Was anyone surprised by the contemptible remarks by Mahmoud Abbas, the declining heir to Yasser Arafat and the former grand mufti of Jerusalem, about "Holocausts" that Israel is supposedly perpetrating? He has been caught up in a pathological stance on the Holocaust ever since he was a doctoral student.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
This is his legacy – the slaughter of 11 Israeli athletes in Munich in 1972, for which he was responsible and holds to even now, the mufti's plan to annihilate Jews in the Dotan Valley, the barbaric slaughter in Hebron in 1929. This should teach us about the nature of the conflict – there is no need to "solve" it, because it is not solvable. We need to win it.
But a victory in a conflict as serious as this one must be lengthy. It demands strategic moves and patience. First of all, we must stop defending the "Palestinian Authority." We have to keep fighting terrorism without it.
Second, we need to seal the neglected security barrier.
Third, it is vital to build on the border of the Jordan Valley and the Arava that is of the same quality as the fence on the Egyptian border. This will allow us to isolate terrorist gangs and Iranian jihad, in all its forms.
Fourth, Israel must apply its law to the Jordan Valley, settlements in Judea, Samaria, and Area C. This will define the political horizon open to Arabs who are not Israeli citizens – a "sub-state," or ties to Jordan.
We should thank Abbas for once again showing us his true face. Do we need any more malicious remarks for the security establishment to realize that the agent it has recruited and the "national movement" he leads are a snake hiding in the grass, ready to bite? In the meantime, they are biting "only" in The Hague, through monstrous education, through institutional anti-Semitism, and by funding terrorism.
If we keep protecting the dying snake, it could recover and bring us back to the Oslo path – mass terrorism on their part and paralysis on our, just like the eight blood-soaked years between 1994 and Operation Defensive Shield in 2002. The US and Europe are just waiting for a chance to go back.
The defense and security establishment has to restrict the "Authority's" ability to bite, and not dismiss its danger because of its current weakness. Even now, it is more dangerous to Israel than Hamas is – it can be more effective than Hamas politically and could be the nexus of an attempt to force us back to the Oslo trap.
Israel was tempted to accept help from the "Authority" in preventing terrorism. In exchange, Israel defended it against its rivals and lobbied to have superpowers keep funding it. And what will we do tomorrow when the Fatah, the terrorist organization that lies at the heart of the "Authority," crumbles into gangs that fight each other and other gangs? Which gang will we defend then?
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
This is a dubious path of perpetuating the conflict, and the security apparatus has clung to it through pointless conservatism. There are even Israelis who think, in pathological detachment from reality, that we need to go back to trying to turn the collapsing "Authority" into a state – just like gamblers will double down.
How will this prevent the process of the PA breaking apart into gangs? It's already begun – the PA is weak in Judea and Samaria, and maybe even in Ramallah. How will it keep buses from blowing up? We must extract ourselves from the Oslo conservatism that still influences the establishment that Benny Gantz represents.
It would be better to allow the pathetic, corrupt, and evil "Authority" to die, and let the Arabs in the territories, if they way, rule themselves without solutions from a terrorist organization.
We can and should use force to stop Hamas, Fatah, and groups like them in Judea and Samaria, just like we hit them hard during Operation Guardian of the Walls, without traitorous agents who do more damage than they help us.
As of now, the separation between the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria is convenient for us. We won't start with Gaza, we just won't interfere as the "Authority" falls apart, which it's doing voluntarily. Obviously, anti-terror activity will have to be stepped up in Judea and Samaria both before and after that happens.
This is feasible and will entail fewer casualties than the passivity we exhibited 20 years ago, until we were forced to launch Operation Defensive Shield. After the "Authority" disappears, we can attack Hamas in Gaza through a determined, patient campaign, with a clear if distant strategic goal – a sub-state that is incapable of attacking us.
