The Israel-Arab Reader (84 page)

We came with a desire to make peace and I must tell you, members of Knesset, that we also found a willingness for peace on the other side, that of the Palestinians—who have also known great suffering for generations. Both we and the Palestinians knew that we would not receive everything we wanted. The Palestinians will not get everything they want. That is the nature of negotiations. That is the nature of compromise. That is the nature of peace.

The negotiations with the Palestinians on “Gaza-Jericho first” continue even today and, in my opinion, we are at an advanced stage. I hope that it will be possible to conclude the negotiations in a short time.

It is our current assessment that, shortly after the agreement is signed, IDF forces and other security branches will be able to conclude their redeployment—I mean in the wake of the Gaza-Jericho negotiations—and the attempt to create peaceful co-existence with the Palestinians will be tested.

I say: I am waiting for this moment when I will feel more comfortable as Defense Minister, not sending IDF soldiers to patrol in metropolitan Gaza City—which contains 250,000 Palestinians, in refugee camps, in Khan Yunis, in Rafiah, in Dir al-Balah.

I want to add: In the wake of reports that have been published—true or not—I wish to clarify that any PLO agreement or accord with Hamas on the possibility of continuing Hamas terror with the approval of the PLO will prevent the achievement of an agreement and its implementation.

This Government, which promised to make every effort for peace, also intends to continue talks with Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Towards the end of April and the beginning of May, the bilateral talks in Washington will resume, and Secretary of State Warren Christopher will apparently come to the region to prepare for the talks—in order to enable progress toward the signing of a peace treaty between us and the neighboring countries.

At the peace talks, and as of today, we have still not discovered an appropriate measure of openness and flexibility on the part of the Syrians which would enable a breakthrough and a substantive discussion with respect to a peace agreement. Even the efforts of our American friends, who so want to see peace come to our region, have been unsuccessful.

At the same time, the position of the current government is known. We are making a great effort so that the precedent of the price we paid for peace with Egypt—comprehensive withdrawal, the removal of any Israeli presence—will not be repeated as a condition for achieving peace with Syria. Still, we are seriously preparing for the negotiations and working on various possibilities relating to the character of peace, the depth of the withdrawal on the Golan Heights, security arrangements and the phases for the implementation of peace—so that there will be time to examine the normalization before completing the withdrawal from the Golan Heights as well as what we will require from our friend the United States in the wake of peace. If and when we reach a viable agreement with the Syrians, and should it require a significant withdrawal, we will call a referendum. The people, and nobody else, will decide.

The negotiations with Lebanon are connected to the negotiations with Syria, and we know that Beirut will not lift a finger without the approval of Damascus. Despite this, we repeat—even today—our offer to the authority in Beirut. We have proposed that, in the first phase, the Lebanese military be deployed up to the northern border of the security zone. For six months, it must prove its ability to maintain total calm and to disarm Hizballah in southern Lebanon. If this is proven and total quiet reigns on the northern border of the security zone, we will begin peace negotiations that I hope will continue for three months. We will be prepared to withdraw to the international border between Lebanon and Israel on three conditions: full peace and normalization; appropriate security arrangements; and, of course—our commitment to the SLA and the residents of southern Lebanon—the integration of the SLA within the Lebanese army and a guarantee to residents of southern Lebanon that they will not be harmed.

In the negotiations with Jordan, a resolution is possible. But, unfortunately, I get the impression that it will not come before an agreement with Syria, the big brother who watches over all.

I want to tell the truth. For twenty-seven years, we have controlled another people that does not want our rule. For twenty-seven years, the Palestinians—who now number 1,800,000—have risen in the morning and cultivated a burning hatred for us as Israelis and as Jews. Every morning, they awake to a difficult life and it is partly our fault . . . but not completely. It cannot be denied: The continued rule of a foreign people who does not want us has a price. There is first of all a painful price, the price of constant confrontation between us and them.

For six and one-half years, we have witnessed a popular Palestinian uprising against our rule—the
intifada.
They are trying, through violence and terror, to harm us, to cause us casualties and to break our spirit.

I would like to present some data, provided to me by the IDF. Since the beginning of the uprising, 219 Israelis have been killed, murdered; 68 were security forces personnel and 151 were civilians. A heavy price.

It is difficult for me to recall the War of Independence. In the brigade which I had the privilege to command, in the battle for besieged Jerusalem and the road to Jerusalem, during six months, from one of the ten Haganah brigades which became the Israel Defense Forces, the same number of people fell. One of the outstanding commanders of the brigade and of the IDF, MK Rafael Eitan, is sitting here, and he certainly remembers this. One of 10 brigades, from slightly more than 600,000 civilians. Not one of those people's spirit was broken then. No one rejoiced over the blood.

Our wounded: 7,872, of whom 5,062 were security force personnel and 2,810 were civilians.

1,045 Palestinians have been killed by our forces, those of the IDF and the security branches. 69 have been killed by Israeli civilians. 922 Palestinians have been killed by their own people. 99 have been killed in unknown circumstances. 21 have blown themselves up while handling explosives. A total of 2,156.

Palestinians wounded, according to IDF figures: 18,967. I estimate that at least 25,000 have been wounded. Between 120,000 and 140,000 have been detained and imprisoned.

These are the figures of the struggle over the past six and a half years.

What are the possibilities which face us after twenty-seven years of ruling—and I do not want to use other terms—a different entity than us: religiously, politically, nationally, another people?

The first possibility is to perpetuate the situation as it is, to make proposals with no partner—there never were, and there is no settlement without a partner. To try and eternalize the rule of another people, to continue on a course of never-ending violence and terrorism, which will bring about a political impasse.

