Israel’s only alternative
By BARRY RUBIN
12/09/2012
The Palestinian leadership, abetted by many Western governments, has now torn up every agreement it made with Israel. Once the efforts of two decades of negotiations – including irrevocable Israeli compromises in giving the Palestinian Authority control over territory, its own armed forces, dismantling settlements and permitting billions of dollars of foreign aid to the Palestinians – were destroyed, the world decided to focus the blame on Israel for approving the construction of 3,000 apartments.
In 1993, Israel signed an agreement with the PLO to make peace in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The accord, known as the Oslo agreement, included the following passage in Article 31: ‘Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.’
By essentially unilaterally declaring the existence of an Arab Palestine, the world has abrogated that agreement.
