zionists never demanded the impossible….Our leadership….enabled the Zionists to succeed at every opportunity…by rejecting every proposal for compromise, rejecting proposals to give it a state on most of the land of Palestine…" Tawfiz Abu Bakr, Palestinian columnist, 2003
- Supporting Evidence: Because of "this irrational nihilist behavior [of Palestinians about accepting compromise], "Haj Amin Al-Husseini…rejected the settlement offered him by the Peel Commission in 1937…Then, he repeated his mistake by rejecting the Partition Plan that this time would have given 55% to the Jews and the rest to Palestine…." Al-'Afif Al-Akdhar, Tunisian columnist, 2002
- Supporting Evidence: "The mania for armed struggle….is the cause for [us] missing …historical opportunities since 1937 to 2000, with…pristine excuses such as 'we have the right[s] on our side…" Al-'Aff Al-Akhdar, Tunisian columnist, 2002
- Supporting Evidence: "Prince Hassan bin Talal, uncle of Jordan's King Abdullah and a former heir to the throne of the Hashemite kingdom, has told an Italian newspaper that he sees Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a pragmatic man, who wants security for his people, but is unable to find a partner on the Palestinian side with whom to conduct negotiations."Ha'aretz, December 29 2003 [44]
- Supporting Evidence: In the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, editor Jubran Tuweini wrote, "Once again, we realize that the Arabs are their own worst enemy - just as the worst enemy of the Palestinian cause is the Palestinians, who have endorsed a policy of refusal and fundamentalist extremism as a way of behavior. How many times have they already served Israel with their deeds? How many times has the behavior of these groups already saved Ariel Sharon and his government?" December 24 2003
- COUNTERPOINT: This is disingenuous. Israel had agreed to dismantle most of the settlements when the intensive phase of terrorism began in 2000.
- POINT 17: The current Intifada was caused by the persistent erosion of Palestian rights, the expansion of Israeli settlements, and the subsequent loss of faith in Israeli seriousness, in addition to Ariel Sharon's calculated and provocative assault on the Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem.
- COUNTERPOINT: The current Intifada cannot be blamed on obstacles to the establishment of a Palestinian state and the granting of Palestinian rights. It began just AFTER the Camp David negotiations when Israel had acceded to major Palestinian demands and offered Palestinians a state.
- Supporting Evidence: The Oslo Process would have yielded Palestinians almost every one of their demands, except destroying Israel. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority drew much criticism for their rejection of Clinton's offer, so they devised a fictitious accounts of what they were offered.
- Supporting Evidence: The Oslo Process, culminating in the Taba talks - not the Camp David talks - did offer the Palestinians a viable state with territory on 100% of the Gaza Strip and a contiguous 95% of the West Bank with land swaps for some of the remaining 5%. There were no cantons, and Jerusalem served as a shared capital with Palestinian sovereignty on most of the Temple Mount (see above). Dennis Ross tells us that none of this was written down because the Clinton Administration did not want it to serve as a floor for future negotiations. The maps circulated by the Palestinian Authority represented only a phase in the negotiations. Yasser Arafat himself did not offer any counter proposals to it.
- Supporting Evidence: The Oslo Process would have yielded Palestinians almost every one of their demands, except destroying Israel. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority drew much criticism for their rejection of Clinton's offer, so they devised a fictitious accounts of what they were offered.
- COUNTERPOINT: Palestinian leaders and American investigators have all conceded that Ariel Sharon's walk on the Temple Mount did not provoke the Intifada. Instead, Sharon's walk on the Mount was used as a pretext to start the Intifada.
- Supporting Evidence: The official US Mitchell Report, which forms the basis of the international understanding regarding the Intifada and possibilities for Peace, acknowledges that, "The Sharon Visit did not spark the Al-Aqsa Intifada."
- Supporting Evidence: "[Palestinian Security Chief] Jabril Rajoub … told me, if Ariel Sharon doesn't go into the mosques, but just visits the surface, nothing will happen." - Shlomo Ben-Ami, Acting Foreign Minister of Israel.
