ISLAMISTS NOT DRIVEN BY ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN PROBLEM

Islamists Are Not Driven By Israel-Palestinian Problem - Daniel Finkelstein
I am struck by Prime Minister Blair's thesis - his idea that the Israel-Palestinian dispute is the core issue and that we must now bend every effort to reaching a solution. I think he is quite wrong here. He seems to have accepted the idea that we will only win the war on terror once there is peace in Israel. The truth is that there will only be peace in Israel once we have won the war on terror.

Mr. Blair has conceded a critical point. He has accepted the idea that the behavior of the State of Israel is the underlying grievance that drives on the Islamists and wins them what support they have in the Arab world. The truth is very different. The existence of so many dictatorships, kleptocracies, and violent thugs in the Middle East is what drives on the conflict, in Israel, as elsewhere. The Palestinian crisis and the tragedy of the poor Palestinian people is an effect, an outcome, not a cause. (Times-UK)

NOT JUST BLAIR. THE SPANISH AND FRENCH LEADERS ARE UNDER THE SAME MISAPPREHENSION:

Israel dismisses peace proposal as 'Spanish ideas' (JPost)
Israel dismissed reports Thursday that Spain, France and Italy are preparing a new Middle East peace initiative, saying that at the most, they were discussing "some Spanish ideas."

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced the plan at a summit in Spain with President Jacques Chirac of France. "Peace between Israel and the Palestinians means to a large extent peace on the international scene," Zapatero told a news conference. "We cannot remain impassive in the face of the horror that continues to unfold before our eyes," Zapatero said.

Referring to the errant artillery shells in Beit Hanun and Wednesday's fatal rocket attack in Sderot, Zapatero said the violence "has reached a level of deterioration that requires determined, urgent action by the international community."

He said that the peace plan will be presented to an EU summit next month, and that he hoped to win the backing of Britain and Germany.

Chirac said France was "going to act jointly with the Spanish and Italian governments, with the cooperation of the EU" to initiate "moral and political reforms in the Middle East."

But Italian President Romano Prodi, who held a telephone conference call with his colleagues, released a communique that seemed to distance Rome from the initiative, and hinted that it would have to go through regular EU framework and channels.

Zapatero said the plan had five elements: an immediate cease-fire; formation by the Palestinians of a national unity government that could gain international recognition; an exchange of prisoners - including the three IDF soldiers whose kidnapping sparked the war in Lebanon and fighting in Gaza this summer; talks between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas; and an international mission in Gaza to monitor a cease-fire.