Why The Geneva Initiative Won't Work

The EU currently has a proposal on the table known as the Geneva Initiative, which is designed to promote peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Soem Israelis have been studying the Initiative pretty closely and have identified a number of problem areas.

A small selection:

* Supervision to prevent the smuggling of weapons may remain in force for only five years.

* An Israeli military presence, under the supervision of an international force, may remain in the Jordan Valley for only 5.5 years.

* Israel is to begin withdrawing from Yesha immediately, while no time element is associated with the disbanding of Palestinian terror forces.

* No mention is made of the collection and removal of illegal weapons within the PA.

* Israel is barred from patrolling the airspace over Judea and Samaria, only a few kilometers from Ben-Gurion International Airport.

So, in essence, the Geneva Initiative is little more than a reworded version of the Israel concession/Palestinian promise plan.

But what exactly is a Palestinian promise worth?

Lerner also noted that "Article 6 Paragraph 5(b)iii [states that] the Waqf will determine what may 'disrupt religious worship decorum on the site' - and since the Waqf has the authority to determine what may disrupt religious worship decorum, and since, as you know, the Waqf believes that Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount is blasphemy, it follows that they will bar Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount on the grounds that it disrupts decorum."

When I was on the Temple Mount, they had a terrorist museum/celebration of victimhood. When I went in, I really hadn't really developed any anti-Palestinian feelings (those started right after we left the museum and a little kid was calling me a Zionist because I wouldn't but his pictures for $50). But the inside of the museum was just too much, way, way too much. Bloody shirts, weapons, pictures of Israeli "oppression." It was all just laid on so thick. It makes it completely believable that they would ban Jewish worship on the Temple Mount without a concern in the world about being fair to the spirit of the agreement.

But the bigger problem is this:

...Israel is an illegitimate state. This definition applies to organizations
and individuals that represent [Israel] or recognize it. Therefore, in order
to emphasize this illegitimacy, all ties with the "Israelis" should be
canceled, and in other words: normalization with Zionists should be opposed
on a world level, not only in the Arab homeland...
...There is no option other than the elimination of the imperialist-Zionist
project... The meaning of resisting Israel is resisting Globalization, and
vice versa..."

How can you realistically make peace or lasting agreements with people who want you eliminated? It's would be like the French trying to buy peace with Hitler by giving up Paris. It's asinine to think it would work. The Palestinians are only interested in peace - once the Jews are gone. They have never given up the idea of pushing Israel back into the sea and they never will.

That is why the Geneva Initiative will fail, just like the Oslo Accord; just like the Road Map. Peace requires both parties to want it. The Palestinians do not want peace. They only want to get rid of the Jews.

Until that basic fact changes, every agreement, no matter how well intended, will fail.