Israel showed at Camp David in 2000 that it will do everything except commit suicide for real peace with the Palestinians. Yet precisely when Israel offered a Palestinian state on 95 percent of the West Bank, Palestinians resumed blowing up Israelis wherever Israelis live, eat, travel, pray and work. It was clear to all but those who hate Israel that Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians wanted Israel destroyed more than they wanted a state. And now, once again, Israel is making clear its willingness to do just about anything for peace -- this time under a right-wing prime minister.
It is time for the world to see the 55-year-old truth that Israel wants peace while its enemies want Israel destroyed . . . unless the Palestinians are willing to fight their terrorists. Nothing will demonstrate that Palestinians are willing to live alongside Israel as much as their willingness to fight fellow Palestinians.
For those who claim "war never solves anything," a mantra of such ignorance that only the well educated believe it, the Palestinians can provide another example of how war, or at least a willingness to wage war, can solve a great deal. Just as the Nazi atrocities were ended only by war, so, too, the Palestinians will have a state and enjoy peace and freedom only by declaring, and if need be fighting, a war. A civil war.
For their sake and the world's sake, let us pray they wage it.