- Supporting Evidence: Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti admitted that he staged the beginning of the Intifada and chose Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount as the moment to initiate hostilities. "I knew that the end of September was the last period (of time) before the explosion, but when Sharon reached the al-Aqsa Mosque, this was the most appropriate moment for the outbreak of the intifada....The night prior to Sharon's visit, I participated in a panel on a local television station and I seized the opportunity to call on the public to go to the al-Aqsa Mosque in the morning, for it was not possible that Sharon would reach al-Haram al-Sharif just so, and walk away peacefully. I finished and went to al-Aqsa in the morning....We tried to create clashes without success because of the differences of opinion that emerged with others in the al-Aqsa compound at the time....After Sharon left, I remained for two hours in the presence of other people, we discussed the manner of response and how it was possible to react in all the cities (bilad) and not just in Jerusalem. We contacted all (the Palestinian) factions." - Marwan Barghouti. al-Sharq al-Awsat. October 22, 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: The Palestinian Authority's Communications Minister admitted that the Intifada was planned and executed by Arafat's government and was not a response to Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount. "Whoever thinks that the Intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque is wrong... This Intifada was planed in advance." - PA Communications Minister, Imad al Faluji. In Al-Safir, March 3, 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: "We will advance and declare a general Intifada for Jerusalem. The time for the Intifada has arrived, the time for Intifada has arrived, the time for Jihad has arrived." - Al-Sabah, official publication of the Palestinian Authority. September 11, 2000. (over two weeks before the beginning of the Intifada).
- Supporting Evidence: The official US Mitchell Report, which forms the basis of the international understanding regarding the Intifada and possibilities for Peace, acknowledges that, "The Sharon Visit did not spark the Al-Aqsa Intifada."
- COUNTERPOINT: The Palestinian Authority intentionally started the Intifada in order to force Israel to accede to their maximal demands or, as many fear, because they wish to dismantle the Jewish state.
- Supporting Evidence: "Mr. Falouji went on to state that Arafat launched this intifada as a culminating state to the immutable Palestinian stance in the negotiations." - Al-Ayyam, the Palestinian Authority daily newspaper. December 6, 2000.
- Supporting Evidence: "The issues of Jerusalem, the refugees and sovereignty are one and will be finalized on the ground and not in negotiations. At this point it is important to prepare Palestinian society for the challenge of the next step because we will inevitably find ourselves in a violent confrontation with Israel in order to create new facts on the ground. [...] I believe that the situation in the future will be more violent than the Intifada." - Abu-Ali Mustafa of the Palestinian Authority. July 23, 2000 (two months before the outbreak of the current Intifada).
- Supporting Evidence: "The struggle will continue until all of Palestine is liberated." - Yasser Arafat, PLO Chairman (Voice of Palestine, 11 November 1995)
- Supporting Evidence: "No one can complain about what Hamas and Jihad are doing. I say that it is the right of every Palestinian to struggle so long as there is a single Israeli soldier in the land of Palestine." - Farouk Qaddumi, head of the P.L.O.'s Political Department (Al-Musawar, 30 September 1994)
- Supporting Evidence: "Our enemy is a lowly enemy. The Palestinian people know there is a state that was established through coercion and it must be destroyed. This is the Palestinian way." - Farouk Qaddumi, head of the P.L.O.'s Political Department. (Reuters, 10 August 1994)
- Supporting Evidence: "We must face the fact that we are dealing here with a rigid state of mind (rejectionism and anti-Semitism) and that the failure of the Oslo peace process has not been so much the result of this or that negotiator's tactics or timing... It goes much deeper. The genocidal strain in this kind of fundamentalist rejectionism is older than the settlements, older than the state of Israel. It reflects the spirit of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who...fled to Berlin... begging Himmler to let him handle his version of the final solution in Palestine against the Jewish settlers." - Britain's Lord Weidenfeld to the House of Lords, July 13, 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: "I have come away from my examination of the history of the (Palestinian-Israeli) conflict with a sense of the instinctive rejectionism that runs like a dark thread through Palestinian history." - Benny Morris, "The Rejection" in The New Republic, April 11, 2003.
