The Jerusalem Post, May 31, 2016: “PM says he’s ready to negotiate [with the Palestinian Authority (PA)] based on the Saudi Peace Initiative.” This means that Netanyahu is ready to implement his June 14, 2009 endorsement of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, the ancestral and strategic heartland of the Jewish People.

Netanyahu repeats his Wye River mistake

Benjamin Netanyahu after the 2013 Israeli elections. Photo: Cherie Cullen, USDoD.

More than 300,000 Jews now live on this sacred Jewish land. This is part of the desert that Jewish love and labor made to bloom. It would to a desert if Netanyahu has is way, that is, under an Arab dispensation, as happened to Gush Katif when its Jewish population was expelled in June 2005 by the Sharon Government of which Netanyahu was a minister.

The Saudi “peace initiative” welcomed by Netanyahu should be seen with the backdrop of the October 1998 Wye River Memorandum, which Netanyahu co-signed with Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority. The PA is the 1993 successor of Yasser Arafat’s PLO, the consortium of terrorists comprising Netanyahu’s so-called peace partner. Netanyahu relies on this “peace partner” to actualize his vision of a Palestinian state, which has the backing of Saudi Arabia and the United States, both having bank-rolled the PA. This US-Saudi nexus is insidious.

The present writer sees in the US-Saudi backing of the PA a replay of a dereliction of duty on the part of Netanyahu in connection with the October 1998 Wye River Memorandum which he co-signed with PA chief Mahmoud Abbas. Netanyahu’s dereliction of duty is manifested in the blatant fact that he has utterly disregarded the security arrangements prescribed in that Wye Agreement, of which the United States signed as a guarantor. The Wye Memorandum relates to the Oslo or Israel-PLO Agreement of September 1993 signed by the late PM Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin was silently committed to the creation of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, which Netanyahu endorsed in his Bar-Ilan University speech on June 14, 1993.

The 1998 Wye Memorandum or Agreement specified the transfer of certain parts of Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority. The Memorandum set forth, as I shall enumerate further on, various security provisions of which both the PA and Israel are responsible, and for which the U.S. is the guarantor!

• Now, if you juxtapose those security provisions and the PA’s innumerable terrorist attacks on Israel since 1998, you can’t escape the conclusion that Mr. Netanyahu has been guilty of a dereliction of duty in the performance of his prime ministerial responsibilities by not calling the PA to account for its murderous violations of the Wye Memorandum. Hundreds of Jewish men, women, and children have lost their lives as a result of his malfeasance in office! Let facts be submitted to a candid world:
• “The Palestinian side agree to take all measures necessary in order to prevent acts of terrorism, crime and hostilities directed against the Israeli side … just as the Israeli side agree to take all measures necessary in order to prevent acts of terrorism, crime and hostilities directed against the Palestinian side … The two sides also agree to take legal measures against offenders within their jurisdiction and to prevent incitement against each other by any organizations, groups or individuals within their jurisdiction.
• “Both sides recognize that it is in their vital interests to combat terrorism and fight violence … They also recognize that the struggle against terror and violence must be comprehensive in that it deals with terrorists, the terror support structure, and the environment conducive to the support of terror. It must be continuous and constant over a long-term, in that there can be no pauses in the work against terrorists and their structure. It must be cooperative in that no effort can be fully effective without Israeli-Palestinian cooperation and the continuous exchange of information, concepts, and actions.”

What do the Palestinians offer in return?

