More proof Palestinians have nothing to offer Israel

NY Times:

Suicide bombings in Israel have dropped off so significantly that the nation’s security officials now dare to speak openly of success. But the very steps they are taking to thwart bombers appear to collide head-on with the government’s agenda of achieving peace with the Palestinians.

It is a classic military-political dilemma. The progress in stopping suicide bombers, the vast majority of whom cross into Israel from the West Bank, has brought enough quiet for Israel to resume peace talks with the Palestinian leadership there.

But the current calm is fragile, and to maintain it Israeli security officials say they must continue their nightly arrests and sometimes deadly raids in the heart of the West Bank — tactics at odds with a peace effort that envisions a separate Palestinian state, an eventual Israeli withdrawal from much of the West Bank and, in the meantime, a gradual transfer of authority to the Palestinian police.

“The price of staying out” of the West Bank, said one senior Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of military restrictions, “might be one that we don’t want to pay.”

The military’s faith in its efforts comes across in its charts showing a steep decline in suicide bombings — from a high of 59 in 2002 to only one in 2007, and one so far this year.

“It is far from a coincidence,” said Col. Herzi Halevi, commander of the Israeli Army’s Paratroops Brigade, which is at the forefront of the military campaign in the West Bank, where the borders are longer and more permeable than those in the Gaza Strip, the other Palestinian territory. “It is not that the terrorists did not try enough. They did. We know.”

The military’s change in policy came after a particularly bloody spring in 2002, when a Palestinian from the West Bank traveled nine short miles across Israel and walked into the modest Park Hotel here in Netanya, a coastal resort town, blowing himself up in the dining hall during a Passover seder.

The Park Hotel massacre, as it became known, was the climax of a bloody month in which 130 Israelis died in suicide bombings and other attacks. Within days Israeli forces invaded most of the Palestinian cities of the West Bank in an operation named Defensive Shield, wresting back control from the Palestinian Authority security forces who were supposed to be laying the foundations for a nascent Palestinian state.

Six years later, the glass doors at the entrance of the Park Hotel were flung wide open to catch the slightest breeze. In the lobby, a teenager casually played a video game while a tourist collected a hair dryer from the reception desk. Scores of guests were booked for the Passover meal.

Still, Israel is taking nothing for granted. The country will soon be going on heightened alert in the days leading to the 60th anniversary celebrations beginning Wednesday, and security officials are loath to surrender the option of striking at suicide bombers and their dispatchers at any time, on Palestinian turf.

“You cannot play from the touchdown line,” Colonel Halevi said.

Israel also started building the West Bank separation barrier in 2002, describing it as an answer to the suicide bombers. Made up mostly of fences and some sections of wall, the barrier is now about two-thirds complete. Security officials say it has proved effective, but they do not rely on it alone.

Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has managed to straddle the seeming contradictions between the peace process and the military’s continued campaign in the West Bank largely by putting off the matter until a later date.

Despite the Bush administration’s urgings to reach a peace deal by the end of the year, Mr. Olmert has said that his goal in talks with the Palestinians is to try to define the basic parameters for a Palestinian state, not to reach a comprehensive agreement that will be put in place any time soon.

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The Palestinians have nothing of value to offer Israel, certainly not the victimization they wallow in. They have neither the will, or apparently the means, to stop attacks on Israel by members of their society. They set up these, so called, independent groups to engage in mass murder of Israelis, and if Israel was not diligent in its efforts to stop them, they would continue to send their young out to explode around Israelis.

For political reasons, Israel and the Palestinians have to go through the pretext of a peace process, but both know it is not something that will happen. Probably the Bush administration knows that too as do the Arab states who insist on it. It will only happen for real when the Palestinians accept Israel and there is no evidence that they are ready for that.

The Washington Post discusses the newly trained police the Palestinians are putting on the streets. They find more excuses for failure.