This following piece was submitted by Rabbi Henry Karp as a comment to my article “Why Bibi’s Speech Worked.” Many thanks to Rabbi Karp.

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Already the pundits have joined the Palestinians in claiming that Netanyahu’s remarks in Washington, both at the press conference with President Obama and in front of the joint session of Congress, have in effect slammed the door on a negotiated peace.  As Erekat said on CNN, immediately after Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, that there was nothing that Netanyahu said that would inspire the Palestinians to return to the peace table.

However, if the pundits and the Palestinians would be honest about it, then they would have to admit that if the path to a negotiated peace has been blocked and the door slammed shut, it is not because of anything that Netanyahu has said but rather because of what the Palestinians have done.  When Fatah and Hamas forged their unity pact, they did so KNOWING that such a pact would not only slam the door shut on a  negotiated peace but would lock and bolt it as well.  Even as Hamas was signing this agreement, they were reiterating their intentions to utterly destroy Israel, just as they were condemning the United States for its killing of Osama bin Laden, whom they have crowned as a holy warrior and a martyr.  How much clearer can the Palestinians make it?  They have no interest in negotiating with Israel.  What they are hanging all their hopes on is that by presenting a united Palestinian front to the United Nations in September, the U.N. will overwhelmingly declare into existence an independent Palestinian state.  By this, they will gain their state WITHOUT having to make any concessions to Israel.

Everyone is in fear of how such a U.N. action would further isolate Israel on an international scale.  Personally, I don’t get it.  Israel is already internationally isolated.  Outside of the United States, she has very few friendly nations.  I suspect that after the U.N. vote, those numbers will not change appreciably, if at all.

What will change, however, is how Israel and the Palestinians will interact.  For following that vote, the very next act of Palestinian terrorism against Israel will be considered nothing less than an act of war.  With Netanyahu at the helm of Israel, one can only expect that if such an act of war takes place, Israel will respond with the force of war.  Her response will be swift and overwhelming.  As for all of the “friends” of the Palestinians, they will shout out in protest but none will lift a hand to help their “friends.”  This next war will be harsh and brutal, and if Netanyahu has his way, it will be final.

What awaits the Palestinian people after September is the greatest tragedy of all.  It is all the greater because Israel does not want it to happen and has been willing to work with the Palestinian leadership to avoid it, only to be snubbed and rejected by them.  In the case of the Palestinians, there is great truth in the old adage, “Beware of what you ask for, for you just may get it!”

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