- Supporting Evidence: "Mr. Falouji went on to state that Arafat launched this intifada as a culminating state to the immutable Palestinian stance in the negotiations." - Al-Ayyam, the Palestinian Authority daily newspaper. December 6, 2000.
- COUNTERPOINT: The current Intifada cannot be blamed on obstacles to the establishment of a Palestinian state and the granting of Palestinian rights. It began just AFTER the Camp David negotiations when Israel had acceded to major Palestinian demands and offered Palestinians a state.
- POINT 18: The current conflict is not about terrorism. It's about occupation, freedom, and human rights.
- COUNTERPOINT: This is patently false. It is only about terrorism. Israel has been trying to give the Territories to the Palestinians for them to govern themselves. Within five years of signing the Oslo Accords, 98% of Palestinians were governed by the Palestinian Authority.(*) At Camp David and Taba, Israel agreed to major Palestinian demands. No more "occupation." Freedom from Israeli governance. Human rights determined by self-governing Palestinians.
- Supporting Evidence: The Oslo Peace Process was to end the "occupation," not prolong or repackage it. Only the most cynical hard-liner could describe it that way. It was a compromise solution designed to gradually establish Palestinian self-rule in the Territories. Israel gave Palestinians arms to develop police forces. By 1997 Israel had pulled out of the major Palestinian population centers in the West Bank and 98% of Palestinians lived under some form of Palestinian Authority control.
- Supporting Evidence: "There would be a net 97 percent of the [West Bank] territory that would go to the Palestinians… the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem would become the capitol of the Palestinian state… There would be a right of return for the refugees to their own state, not to Israel, but there would also be a fund of $30 billion internationally that would be put together for either compensation or to cover repatriation, resettlement, rehabilitation costs." - Dennis Ross, Former US Envoy to the Middle East.
- Supporting Evidence: "Those who say there were cantons, completely untrue. It was contiguous." - Dennis Ross, Former US Envoy to the Middle East.
- Supporting Evidence: The Oslo Peace Process was to end the "occupation," not prolong or repackage it. Only the most cynical hard-liner could describe it that way. It was a compromise solution designed to gradually establish Palestinian self-rule in the Territories. Israel gave Palestinians arms to develop police forces. By 1997 Israel had pulled out of the major Palestinian population centers in the West Bank and 98% of Palestinians lived under some form of Palestinian Authority control.
- COUNTERPOINT: Instead of accepting these peace proposals, Yasser Arafat supported the launching of the Intifada, a terrorist war against Israel to meet maximalist Palestinian demands-the end of Israel.. That terrorist war is the cause of the continuing conflict.
- Supporting Evidence: In the first three months of 2002, Palestinian terrorists launched 119 successful terrorist attacks, the equivalent of 1.3 a day. In March alone, 17 suicide bombers detonated themselves among innocent civilians. More Israelis were killed and severely wounded in these three months than in the whole of 2003: 177 were killed; 956 were wounded.
- Supporting Evidence: Between 9/29/00 and 4/14/04, 924 Israelis have been killed, over 70% of them civilians, including children, the elderly and women. 4452 civilians have been injured, some so seriously that they are permanently crippled. Children have become orphans; parents have lost their children when they go or return from school.
- Supporting Evidence: "At this stage we talk about a state within the 1967 borders, but this is not the end of the story....because I aspire, historically, culturally and geographically, to a unified Palestine. ...It can be established through peace, if the Israelis accept the logic of a [unified] democratic Palestinian state. If they don't accept this logic, then the logic of history will lead to a confrontation [ie war]." - Bilal Al-Hassan, representing the position of the Palestinian left, in an interview on Al-Jazeera, November 17, 2000.
- Supporting Evidence: "You understand that we plan to eliminate the state of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian State. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion; the Jews will not want to live among us Arabs! I have no use for Jews. They are and remain Jews." - Yassir Arafat, speech to Arab diplomats in the Spiegel Salon at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden, Jan 30, 1996.
- Supporting Evidence: "The Oslo Accords were a Trojan horse; the strategic goal is the liberation of Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea." - Faisal Husseini, PA Administrator for Jerusalem Affairs, July 2001.
