SQUEEZING ISRAEL IS NOT THE ANSWER

Baker's Miscalculation - Editorial
The latest Wise Men have spoken and their highly anticipated solution to the entire Mideast crisis, from Lebanon to Iraq and Iran, begins where it always seems to: with squeezing Israel. The approach the Study Group has taken is to call for prodding Washington to negotiate with the enemy (read: Iran and Syria) as a means of stabilizing the situation in Iraq, and to prod Israel and the Palestinians into a peace agreement (read: pressure Israel into more concessions). But the dirty little secret here is that the Arab world cares very little about the plight of the Palestinians - indeed Israel cares a great deal more - and the notion that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the center of this mess is wildly inaccurate - historically and logically. Moreover, the problem with Palestinian-Israeli peace talks is that even when they are concluded, the Palestinians refuse to keep their part of the bargain, namely ceasing their violent attacks on Israel and accepting its permanence as a Jewish state. (New York Jewish Week)

Before Blaming Israel for Everything - Tom Teepen
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former President Jimmy Carter all declare that fixing the Muslim Middle East requires fixing the Israeli-Palestinian mess. But what's awry in the Middle East would still be awry if the UN had never created Israel. First Jews and then Israel have throughout provided the excuse used by the Middle East's satrapies, strongman states, and oil baronies for their failure to compose the region in the interests of the people who live there. A Palestinian-Israeli deal has lain to hand ever since the UN partitioned the old British Mandate in 1947. Arabs instead choose the romantic "armed struggle" over any Palestinian state whose creation doesn't kill off Israel. The last three Israeli prime ministers have supported the creation of a Palestinian state. But Israel withdrew from Lebanon and Gaza and got, in return, a terrorist Hizballah ministate in Lebanon and a terrorist Hamas government in Gaza. In the unlikely event that movement toward a broad Mideast bargain can be set in motion, it will be time to start asking Palestinians the question that always seems to be asked only of Israelis: What are you willing to do for peace? (Cox News Service/Minneapolis Star Tribune)