The Palestinian side’s implementation of its responsibilities for security, security cooperation, and other issues are detailed as follows:

1. Regarding Terrorism:
   1. “The Palestinian side will make known its policy of zero tolerance for terror and violence against both sides.”
   2. “A work plan developed by the Palestinian side will be shared with the U.S. and thereafter implementation will begin immediately to ensure the systematic and effective combat of terrorist organizations and their infrastructure.”
   3. “In addition to the bilateral Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation, a U.S.-Palestinian committee will meet biweekly to review the steps being taken to eliminate terrorist cells and the support structure that plans, finances, supplies and abets terror. In these meetings, the Palestinian side will inform the U.S. fully of the actions it has taken to outlaw all organizations (or wings of organizations, as appropriate) of a military, terrorist or violent character and their support structure and to prevent them from operating in areas under its jurisdiction.”
   4. “The Palestinian side will apprehend the specific individuals suspected of perpetrating acts of violence and terror for the purpose of further investigation, and prosecution and punishment of all persons involved in acts of violence and terror.”
   5. “A U.S.-Palestinian committee will meet to review and evaluate information pertinent to the decisions on prosecution, punishment or other legal measures which affect the status of individuals suspected of abetting or perpetrating acts of violence and terror.”
2. Regarding Illegal Weapons:
   1. “The Palestinian side will ensure an effective legal framework is in place to criminalize, in conformity with the prior agreements, any importation, manufacturing or unlicensed sale, acquisition or possession of firearms, ammunition or weapons in areas under Palestinian jurisdiction.”
   2. “In addition, the Palestinian side will establish and vigorously and continuously implement a systematic program for the collection and appropriate handling of all such illegal items in accordance with the prior agreements. The U.S. has agreed to assist in carrying out this program.”
   3. “A U.S.-Palestinian-Israeli committee will be established to assist and enhance cooperation in preventing the smuggling or other unauthorized introduction of weapons or explosive materials into areas under Palestinian jurisdiction.”
3. Regarding Incitement:
   1. “… The Palestinian side will issue a decree prohibiting all forms of incitement to violence or terror, and establishing mechanisms for acting systematically against all expressions or threats of violence or terror. This decree will be comparable to the existing Israeli legislation which deals with the same subject.”
   2. “A U.S.-Palestinian-Israeli committee will meet on a regular basis to monitor cases of possible incitement to violence or terror and to make recommendations and reports on how to prevent such incitement.”

Since the Prime Minister’s Office publishes frequent reports of PA violations of the Wye (and Oslo) Agreements, Mr. Netanyahu has harbored solid evidence, as well as legal and moral grounds, to justify abrogation of the Wye Agreement (along with that of Oslo). Allowing the PA to murder Jews with impunity renders Netanyahu unworthy of his office and reveals his inability to provide for the safety of the Jewish people. Moreover, Netanyahu’s failure to make an issue of the PA’a violation of the Wye Agreement strikes this writer as a gross dereliction of duty for which he should be held to account, to the extent of his being removed from office.

Of course, other prime ministers of Israel have failed their country by turning a blind eye to Arab violations of the 1998 the Wye River Memorandum. Also, the inclusion of the United States, a patron of the Palestinian Authority, in the security provisions of that Memorandum – as if this gives the Memorandum solidity – only testifies to the monumental fatuity of those most responsible for Israel’s safety and survival.◘

Postscript

Five years ago, on November 11, 2011, the present writer issued a report on Israel National Radio entitled, “Why Netanyahu is Not Qualified to be Israel’s Prime Minister.” After warning that “it’s irrelevant to say that any of his most likely successors is even less qualified,” I set forth strategic as well as ideological evidence that disqualifies Netanyahu as PM.

• When he was a cabinet minister in the Sharon Government, he voted for the expulsion of 8,000 Jews from their homes in Gaza. Gaza is now called Hamastan, a proxy of Iran. Armed by increasingly deadly weapons from Iran, Hamas constitutes a strategic threat to Israel from the south. Meanwhile, Hezbollah, another Iranian and well-armed proxy, threatens Israel from the north. This perilous state of affairs, for which Netanyahu is to no small extent responsible, should have prompted Israelis to relegate him to the political wilderness in the February 2009 national elections. Instead [but with less than a third of the electorate], the Likud Party received enough votes to make Netanyahu PM.
• Four months later, on June 14, at Bar-Ilan University, Netanyahu endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria without Knesset or public debate!

What makes Netanyahu so dangerous is that he is not stupid. Since he is not suffering from some cerebral defect, we must attribute his policy of retreat to some other deficiency.☼