- Supporting Evidence: In a random sample of 1199 Palestinians conducted by JMCC Public Opinion Polls in September of 2002, 64.3% of Palestinians supported suicide bombings against civilians and 43% of Palestinians believed the goal of the current Intifada should be the elimination of Israel.
- Supporting Evidence: In a 2002 Poll taken at Najah University in Nablus, "87% of Palestinians surveyed were in favor of continuing terror attacks," and, "87.5% were in favor of 'liberating all of Palestine'."
- Supporting Evidence: In the first three months of 2002, Palestinian terrorists launched 119 successful terrorist attacks, the equivalent of 1.3 a day. In March alone, 17 suicide bombers detonated themselves among innocent civilians. More Israelis were killed and severely wounded in these three months than in the whole of 2003: 177 were killed; 956 were wounded.
- COUNTERPOINT: Even Arab leaders blame the Palestinians for launching this terrorist war and provoking Israel's defensive measures.
- Supporting Evidence: In the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, editor Jubran Tuweini wrote, "Once again, we realize that the Arabs are their own worst enemy - just as the worst enemy of the Palestinian cause is the Palestinians, who have endorsed a policy of refusal and fundamentalist extremism as a way of behavior. How many times have they already served Israel with their deeds? How many times has the behavior of these groups already saved Ariel Sharon and his government?" December 24 2003
- Supporting Evidence: The liberal-leaning Hazem Abd Al-Rahman wrote in his Al-Ahram column:"… Are these scum of the earth [Palestinians who attacked the Egyptian Foreign Minister] capable of accomplishing something for the Palestinian people? It is reasonable to assume that they, like the supporters of suicide bombings, are the first to damage the Palestinian cause, and are bringing death upon the Palestinian people…" December 24 2003
- Supporting Evidence: On the liberal Arab website Elaph, Egyptian columnist Sami Buheiri wrote: "[T]he rabble majority of the Arab and Palestinian street today….refuse to accept any kind of a peace agreement with Israel... It is they who applaud the bus and restaurant bombings in order to destroy any spark of hope for peace... They are Arab nationalists who have failed completely in all their wars with Israel and in all attempts to achieve peace with Israel, because they were not serious, and they were not men - neither in fighting nor in peacemaking...December 30 2003
- Supporting Evidence: "The mania for armed struggle….is the cause for [us] missing …historical opportunities since 1937 to 2000, with…pristine excuses such as 'we have the right[s] on our side…" Al-'Aff Al-Akhdar, Tunisian columnist, 2002
- Supporting Evidence: In the Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, editor Jubran Tuweini wrote, "Once again, we realize that the Arabs are their own worst enemy - just as the worst enemy of the Palestinian cause is the Palestinians, who have endorsed a policy of refusal and fundamentalist extremism as a way of behavior. How many times have they already served Israel with their deeds? How many times has the behavior of these groups already saved Ariel Sharon and his government?" December 24 2003
- COUNTERPOINT: This is patently false. It is only about terrorism. Israel has been trying to give the Territories to the Palestinians for them to govern themselves. Within five years of signing the Oslo Accords, 98% of Palestinians were governed by the Palestinian Authority.(*) At Camp David and Taba, Israel agreed to major Palestinian demands. No more "occupation." Freedom from Israeli governance. Human rights determined by self-governing Palestinians.
- POINT 19: Opposition to Zionist hegemony is not genocidal. It is reasonable.
- COUNTERPOINT: When “opposition” takes the form of targeting innocent civilians, including children, for mass murder, it is not “reasonable.” It is a crime against humanity and morally repugnant. It is genocidal, according to international human rights organizations and Arab leaders.
