Trudy Rubin Blames Israel Again

    With the regularity of an alarm clock, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Trudy Rubin can always be counted on to blame Israel when there's some problem in the Mideast negotiating process. Sure enough, Rubin has responded to the latest dispute over Israeli redeployment by blaming Israel.

    In her April 10 op-ed, Rubin declared that the only way out of the current impasse is for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "to make some hard decisions," that is, to give Yasir Arafat more land. In exchange, she says, Arafat is ready to provide "very concrete Palestinian security guarantees." She criticizes Netanyahu for blocking peace by not agreeing to such a deal. But Rubin forgot to mention the most important fact of all: Arafat has already given those guarantees--four times. Yet he's never fulfilled any of them. Why should Israel keep making concessions in exchange for unfulfilled promises?

    In the original Oslo accords that Arafat signed with Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn in 1993, Arafat pledged to "discipline" PLO factions that continue to engage in terrorism. Two PLO factions, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, have carried out dozens of terrorist attacks since then. Arafat has never "disciplined" or punished them in any way. He hasn't even kicked them out of the PLO. In the May 1994 Cairo accords, which gave Arafat control over Gaza and Jericho, he pledged to honor Israel's requests to extradite terrorists to Israel. Since then, Israel has submitted 36 such requests; Arafat has ignored them all. In the September 1995 "Oslo II" accords, which gave Arafat control over the largest Arab cities in the territories, he again pledged to extradite terrorists. He also pledged to disarm terrorist groups. He never did either. In the January 1997 Hebron accord, in which the Netanyahu government gave Arafat 80% of Hebron, Arafat promised to implement all of his previous anti-terror pledges "immediately." Arafat's definition of "immediately" must differ from the rest of the world's definition, because 15 months have passed, and none of those pledges have been kept. One wonders how Trudy Rubin would define "immediately."

    Not only does Rubin put the entire onus on Israel, and not only does she refrain from insisting that Arafat first fulfill his earlier pledges--but even worse, she goes so far as to blame Israel, in advance, for future Arab terrorism. If Israel fails to give Arafat territory, Rubin says, there will be more "terror bombings," more "Palestinian support for Hamas," and Arafat's police "won't even try to arrest terrorists, or may even join them." The Palestinian Arabs will be "deprived of hope [and] will probably gravitate toward Islamic fundamentalism." According to Rubin, "only be giving Palestinians a territory of their own [can] Israel check the growth of Hamas."

    That's an interesting theory. But Israel already tried it--and it failed. Israel has already made three territorial withdrawals from Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, leaving Arafat with control of all the main Arab-populated areas. More than 98% of the Palestinian Arabs are under Arafat's rule. Giving them territory and self-rule was supposed to result in peace. But it didn't. Instead, there has been more Arab terrorist violence in the past four and a half years than during any similar period in Israel's history, and nearly 300 Israelis have been murdered. Despite getting land, the Palestinian Arabs, from Arafat on down, have enthusiastically supported the terrorists. Their newspapers and television stations cheer them as "martyrs" and "heroes." When a terrorist is killed, tens of thousands of Arabs flock to his funeral. Arafat praises the terrorists, gives them shelter, and last year, in the kiss seen 'round the world, publicly embraced a top Hamas leader.

    As for Arafat's police, who does Rubin think she's kidding? She says that if Israel doesn't make more concessions, Arafat's police "won't even try to arrest terrorists, or may even join them." But that is what has already happened. They have never made any serious effort to arrest terrorists. And a number of senior PLO police officers have been involved in recent terrorist activities.

    The good news is that while Trudy Rubin has been busy bashing Israel, some other prominent commentators have been examining events in a more objective fashion. In a recent editorial, Mortimer Zuckerman, editor in chief of the newsweekly U.S. News and World Report, wrote: "Instead of fighting the armed fundamentalist terrorists--Hamas and Islamic Jihad--Arafat [is] permitting their military strength to grow in the territories turned over by Israel...Arafat [is] using proxy terror to push Israel for more concessions...Evidence of Arafat's betrayal multiplies. He has twice as many police under arms as agreed at Oslo but will not use them against terrorist havens minutes from major Israeli cities. He has freed Islamic Jihad terrorists responsible for the January 1995 Beit Lid bombing that killed a score of Israelis...He retains [police chief] Gen. Ghazi Jabali, who is known to be involved in terrorism...He has recruited 150 police officers from known terrorist groups, including at least 25 wanted for terrorist attacks on Israelis."