Governments of Israel, all Governments of Israel—certainly since the Yom Kippur War—have well-understood the danger contained in freezing the situation. Accordingly, all the governments have sought the second option. The second option is to try and find a political solution. The first phase—in separation agreements. The Government of Menachem Begin went this way, with the peace agreement with Egypt. The Government of Yitzhak Shamir also went this way, in consenting to the Madrid peace conference. We have also gone this way since the Oslo discussion and the Washington signing.

Today, peace seems closer than ever. There is a chance, a great chance, to put an end to wars, to one hundred years of terror and blood, one hundred years of animosity. When we embarked on the journey to peace, we knew that it would be impossible to erase one hundred years of hatred with one signature. We knew that it would be impossible to alter concepts and education from the moment of birth. We knew that this peace would have enemies. We knew there would be people and organizations—whose very existence is founded on hostility between peoples—that would continue to enflame passions to the best of their abilities.

On the Palestinian side, the opposition to peace is led by Hamas along with Islamic Jihad, the rejectionist organizations. The emissaries of this organization have carried out most of the recent acts of terror and murder, some of them in suicide operations. Over the past two or three years, we have encountered radical Islamic terror reminiscent of Hizballah, which was created in Lebanon and carried out attacks—including suicide attacks.

There is no end to the goals of Hamas and other terrorism—every citizen, every Israeli in the territories and within the Green Line, every bus and every home is a target for its murderous intentions.

And, without separating the two populations, the current situation creates endless possibilities for the Hamas murderers. According to our estimate, about 40,000 vehicles move about daily in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians move about on the roads. IDF soldiers safeguard hundreds of vehicles in the territories, mostly buses, every day.

Hundreds of thousands, Jews and Arabs, thousands of vehicles are intermingled each day. One population within the other.

There are endless possibilities of moving for the territories to Israel. Fewer from Gaza, more from Judea and Samaria. Thousands of hidden and exposed paths lead from the territories into Israel. We cannot hermetically seal the territory.

We are making every effort to ensure the security of Israeli citizens— Jews and Arabs—within the Green Line zone territories, everywhere. I reveal to the Knesset today that a significant part of the standing force of the IDF is now engaged in missions protecting and defending Israeli citizens everywhere.

In this situation, where Hamas has endless targets, it embarks on operations of murder—declaring that its foremost aim is to murder Israelis. And, politically, to destroy the peace talks, not to allow them to

At first, Hamas murderers operated against the Israeli residents of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. The political intent of Hamas members was that the Israeli residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza—who were harmed by terror—would demonstrate and act against the Israeli government, in an effort to halt peace efforts.

When this attempt was unsuccessful, and we continued our peace efforts, Hamas directed its primary effort to attacks against the Israeli population within the sovereign territory of Israel, including united Jerusalem.

Since 1 January 1994, twenty-three Israeli civilians, Jews and Arabs, have been killed. Twenty of them were killed within sovereign Israel, including united Jerusalem. Three were killed in the territories.

It is no secret how sensitive we are to casualties, and the Hamas murderers are trying to break us through attacks—with knives, explosive devices, shots from ambushes, car bombs.

They have no chance. We already learned about knives during the bloody incidents of the 1930s. We already learned about car bombs during the War of Independence. We learned about buses filled with bloodshed: in Ma'aleh Akrabim, in Avivim, on the coastal road. We learned about massacres in Ma'alot, and we learned about massacres at the airport in Lod, at the Savoy Hotel, in Kfar Yuval, in Kiryat Shmona, in Misgav Am, in Nahariya. Time and again. We are not panicked. It is painful, but we recover and continue. Even acts of terrorism will not stop the peace convoy.

It is difficult for me to determine that the extent of the risk to our security has increased of late, in the wake of the despicable massacre committed by the Jewish murderer from Hebron. Even though Arab terror had one thousand reasons and excuses to harm us, this man came and added some.

We have found that one of the concentrations of Hamas activity is in Jordan. We are convinced that the Jordanian security authorities are aware of this and, nevertheless, they have enabled information and operational activities in Amman.

Thus, we have seen fit to warn the Jordanian authorities about the continuation of Hamas activity there, and we expect that the King will act against the Hamas murderers—who will attempt to challenge and bring down his regime and rule there as well.

We have also taken a series of measures, including strengthening the terms of closure. We are aware of the suffering being caused to residents of the territories as a consequence of the closure, but we have no other choice. If we wish to live, we must be stricter. And, if reality requires us to do so, we will be even stricter.

And above all, IDF forces, the GSS, the Israel Police and Border Police officers are engaged in an all-out war against all those continuing the violence and terror. There is no limitation to the activity of these forces against terrorism and violence, obviously within the framework of the law.

The Hizballah terrorist organization is also a partner to in the effort to destroy the chance for peace. The Lebanon war did not eradicate terror from Lebanon. Hizballah is the leader in attacks on IDF and SLA forces in the security zone and, sometimes, even against targets in Israel. IDF and SLA soldiers guarantee that northern communities and residents will lead normal lives.

From this platform, I wish to offer my heartfelt praise to IDF commanders and IDF soldiers, to the Israel Police and the Border Police, and particularly to members of the GSS, who are playing a significant role in the difficult war on the murderous terrorism waged by the enemies of Israel and of peace.

This is the situation for now. The path to peace is laid with our good intentions, and with their murderous attacks. It may be even more difficult; we may not manage to prevent more terror attacks. But peace will be victorious.

For over a hundred years, we have fought over the same strip of land: the country in which we, the sons of Abraham, have been fated to live together. Both peoples, Israelis and Palestinians, have known suffering, pain, and bereavement.