There is no peace partner
Writing in Haaretz - Haaretz! - Ari Shavit explains that there is no peace partner (Haaretz put the wrong headline on this). The ultimate solution is not the total liberation of the Gaza Strip or a Palestinian state. It is the liberation of all of Palestine.
Haniyeh did not say so outright, but his words are clear. Hamas is demanding Ramle and Lod, Haifa and Jaffa, Abu Kabir and Sheikh Munis. It is also demanding the land on which this article was written and the land on which this article was printed - the land on which the editorial offices of Haaretz are located and the land on which the Haaretz printing plant is located. The land, the entire land. Greater Palestine.
In recent years, quite a number of experts have promised us that Hamas does not really mean it. Hamas is only playing tough, but its intentions are lofty: cease-fire, Green Line, coexistence. Live and let live. But no message conveyed by any senior Hamas member to any diplomat behind closed doors is equal in status to the message conveyed by Haniyeh to the masses. What counts is only the direct and open statement made by the Palestinian leader to his people. Palestine, all of Palestine. Every piece of Israeli land on which any Israeli citizen lives. His home, your home, our home. The land beneath our feet.
Ostensibly, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is an alternative to Hamas. Two days ago Abbas told Haaretz correspondent Avi Issacharoff that an agreement could be reached within six months. There's one small problem: Similar things were said to us when the Beilin-Abbas agreement was formulated in 1995. Similar things were said to us on the eve of Camp David 2000. Similar things were promised us when the Geneva Initiative was signed in 2003. Similar things were promised us when Israel went to Annapolis in 2007.
But every time an Israeli leader took another significant step toward Abbas, Abbas became evasive. To this day Abbas has not responded positively to the offer of 100 percent made to him by former prime minister Ehud Olmert 15 months ago.
Haaretz headlines this Hamas still wants to liberate all of 'Palestine.' But that's not the headline here. The headline here is that Haaretz is finally admitting that Fatah wants to 'liberate' all of 'Palestine' too. There is no difference between them.
Shavit goes on to insist that there must be a solution and to advocate the 'Mofaz plan' (whatever that is this week) or a second 'disengagement' (since the first one just worked out so well). But the bottom line is that there is no peace partner and as much as many Israelis hate what they term an 'occupation,' they are not going to support unilaterally abandoning our assets to either a 'moderate' or an 'extreme' terror organization.
There is no peace partner. It's time to face that reality, stop evading it, and move on with our lives. There is a solution to this impasse: Pay the 'Palestinians' to leave voluntarily. A majority of them would take advantage it.
Israel Matzav: There is no peace partner
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