The Palestinian State--Paradise on Earth

The Iraq Study Group says that resolution of the Israel-Palestine dispute is the key to resolving the problems in Iraq. James Baker said Tuesday that if the United States were to open talks with Syria, "we could get them (Syria) to get Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist. It would be a huge step in the right direction." (This is what passes in Washington, D.C. for foreign policy realism.)

Would the creation of a Palestinian State increase stability in the Middle East and bring peace? As Caroline Glick recently wrote, the Palestinian State already exists. It has existed since August 2005, when Israel demolished flourishing towns and farms in Gaza, removed its military forces and civilian population, and turned over full governing authority in Gaza to the Palestinian Authority. Ms. Glick notes:

And so it is that as statesmen and activists worldwide loudly proclaim their commitment to establishing the sovereign State of Palestine, they miss the fact that Palestine exists. And it is a nightmare.

In the State of Palestine 88 percent of the public feels insecure. Perhaps the other 12 percent are members of the multitude of regular and irregular militias. For in the State of Palestine the ratio of police/militiamen/men-under-arms to civilians is higher than in any other country on earth.

In the State of Palestine, two-year-olds are killed and no one cares. Children are woken up in the middle of the night and murdered in front of their parents. Worshipers in mosques are gunned down by terrorists who attend competing mosques. And no one cares. No international human rights groups publish reports calling for an end to the slaughter. No UN body condemns anyone or sends a fact-finding mission to investigate the murders.

In the State of Palestine, women are stripped naked and forced to march in the streets to humiliate their husbands. Ambulances are stopped on the way to hospitals and wounded are shot in cold blood. Terrorists enter operating rooms in hospitals and unplug patients from life-support machines.

In the State of Palestine, people are kidnapped from their homes in broad daylight and in front of the television cameras. This is the case because the kidnappers themselves are cameramen. Indeed, their commanders often run television stations. And because terror commanders run television stations in the State of Palestine, it should not be surprising that they bomb the competition's television stations.

Anyone who requires proof of the validity of Ms. Glick's description need only look at today's news reports. Hamas ambushed a supply convoy entering Gaza from Egypt, killing six people. This, by the way, was during a ceasefire between Fatah and Hamas. Meanwhile, Nablus, a town in Samaria controlled by Fatah militias, has lapsed into lawlessness.

We already know what the new Palestine will be like. It will be a chaotic hellish landscape fought over by rival criminal gangs.