Israel Matzav: Israel should call Abu Mazen's war strategy

Israel should call Abu Mazen's war strategy

For those of you who don't visit Commentary's Contentions blog regularly, here's another reason to start: Evelyn Gordon has joined their list of contributors. Here's her first post, and it's spot-on:

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday that he is urging his government not to resume negotiations with the Palestinian Authority until the PA withdraws its international legal complaints over alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza. The real question is why Lieberman is having trouble convincing his cabinet colleagues of this position.

...

How exactly does Israel talk peace with someone who seeks to cripple Israel’s ability to defend itself even as he endorses anti-Israel terror? That isn’t an act of peace; it’s an act of war. And while Abbas may have had little political choice about jumping on the Goldstone Report bandwagon, he can hardly plead that Goldstone forced his hand: the PA filed its own war-crimes complaint against Israel in the International Criminal Court in January — nine months before the Goldstone Report came out. It even signed a special cooperation agreement with the court to get around prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo’s initial objection that he lacked jurisdiction, since Israel is not a member of the court, and the PA, not being a sovereign state, cannot be.

In short, this looks remarkably like a deliberate strategy for war on Israel. And Israel should be calling Abbas on it rather than keeping up the pretense that he is a “partner for peace” with whom it is eager to negotiate.

Who is Lieberman having trouble convincing? Gordon doesn't say. Among the 'security cabinet,' I'd guess Dan Meridor, Ehud Barak and Binyamin Netanyahu. Possibly even new member Eli Yishai. My guess is that Moshe ("Boogie") Yaalon and Benny Begin support Lieberman's demand.

While it was clear over the weekend that Netanyahu was doing everything possible to show that Israel is cooperating with the US and the 'Palestinians' are not, this particular demand should be one that the Americans can support. Abu Mazen has no right to play both sides of the fence. Either he and his 'Palestinian Authority' are on the side of peace or they're on the side of Goldstone.

Read the whole thing.

Israel Matzav: Israel should call Abu Mazen's war strategy