Mickey, as I read your pieceon Israel and the terrorists’ motivations, I was nagged by a giant But: The terrorists don’t want a peace deal between Israel and the PLO! In fact, as contorted as this logic might seem, the prospect of a peace deal might even encourage attacks. Remember the 1996 series of bus bombings in Israel? Those came after Rabin’s assassination, when Peres was trying to hold Oslo together, and Hamas and Hizbollah wanted to sabotage it. Their plan worked. Israelis doubted their support for Oslo and Netanyahu was elected. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t encourage a settlement–of course we should, even at the risk of more civilian death–but not as a way to stop terrorism.
Let’s suppose for a second that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict matters to Bin Laden as much as you say (Emily addresses this point below). Even if Israel and the Palestinian leadership work out some sort of reasonable deal, it won’t result in anything close to full amelioration of Palestinian grievances. Their society will still be poor, their living conditions miserable, their security very tight, and their state altogether modest and restricted. And statehood will bring a whole new round of grievances: over borders, surveillance, water rights, and who knows what else. I can’t imagine that either the right or left sides of the Arab “street” are going to feel much warmer towards Israel. And as for the U.S.–well, if the U.S. somehow forces Arafat to accept what many Arabs will see as a face-losing, half-assed deal, it may only increase resentment of America.