- Supporting Evidence: “[N]o violations by the Israeli government, no matter their scale or gravity, justify the [Palestinian] killing of…civilians. The obligation to protect civilians is absolute and cannot be set aside…The attacks against civilians by Palestinian armed groups are widespread, systematic and in pursuit of an explicit policy to attack civilians. They therefore constitute crimes against humanity under international law. They may also constitute war crimes….” Amnesty International. November 7, 2002 [45]
- Supporting Evidence: “The assertion that international law imposes no constraints on the means used to fight occupying powers runs counter to one of the most basic rules of international humanitarian law. In the words of the ICRC, the most authoritative interpreter of international humanitarian law, ''whenever armed force is used the choice of means and methods is not unlimited." (60) International humanitarian law sets out standards of humane conduct applicable to both state forces and armed groups.” Amnesty International and the International Committee of the Red Cross. November 7, 2002 [46]
- Supporting Evidence: “Suicide bombings targeting civilians have not and will never bring victory to anyone. They bring only greater hostility in return, greater determination to crush those behind such terror. They are the weapon of the defeated, of the embittered, of those who regard human life as worthless, of those who live on hate. They are no foundation for peace or justice.” “Stand Up to Evil,” Arab News editorial May 16 2003 [47]
- Supporting Evidence: “[N]o violations by the Israeli government, no matter their scale or gravity, justify the [Palestinian] killing of…civilians. The obligation to protect civilians is absolute and cannot be set aside…The attacks against civilians by Palestinian armed groups are widespread, systematic and in pursuit of an explicit policy to attack civilians. They therefore constitute crimes against humanity under international law. They may also constitute war crimes….” Amnesty International. November 7, 2002 [45]
- COUNTERPOINT: The Palestinians are fighting to impose Arab-Muslim domination—hegemony—over Jews and Israel. Israel does not seek hegemony over the Palestinians. Since 1937, Zionists and then Israel repeatedly agreed to compromise and divide the land between the two national movements, in 1937, 1947, 1967 to 1969, 1979, and 2000. Palestinian Arabs repeatedly rejected these compromises and repeatedly refused to accept the Jews’ right to independence and nationhood in the Jews’ historic homeland. They struggle to ensure that Arab Muslims dominate the entire Middle East and prevent any regional minority from having its right to self-determination—in this case, the Jews.
- Supporting Evidence: Palestinian National Charter, Article 19: “The establishment of Israel is fundamentally null and void.” Article 15: “[We call for] the liquidation of the Zionist presence in Palestine.” Article 9: “Armed Struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine.” [48]
- Supporting Evidence: In a random sample of 1199 Palestinians conducted by JMCC Public Opinion Polls in September of 2002, 64.3% of Palestinians supported suicide bombings against civilians and 43% of Palestinians believed the goal of the current Intifada should be the elimination of Israel. [49]
- Supporting Evidence: Hamas’ founding covenant calls for jihad to “obliterate Israel” and to “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine” and over “any land the Moslems conquered by force” in “the times of Islamic conquests.” (Preamble, and Article 11) [50]
- Supporting Evidence: "We sanctify the weapons found in the possession of the national factions which are directed against the occupation.... If there are those who oppose the agreement with Israel, the gates are open to them to intensify the armed struggle." - Jibril Rajoub in a lecture at Bethlehem University. [51]
- Supporting Evidence: "There is no people or land named Israel. Israel is our patriarch Yaaqoub, peace be upon him, and the children of Israel are the sons of Yaaqoub… We are the children of Israel…. These people are the children of the Zionist entity, they are the children of the colonialist entity, they are nothing more than thieves. They came and took land which does not belong to them. Therefore, the normalization of relations with them is impossible…. even if Palestine remains occupied for hundreds of years… These Zionists are not fit to establish a nation or to have their own language or even their own religion. They are nothing more than a hodgepodge.” - Safi Naz Kassam, Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, official PA newspaper. September 1 1997 [52]
- Supporting Evidence: Palestinian National Charter, Article 19: “The establishment of Israel is fundamentally null and void.” Article 15: “[We call for] the liquidation of the Zionist presence in Palestine.” Article 9: “Armed Struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine.” [48]
- COUNTERPOINT: When “opposition” takes the form of targeting innocent civilians, including children, for mass murder, it is not “reasonable.” It is a crime against humanity and morally repugnant. It is genocidal, according to international human rights organizations and Arab leaders.
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